IE 603 Project 3 Topics

SIMPUR STATIONImproving the customer service levels is one of the aims of Indian Railways. However they would also want to have high utilization of their clerks.

Teams 4, 14, 19: What kind of shift hours of the clerks can be used to improve overall service levels, and keep cost to the minimum. Assume max counters = 4? Also compare with the base case.

There is also the following proposal for managing queues: There is to be no separate queues for each counter. There is to be 2 common queues: one for first class customers and the other for the remaining type of passengers. Whenever the clerk is free, he/she will serve the head-of-the-line customer from the first class queue. If and only if the first class queue is empty, the head-of-the-line customer from the second queue will be served. Passengers wait in their queues in FIFO order. Do you recommend this proposal? Also, it has been observed that in practice the clerks serve two customers from the 'other' queue before serving one customer from first class queue. Do we continue with the practice?Support your arguments with data.

Team 24, 29, 33: There is a proposal to have employees work in 6 hour shifts only. What kind of shift schedule can be used in this case to improve the overall service levels, and keep cost to the minimum? Assume max counters = 4. Also compare with the base case.

Indian Railways is also considering installing Automating Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) at Simpur Station for sale of first and second class suburban tickets. They expect that about 25% of all commuter arrivals will use the ATVM instead of the counters. A 20% reduction in service times is also expected for those who use the ATVM. However, the ATVM needs to be down for maintenance after every 200 transactions, with a maintenance time being TRIA(30, 40, 50) minutes. Also, they would like to use the ATVMs only if there is a significant improvement in customer service. How many ATVMs do you recommend? There is a budget (and space) for at most 4 ATVMs.

LINE TESTING

We requested and received cost figures from the equipment manufacturers. These costs include initial capital, operating, and maintenance costs for the projected life of each unit. The costs given below are per month per unit.

Equipment TesterType1 TesterType2 TesterType3 TesterType4 SampleHolder

Cost per month($) 10000.00 12400.00 8500.00 9800.00 380.00

From this simulation study, we would like to know what configuration (of testing machines, and number of sample holders) that would provide the most cost-effective solution while achieving high customer satisfaction. Ideally we would always like to provide results in less time than the contract requires. However, we also do not feel that the system should include extra equipment just to handle the rare occurrence of a late report.

JOBSHOPYou have used two dispatching rules in your models.

Now, conduct experiments to compare the performance when (i) all machines follows dispatching rule 1; (ii) all machine follow dispatching rule 2. How do these results compare with the base case?

Repeat the experiments for c = 2 and 5.

SORTATIONHow many operators are needed to minimize overflow? The objective is to have the minimum number of operators but also avoid overflow, and handle (palletize) 50 cases per minute (or as much as possible)

Assume that the operators walk at 100 feet per minute and that the walking distance from one lane to the immediate next is 4 feet. Handling time per case is reduced by 20%. However operators are assigned to lanes:

Operator #: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Lanes: 1,2,3 4 5,6 6,7 7,8 8,9,10,11,12

Does this model (which has more detail) have more accuracy when compared with the original model results? What is the percentage of walking time of the operators?

CALL CENTER

Based on our experience with our customers, we have established several minimum customer performance levels, which our new system must meet or exceed. These are as follows:

• 95% of all gold customers should have a wait or queue time of 2 minutes or less.

• 85% of all regular customers should have a wait or queue time of 15 minutes or less.

Propose a configuration that will result in minimal operating cost while still achieving the above-mentioned customer-service levels. You should base your evaluation on the following costs:

• Regular operator cost of $16 per hour

• Gold operator cost of $23 per hour

• Additional trunk lines at $170 per day per trunk line beyond 25

The above-mentioned operator costs include base salary, benefits, and overhead. We have already signed an agreement for trunk lines, which provides 25 lines at a fixed cost. Additional lines can be added in blocks of two for the cost stated above.

Your report should include a recommendation for the most cost-effective system configuration. This should include the number of trunk lines, the number of operators by type and shift pattern, the number of cardholder reserve lines. You should also include the operating cost expressed in $ per day for your recommended configuration.