E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

Introduction to Flexsim Simulation

Flexsim is classified as a discrete-event

simulation software program.

Flexsim is a versatile tool that may be

used to model a variety of operational
scenarios.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

Applications of Flexsim

Three basic categories of problems
which can be solved with Flexsim:
 Service problems – the need to process customers and
their requests at the highest level of satisfaction for the
lowest possible cost.
 Manufacturing problems – the need to make the right
product at the right time for the lowest possible cost.
 Logistics problems – the need to get the right product
to the right place at the right time for the lowest
possible cost.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

Examples of Systems and Components

System Entities Attributes Activities Events State

Variables

Banking Customers Account Making Arrival; # of busy

balance deposits Departure tellers; # of
customers
waiting

Note: State Variables may change continuously (continuous system)

over time or they may change only at a discrete set of points
(discrete system) in time.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

OM Initial Plan
output = 2427

Blocked = 4%

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

 Analysis of Initial Plan

Incoming finished goods are blocked occasionally
~ 4%. Average output per hour is ~ 346; total
output in a day is ~ 2426.

Bottleneck process of initial plan is actually the

inspection step, i.e. the human operator. The
occasional blockage at “source” might cause the
upstream processes to be stopped and human
intervention might be needed to restart the
processes.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

Improved Plan
output = 2510

Blocked = 0%

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

 Analysis of Improved Plan

0% of incoming finished goods are blocked;

Average output per hour is ~ 358;

Total output in a day is ~ 2510.

The “queue” will allow finished products to build
up while still allowing upstream processes to flow.
Buffer size of queue can be estimated from
“Maxcontent” of the queue.

May deploy more than one operator at the
inspection step or do sampling check.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

Conclusion

Simulation can be used in many applications. It
gives us greater insight into a problem to help us
make more informed decision.

It is especially useful if analytical and
experimental approaches are not suitable.

In today’s problem, it may be difficult to calculate
queue performances for a multi-stage queuing
system.

Use of simulation in today’s problem can provide
realistic visualization and allows for distribution of
results to be computed.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II

Learning Objectives

Understand how to use Flexsim to model

simple real life queuing scenario.

Understand how to link objects in Flexsim to
represent flow of items.

Understand how to input properties of objects
in Flexsim in accordance with their statistical
properties.

Able to make sense of simulation results and
make recommendations.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING E211 – OPERATIONS PLANNING II