Course CS382A/CS560A Ray Paul & Simon Taylor 1996/97
The First Modelling Project
Exercise 3.4.4 The Launderette
Read the following description of the assignment and then the things that were said in the lecture
Customers arrive in a launderette randomly with a mean arrival time of 10 minutes (i.e. Exponential). They queue for one of 7 washing machines which take exactly 25 minutes to wash a customer's clothes (no capacity problem!). On completion of washing, the customer puts the washing into a basket (if one of the 12 is available) and carries the washing to a drier. Unloading the washing machine is uniformly distributed between 1 and 4 minutes. Transporting the washing between machines is uniformly distributed between 1 and 4 minutes. Drying time is Normally distributed with a mean of 6 minutes and a variance of 1. There are 2 dryers. It takes 2 minutes to load a drier. The objective of the simulation is to measure the average time a customer spends in the launderette.
Deliverables
- An ACD by Tuesday 5 November (hand in to either lecturer).
- A project report, with disk (including an executable file) by Tuesday 19 November (handed in to the General Office, and a receipt obtained).
The Task
Determine how the system works, by investigating the effects of changing the number of entities (baskets, washing machines, and driers). Also investigate the impact of varying the times in the system (eg arrival intervals, drying times).
Assessment
The project is assessed under three broad headings:
- report presentation
- model confidence
- system understanding
Things That Were Said In The Lecture
- The only laundrette that is relevant is the one according to Ray Paul
- Customers have ONE load of washing
- Drying time includes the time to unload the washing machine
- The management report should follow this format
- Title Page
- Abstract
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 through to Chapter n (the first being the introduction, the last being the conclusions
- Appendix i through to Appendix j
- References
- The main points to remember are that a management report should be clear and short. All technical material and data used in support of your argument, but not directly relevant to the text, should go in appendices. The text should encourage the reader to go on, not to send him or her to sleep!
Good luck