Improving Queuing System with Limited Resources using TRIZ and Arena Simulation
Siti Azfanizam Ahmad1, Kok Weng Ng2, Siti Hajar Airdzaman3, Mei Choo Ang4, Salami Bahariah Suliano5
1Siti Azfanizam Ahmad*, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
2Kok Weng Ng, Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia.
3Siti Hajar Airdzaman, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
4Mei Choo Ang*, Institute of Industry Revolution 4.0 (IIR4.0), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. Email: .
5Salami Bahariah Suliano, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Manuscript received on April 20, 2020. | Revised Manuscript received on April 27, 2020. | Manuscript published on May 10, 2020. | PP: 911-919 | Volume-9 Issue-7, May 2020. | Retrieval Number: G5701059720/2020©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.G5701.059720
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: A university cafeteria is a queueing system characterised by non-stationary time of arrival with limited resources where the arrival rate is time dependent and has different pattern of arrival for different time interval. This means at certain time of the day; the arrival rate is much higher than other time. For a university cafeteria, the arrival rate of customer during the lunchtime is higher and the food (resources) is limited. Non-stationary time dependent queueing systems are not easily modelled mathematically hence such queueing systems are modelled using simulation tools such as ARENA. In order to model a non-stationary time dependent queueing system with limited resources and solve queueing problems using ARENA, researchers have to rely on their knowledge and experience to identify the appropriate parameters of the system and make modifications to these parameters of the system to solve queueing problems by means of trial and error. Hence, this research work explores the potentials of applying a systematic problem solving tool, TRIZ to help users to make better decisions in deriving solutions to improve a non-stationary time dependent queueing system with limited resources. A case study was carried out to minimize the waiting time of the customers at the cafeteria of the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), which has queueing problems for years during lunchtime. TRIZ was applied in this case study and the results showed that TRIZ can assist researchers to derive a solution model that leads to shorter waiting time without incurring additional cost and resources.
Keywords: Arena software, average waiting time, queuing problem, TRIZ
Scope of the Article: Cloud Resources Utilization in IoT