SIMULATION IMPROVES STAFFING PROCEDURE AT AN OIL CHANGE CENTER

Discrete-event process simulation has long ago expanded from its initial bailiwick of manufacturing and production usage to benefit businesses across a broad spectrum of service industries such as travel, lodging, restaurants, and health care. The study presented here arose in the context of a senior-level university simulation class as a semester project. In this study, simulation was applied to the day-to-day operations of a drive-in facility to service customers’ privately owned motor vehicles. As a result of the simulation study, managers of the business, supported by industrial engineers, became both more aware of improvement opportunities and better able to assess their comparative potential impacts on the profitability of the business.

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