Arena Software - A Discrete Event Simulator

Posted on 23 March 2017 at 05:46

I've came across Arena Software at university, when I was studying Computer Engineering. I had a small course about Arena and how to make small simulations. I remember that we had to simulation a Gas Station, with cars and trucks, that could fill their deposit either with diesel fuel or gasoline. It was interesting and I got excited when I had to hand in a small work using Arena.

You can see a short video with an example of a Gas Station Simulation on Youtube, just follow this link.

Image Credit: Fufurinha

Later, when I decided to leave my Computer Engineering degree and enrolled in other university course (Industrial and Management Engineering), I came across Arena Software once again. I had a curricular unit that was called Industrial Simulation. This time I was a bit more involved with this software and we learned many more things about it. At the moment, I am finishing my master degree and I'm doing a curricular internship. And can you guess what? I am working with Arena Software again. My project is about a layout evaluation and I'm using Arena to evaluate the current factory layout and then I'll be able to simulate possible scenarios and see which works best for this particular case. Now, let me present Arena Software to you.

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Print Screen of a Small Simulation with Arena. Image Credit: Fufurinha

Here's a short video presentation of what you can do with this software.

Video Courtesy: Youtube

You can see other presentation video about what you can do with Arena Software following this link.

Arena is the world's leading discrete event simulation software for 30 years!

What is Discrete Event Simulation?

The Discrete Event Simulation (DES) consists in the process of modeling the operation of a system as a sequence of discrete events over time. It is considered that each event occurs at a certain instant of time and it marks a change of the state of the system. Besides that, when we are talking about the time between consecutive events, it is considered that the system does not undergo any changes. Thus, the simulation can jump directly from the instant of occurrence of an event to the next one.

arena_software Differences between Discrete and Continuous Variables. Image Credit: Fufurinha

One of the most common exercises used in understanding how discrete event simulation models are constructed is by modeling a queue system, such as the queue formed by customers arriving at a bank and waiting for service at the cashier. In this case, the entities of the system are the customers that seek care and the events are: the arrival of a new customer, the beginning of the service in the cashier and the end of the service (equivalent to the customer's exit from the system). The system states (it can be changed by previous events) the number of clients in the queue (an integer between 0 and n) and the state of the cashier (free or busy). The random variables that must be identified to model the stochastic component of the system are: the time between successive customer arrival and the time of service in the service desk.

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Example of a Simple Model. Image Credit: Fufurinha

What is the ?

Arena is a software that you can use to support your decisions by modeling your business. This way you can determine the impact of some of your decisions before you implement them. You can see bellow some of the things you can do with this software:

Rate potential alternatives to determine which can be the best approach to optimize your system's performance;
Get to know the system's performance based on key metrics such as costs, throughput, cycle times, equipment utilization and resource availability;
Risk reduction through rigorous simulation and testing process changes before committing any significant capital or resource expenses;
Determine what could be the impact of uncertainty and variability on the performance of your system;
Run different possible scenarios to measure the results of the proposed process changes;
Visualize your results with animations (2D or 3D).

Where can I apply this Simulation Software?

Arena Software can be used in various business. Here you can see some of the areas where you can use Arena to build the model of your system and to make some measurements of the current state or of future possibilities.

introduction_to_arena_software Business Areas where we can apply simulation models. Image Credit: Fufurinha

Case Studies

Bellow you have some real case studies that you can analyze and know more about. You can read about the challenge, the Arena solution and the results obtained. That is an easy way to understand how you can adapt Arena to a real life situation and to understand what could be the value of the Arena to your business.

The Case Studies presented are from different business areas. The first one is about a hospital, the other case studies takes place in a manufacture industry and the last one focus on a supply chain company.

1) Hospital Simulation Prevents Unnecessary Investment

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Image Credit: Arena Simulation Website

This case study focus on Hospital based on New Jersey that wants to make improvements in their current emergency area. After some attempts that were useless, they decided to use simulation modelling, after the managers recognizing the value of Arena Simulation Software.

Finally they were able to change their emergency department by adding another staff member to solve process inefficiencies. The hospital was able to avoid investing more than $500,000 in an unnecessary new facility.

The Challenge:

Test a proposed patient flow rework where patients were concurrently triaged, treated, tested and assessed.

2) Gift Wrap Manufacturer Increases Sales with Production Simulation

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Image Credit: Arena Simulation Website

This company is located on South Carolina and it is considered one of the world’s largest manufacturers of holiday wrapping paper — it produces 30-40% of worldwide production. The goal is to increase production to meet the challenges of seasonal demand.

With the help of Arena Software the company was able to increase its sales by more than $1 million and to reduce its cycle time from 5 weeks to only 3 days. The simulation presented more than 20 different scenarios that could be adopted by the company.

The Challenge:

Increase throughput, decrease inventory, reduce operating expenses and cycle time, and enhance capacity planning.

3) Manufacturing Simulation Reduces Inventories and Order Lead Times

industrial_simulation Image Credit: Arena Simulation Website

This manufacturer is based in Kentucky and it can be defined as the leading developer of home and business printing equipment. This involves the manufacture of laser and inkjet printers and their associated supplies and services.

The simulation model showed the company how to reduce the warehouse are by 37%, to cut warehouse inventory by 70%, avoid transportation delays and many other outputs.

The Challenge:

Determine at the planning and evaluation stages that lean manufacturing is the optimal manufacturing method.

My Own Arena Simulation

Here you can have a little look of the small simulation model that I building for the company where my internship is taking place. I'm only evaluating a small area of the factory where I am analyzing 4 different product references. After the current scenario is perfectly defined, I will be able to test different scenarios and possibilities to change the current layout of the factory. I really hope to obtain good results and that the company appreciates my work. Let's wait and see how it goes.

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Print Screen of Arena Simulation. Image Credit: Fufurinha

Full Arena Introduction Video on Youtube. You can search for many other tutorials on the web.