This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their
assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any
website. Any infringements of this rule should be reported to
XXXXXXXXXX.
Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing
246COM Computer Simulation
Assignment Brief 2017/18
Module Title: Computer Simulation Ind/Group
Individual
Cohort
1819
Module Code
246COM
Coursework Title: CW2 Assignment submission
Hand out date:
29/10/2018
Lecturer: Dr Magesh Nagarajan
Due date:
14/12/ XXXXXXXXXX
Estimated Time (hrs): 30 hours
Word Limit*: 2000 words
Coursework type:
Assignment report submission
% of Module Mark
70%
Submission a
angement online via CUMoodle: In class quiz in Moodle
File types and method of recording:
Mark and Feedback date:
Each student will receive a feedback report in two weeks of their submission. 5/01/2019
Mark and Feedback method: Formal feedback will be provided in Moodle.
MODULE LEARNING OUTCOMES ASSESSED:
The following learning objectives are evaluated in this assessment.
1. Demonstrate understanding of the principles and techniques associated with simulation modelling
and business process and logic modelling languages.
2. Use simulation techniques and software to develop and evaluate appropriate scenarios for use in the
analysis and evaluation of business alternatives.
3. Understand the concept of probability
andomness and how it can be modelled to produce realistic
simulation models.
4. Develop a working knowledge of a discrete-event simulation software package such as Simul8.
Tesco Groceries: Processing online grocery orders efficiently
Tesco PLC is one of the largest grocery and general merchandise retailer in the UK. Tesco has
een promoting online grocery shopping to provide personalised service by delivering ‘freshly
clicked’ grocery items to customer’s door steps. There are two delivery options available for an
online customer namely Next day delivery and Time slot delivery1.
Within West Midlands region,
anch managers found that managing same day ‘time slot
delivery’ from customers is critical and challenging. With stringent competition from other
1 https:
www.tesco.com/wine/help/default.aspx?name=deliveryoptions&rel=help
19/11/2018
This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their
assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any
website. Any infringements of this rule should be reported to
XXXXXXXXXX.
etailers, the role of timely and quality customer service for ‘time slot delivery’ is of critical
importance and profitability of Tesco Groceries. This delivery option will be the focus of this
case.
Any registered customer can view an online catalogue of Tesco groceries using
www.Tesco.com/Groceries. Typically customers on successful login are displayed with
personalised offers. There are five categories of items a customer can order using online Tesco
Groceries namely Fresh food, Bakery, Frozen food, Baby food and household items. Each
customer can add as many items in any of the five categories into their shopping basket. Once
confirmed, the customer places the order and makes an online payment. Only fully paid orders
are picked and processed2.
An order can contain as many items in any of the five categories. To simplify simulation
modelling, it has been assumed that the total number of items from each category is given as
per the table below.
Item Category Number of items per order Number of minutes per item**
Fresh food –
Fruits and
vegetables
0 to 20 (Uniform distribution) Normal distribution
Average 0.25 minutes
Standard Deviation 0.1 minutes
Bakery 0 to 5 (Uniform distribution) Fixed distribution. 0.25 minutes
Frozen food 0 to 5 (Uniform distribution) Fixed distribution. 0.25 minutes
Baby food 0 to 5 (Uniform distribution) Normal distribution
Average 0.25 minutes
Standard Deviation 0.1 minutes
Household
items
0 to 20 (Uniform distribution) Normal distribution
Average 0.25 minutes
Standard Deviation 0.1 minutes
** - Number of minutes given in the above table indicates time to locate an item from the shelf
and then keep them in shopping trolley/crates.
Customers can place an order anytime throughout the day. It was found that online order
a
ival profiles are similar to Tesco Arena Park’s pattern. The following table provides order
a
ival pattern throughout a typical weekday. All orders a
ive uniformly within each time slot.
Time slot Number of orders
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2 https:
www.tesco.com/groceries/help/?rel=help&rel=help
http:
www.tesco.com/Groceries
This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their
assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any
website. Any infringements of this rule should be reported to
XXXXXXXXXX.
All fully paid orders are displayed in Branch manger’s computer screen and each order is ‘picked
up’ by one of the available shift workers of Tesco grocery. In a typical Tesco
anch, there is one
anch manager in-charge of online groceries and five shop floor staff members per shift.
Morning shift is between 0600 and 1300. And afternoon shift operates between 1300 and 2100.
At this moment, all shop floor staffs (per shift) are dedicated to online grocery process and are
not involved in any other work in the
anch. Shop floor staff utilisation is also a point of
concern for profitable
anch operation.
Tesco Grocery is delivered between 0900 and 2100 on all the seven days of a week. One of the
five shop floor staffs picks an order, finds each item from the five categories of shelves and then
packs the order. It is assumed that only one order is picked by a shop floor staff at a time. At
the end of picking, the shop floor staff sets the order as ‘processed’. Once the order is
completed, the crates are left in a delivery shelf area for van drivers to be picked. Each van
driver picks five orders to deliver in one trip. These are climate controlled vans which maintain
freshness of orders during transit. There are five vans owned by each Tesco
anch.
Apart from efficiently using five shop floor staff, the
anch manager is exploring how effective
it would be to have two more shop floor staff recruited for processing online grocery orders.
Without compromising safety, managing resources is of prime importance to Tesco, to provide
a good customer experience and stay competitive. As a consultant help Tesco online groceries
in understanding the existing resource allocation for delivering online orders. If you need to
make any reasonable assumption, clearly state the same. Unstated assumption will attract
penalty.
Required to submit:
Write a consultant report that includes:
Analysis
a. As consultant tasked with helping resource management, provide an explanation of which data
collection method(s) would be appropriate to capture the required information for modelling this
problem.
. An appropriate flowchart with detailed explanations of the process.
c. A table showing entities, state variables, and events.
d. From the perspective of simulation an Introduction to the problem which includes aims, objectives,
assumptions.
e. Well defined and SMART$ key performance indicators and any other relevant information you deem
appropriate.
20 marks
$SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time based.
Simulation
f. Develop a simulation model (make any assumptions where appropriate) to imitate the above system
(“As-Is” situation).
g. Using your KPIs, provide an in-depth analysis of the cu
ent situation.
h. Appropriate animation in the “As-Is” model you develop.
35 marks
Experimentation
i. At least two experiments (‘What if’ scenarios) to:
i. Achieve a minimum queue at each stage.
This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their
assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any
website. Any infringements of this rule should be reported to
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ii. Maximise the staff(s) utilisations.
iii. Minimise average waiting time.
iv. Maximise revenue from services.
j. A comparison of data using Excel for the “As-Is” scenario with the other improvement ‘What if’
scenarios.
35 marks
Recommendation
k. Recommendations for further improvement using each experiment (bullet points). A
ecommendation of how the performance of the system can be improved. Your recommendation
must be supported by evidence from your simulation and experimentation.
10 marks
It is mandatory to upload the following. Anything missing will attract penalty.
1. Word report answering the above question in the order specified and with question numbers a)
to k) clearly specified
2. Simul8 files for each experiment.
3. Both report and simul8 files should be named as follows
First-name>_
_report.doc
First-name>__as_is.S8
First-name>__expt-1.S8
First-name>__expt-2.S8
4. Do NOT zip these files while uploading in Moodle. Make sure these files are uploaded
individually.
5. Do NOT upload backup files (.BK8) instead of actual model (.S8).
All submissions will be in Moodle and Turnitin.
Notes:
1. You are expected to use the CUHarvard referencing format. For support and advice on how this
students can contact Centre for Academic Writing (CAW).
2. Please notify your registry course support team and module leader for disability support.
3.