Scenario Description
• Airline check-in options and procedures vary among airlines globally. Some airlines
allow certain restrictions while other airlines have in place, and occasionally the
same airline at two separate airports may have different check-in procedures. Such
differences are usually not noted by the average passenger and occasionally lead to
service interruptions when one carrier refuses to abide by the procedure that
another carrier normally would be willing to do.
• There are numerous airlines operating and currently they have dedicated check-in
points. This is likely to be less efficient especially when the time between departing
flights is reduced. The delay affects departures, passengers’ waiting time and service
levels.
• In this scenario, three airlines are operating in a local airport, airlines X, Y and Z have
their own regulations to run and manage their check-in area. This includes the way
that passengers wait in terms of queue layout, resources used at each check-in
counter.
Data Collection (Resource Information and Process Description)
Arrival Passengers
• Arrivals in the terminal are expected at relatively enough time prior to departure of
the aircraft. Inter-arrival times of passengers are random and after consideration by
a team of statistician working at the management level, it has been modelled as
Triangular distribution with minimum equal to 1, maximum equal to 3 and most
likely equal to 2 minutes.
Passengers Booking
• 30% of passengers have already booked to travel via X airline, 25% booked to travel
via Y airline, while the remaining passengers prefer to travel via Z airline.
Queuing before check-in (Economy Class)
• Airline X prefers to arrange passengers into two queue lines. These queue lines work
based on First Come First Served (FCFS) rule.
• Airline Y has allocated only one queue line for its passengers.
• Airline Z adopts Airline X in their arrangements.
Check-in operations
• The X airline has dedicated 2 check-in counters open 90 min before the departure
and close 30 min before the departure of the aircraft. Triangular distributions were
used for the check-in time depending on the purpose of the trip and if the passenger
has already the boarding pass. A staff member is allocated to each counter to provide
the required assistance. In average, the service time has parameters: 0.5(min), 1.1
(most likely), and 1.5 (max) per passenger.
• The Y airline has dedicated 1 check-in counter open 90 min before the departure and
close 30 min before the departure of the aircraft. Triangular distributions were used
for the check-in time depending on the purpose of the trip and if the passenger has
already the boarding pass. A senior staff member is allocated to provide the required
assistance. In average, the service time has parameters: 0.7(min), 1.9 (most likely),
and 2.3 (max) min per passenger.
• The Z airline has dedicated 2 check-in counters open 90 min before the departure
and close 30 min before the departure of the aircraft. Triangular distributions were
used for the check-in time depending on the purpose of the trip and if the passenger
has already the boarding pass. Three senior staff member are allocated to provide
the required assistance. In average, the service time has parameters: 1.5 (min), 1.6
(most likely), and 1.7 (max) min per passenger.
• Modelling of luggage has not been considered in the above check-in problem.
Security screening
• After checking a passenger in, he/ she has to walk through the detection equipment
for further security checking. This applies for both airline passengers, as this is the
only security screening available at this airport. Only one screen officer is allocated
to monitor the screening operation.
• The screening last for a couple of minutes to 3 min with an average of 2.5 minutes
per passenger. When necessary passengers will be asked by the screen officer to
walk more than once through the detection equipment and this may increase the
service time. Modelling of passenger travelling times has not been considered in the
above check-in problem.
Operations before boarding
• Once passengers have passed through the security operations, they arrive in the
departure area when they head directly for boarding.
The Coursework Tasks
For this piece of individual coursework, you are required to apply simulation modelling to
deliver the tasks below:
Task 1- Provide an Introduction to the problem including: problem brief, main aim,
objectives, tools and techniques, and key performance indicators.
Task 2- Use the tabular form to define and analyse the refurbishment system problem. This
analysis includes decomposing the system being investigated into its main components
including: entities, attributes, activities, state variables, and events.
Task 3- An appropriate flowchart with detailed explanations.
Task 4- Develop a business simulation model for 150 passengers to imitate the above
check-in scenario (“As-Is” situation). Five simulation runs are required, at least one
experiment (scenario) to:
i. Reduce the overall simulation time.
ii. Achieve a reduced queue at each service facility.
iii. Reduce average waiting time of passengers.
A comparison via Excel diagrams of the “As-Is” scenario with any other improvement
scenarios “What-If” is required.
Task 5- Conclusion and Recommendations for further improvement (bullet points)