Performance improvement of a car wheel alignment centre: an application of discrete events simulation

Abstract

Customer satisfaction is one of the major important aspects of any production-oriented or service-oriented organization. Any firm must ensure that they are capable of satisfying the customer’s requirements while gaining a financial benefit through the business operation. If an organization can fulfil the needs of the customer while having financial benefits at the same time, the organization will be able to sustain the business. The study aims at the performances of a particular car wheel alignment center. The major problem associated with this process is the formation of a vehicle queue during the mornings of weekends. To address the aforesaid problem, this study first attempts to simulate the current situation of the real process using discrete event simulation software, and then evaluates the performances by changing the state parameters on it. In the simulation study, the assumptions and simplifications made on the arrival pattern, inter-arrival times and the average service time. From the simulation study, it is clearly observed that the queue length has a significant impact on the number of servers. At once, it can be clearly noticed that the number of service bays can be increased to eliminate the queues. With the aid of simulation trials using three and four servers, the results clearly showed that there is a reduction in the queue length when more servers are added. However, with a detailed cost-benefit analysis followed by the simulation trials conducted, it can be concluded that the addition of another server will be optimal. Also, the cost-benefit analysis shows that, after a time period of 12 months the initial capital can be recovered.