Simulation
The Practice of Model Development and Use
Chapter One
WWW.SIMULATION: What,
Why and When?
1.1 Introduction
The management of an airport are planning the facilities that are required in a new terminal
building. Important decisions need to be made about, among other things, the number of
check-in desks devoted to each airline, the size of the baggage handling system, the amount
of security check positions and the number of departure gates. On top of this, the number of
staff to employ and the shifts they should work need to be determined. The total investment
is in the tens of millions and it is critical that these decisions are made correctly. How
can the management determine the number of resources that are required in each area of
the airport?
One approach would be to build the terminal and hope that it works! This seems very
risky with so much at stake. Only slightly better would be to rely upon gut feel, no doubt
based on some past experience with designing and managing airport terminals. A few paper
calculations, or even a spreadsheet, may help, ... read full excerpt from Simulation: The Practice of Model Development and Use ebook
