The TERM PROJECT for ETM 591

• Purpose of Project: To provide you with a personal experience in the team investigation of a real "simulation" problem. You will have to find a problem, define the boundaries of the problem (model of the system), gather and analyze data, write a simulation model(s), debug your program(s), validate your model(s), perform a sensitivity analysis, obtain meaningful results, and finally, make a recommendation(s).
• The Project Team: A project team will be composed of two or three persons, although class size may determine some modifications (you will need to supply me with Team Info by Nov. 6, 2013). I will team up those with no partners. The final product of the project team should reflect a team effort. The team together selects the problem, defines its scope, develops appropriate simulation model(s), collects data, draws conclusions, and presents the results. Everyone in the team will receive the same grade, unless the group decides differently.  A listing of past projects is being maintained.  For your group assignment this semester, look here at Project Group Assignments.
• Finding the Problem: It is your (and the team's) responsibility to determine the problem. It should be found preferrably in industry or in the service sector. Simulation must be appropriate to the problem. The choice of project is important so that the problem is real, large enough to be a challenge, suitable for use of simulation, yet not too large to handle in the allotted time.
• Project Grading and Due Dates: You will be turning in a project proposal, a preliminary report, and a final report (make copies for yourself and your contact -- I will keep what you turn in). You will also be making a 15 minute presentation (during the last week of classes). Weights will be as follows:
  • (required) Proposal (1 to 3 pages of text): due Monday, Nov 11, 2013.  Give the project a title, state who are the group members and who is group leader, provide name, address, and telephone number for project contact, provide background on the organization, describe the problem, note why simulation is appropriate, and what you expect to achieve (see Proposal Evaluation form that I use).  Break your document into paragraphs and sections.
  • (5%) Progress Report (2 to 4 pages of text): due Monday, Nov. 25, 2013. Email me a copy your model that I can execute with your report. In your report, you should describe the problem and what you have done so far. Indicate what has changed and what needs to be done. Break up your document into sections and use paragraphs (see the Progress Evaluation form that I use).  Grades will be 100, 90, 80, 70, or 60. If I feel you have not made much of an effort yet, you will be getting a low grade for this report. The goal of the preliminary report is to get you going and to give me a chance to help, if possible.
  • (80%) Final report (8 to 10 pages long, not including the actual models): due Monday Dec 2, 2013. Put your models on disks and attach them to the report, or email me a copy before the presentation. Grading is as follows.
    • (8%) Content-- writing style, grammar, spelling
    • (7%) Organization--presentation, appearance
    • (15%) Difficulty--complexity of system you are modeling, organizational complications
    • (60%) Simulation Model development and Use
      1. Resourcefulness--creativity in the analysis and design, embellishments, animation
      2. Model construction
      3. Choice of input models, distribution fitting
      4. Verification
      5. Validation
      6. Analysis of results including statistical output analysis
      7. Sensitivity analysis
      8. Optimization
      9. Findings and conclusions
    • (10%) Recommendations, supported from simulation
  • (15%) A 10-15 minute presentation. See presentation guidelines. The whole team will present. I will be looking at how well the teams defend their work.  See Evaluation form. Generally, everyone in the group gets the same grade.
• More on the Final Report: This should be your best effort and be of top quality in appearance, organization, and content. You can follow the following outline for your report.

  project title page (group members, group number, group leader, project contact, date)

  Executive Summary (one page - what you did and what were your results) --> written for your contact's boss

  I. Introduction

  • Background (say something about the company or organization, and acknowledge the help of your contact)
  • Problem definition (what is the problem and why simulate)
  • Statement of scope and objectives (what are the system boundaries and what do you need to accomplish)

  II. Methods and analysis

  • Model Construction (description of use of entities, resources, modules, submodel, etc.)
  • Choice of Input, distribution fitting (how did you get this input for the model? why did you choose the distributions you used?)
  • Verification (why do you think your model is working correctly?)
  • Validation (why does your model represent the "real world"?)
  • Statistical Output Analysis (does your approach use a terminating or steady-state simulation? how did you select the length of the simulation runs? how did you select the number of replications?)
  • Sensitivity Analysis (are your results robust?)
  • If you use optimization, write out your optimization model (objective function, constraints, requirements)
  • Animation (what does it do and why did you do it?)

  III. Results and discussion

  • Results from simulation experiments (summarize your results numerically with tables, graphs, and charts -- include confidence intervals)
  • Discussion of results (what do the results mean?)

  IV. Conclusions and recommendations (what changes do you recommend?)

  Appendices

  • Detailed computations
  • Arena model(s) (include a disk containing your models or submit them through e-mail so I can execute them if there are questions)
    
    

  Reports should be prepared using word processing software and secured in a binder that can stand some abuse. Charts, graphs, and drawings should follow good engineering practice. Use headings to divide and organize report. Employ graphs and tables to summarize and display results, but make sure each has appropriately defined scales, variables, and source.

One final point--the earlier you get started the better the results.