Modeling and simulating the activities in an automobile repair shop using ARENA software - Part 1

Abstract

The automobile repair shop market is a highly competitive domain, also filled with opportunities; any competitive advantage can have a significant impact on the chances of success of a firm in this area of activity. The research contains two parts about modeling and simulating the activities in an automobile repair shop, by using ARENA software. Main steps are: simulating the firm's activities by using ARENA simulations software, analyzing the results, continuously seeking and implementing solutions to optimize the experimental model for an efficient use of the available resources. The analyzed automobile repair shop is performing the following services: concierge, diagnosis, mechanical repairs, bodywork and painting, maintenance and periodic technical inspections. Its activities will be simulated for a number of 289 vehicles in a 9600 minutes time interval, representing 20 working days of 8 h/day each, equal to an average working month. The statistical data are collected and studied; it can be observed that there are resources with a low degree of usage, yet with a high number of interventions performed, also others discrepancies in using human resources and equipment. The main results to be obtained are focused in the