Teachers' Forum: Spreadsheet Modeling and Simulation Improves Understanding of Queues

Abstract

Process-driven spreadsheet queuing simulation is a better vehicle for understanding queue behavior than queuing theory or dedicated simulation software. Spreadsheet queuing simulation has many pedagogical benefits in a business school end-user modeling course, including developing students' intuition, giving them experience with active modeling skills, and providing access to tools. Spreadsheet queuing simulations are surprisingly easy to program, even for queues with balking and reneging. The ease of prototyping in spreadsheets invites thoughtless design, so careful spreadsheet programming practice is important. Spreadsheet queuing simulation is inferior to dedicated simulation software for analyzing queues but is more likely to be available to managers and students.

Graphical Spreadsheet Simulation of Queues

“…Evans and Olson (1998) describe oneand two-server process-driven models. Grossman (1999) discusses in detail the use of process-driven spreadsheet queueing simulations. Evans (2000) uses a single-server process-oriented queueing model similar to Figure 1.…”

“…A process-driven spreadsheet queueing simulation (Grossman 1999) uses one row for each customer. We provide students with a paper template of the spreadsheet ( Figure 1) with all cells except interarrival times and service times blank and work with them to fill out the template, computing for each customer the arrival time, service start time, end time, wait time, and so forth.…”

“…A screen shot of the spreadsheet is in Figure 2. Details of how these models are programmed and instructions for downloading spreadsheet queueing simulation template files can be found in Grossman (1999). Figure 1: A two-server queueing simulation template.…”

“…This paper shows how graphical representations of spreadsheet queueing simulations can be used to give students a richer understanding of queues, provide a deeper understanding of simulation, and to serve as a lead-in to teaching queueing theory results. This paper builds on previous work on spreadsheet queueing simulation (Grossman, 1999), with the relevant material summarized in sections 2-4. The contribution of this paper (sections 5-8) is the development and use of "live" simulation graphs to provide a rich visual means for understanding queues and simulation, and techniques for using these graphs to motivate students, enhance their learning, and stimulate their interest in simulation.…”

Disseminating Emergency Preparedness Planning Models as Automatically Generated Custom Spreadsheets

“…Similarly, Grossman (1999) suggests that end-user modelers first turn off the computer, then write down on paper what the spreadsheet will look like, execute the paper spreadsheet by hand, and iterate with previous step, and Compared to these processes, the development of the Clinic Planning Model Generator has significant differences. First and foremost, the Clinic Planning Model Generator is not end-user modeling.…”