scholarly journals Simulation-Based Assessment of the Operational Performance of the Finnish–Swedish Winter Navigation System

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6747
Author(s):  
Martin Bergström ◽  
Pentti Kujala

This article presents a discrete event simulation-based approach for assessing the operating performance of the Finnish–Swedish Winter Navigation System (FSWNS) under different operating scenarios. Different operating scenarios are specified in terms of ice conditions, the volume of maritime traffic, number of icebreakers (IBs), and regulations such as the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI). Considered performance indicators include transport capacity, number of instances of icebreaker (IB) assistance, and IB waiting times. The approach is validated against real-world data on maritime traffic in the Bothnian Bay. In terms of the number of ship arrivals per port, indicating the transport capacity of the FSWNS, the simulation agrees well with the data. In terms of the number of instances of IB assistance and IB waiting times per port, the standard deviations between the mean of 35 independent simulation runs and the data are 13% and 18%, respectively. A sensitivity analysis indicates that the simulated number of instances of IB assistance and IB waiting times is particularly sensitive to assumptions concerning the presence of brash ice channels. Case studies indicate that, unless the number of IBs is increased, the EEDI regulations may result in a significant increase in both the number of instances of IB assistance and the cumulated IB waiting times.

Author(s):  
Eduardo Perez ◽  
Vivekanand Anandhan ◽  
Clara Novoa

This article presents a simulation-based planning methodology that aims to improve patient service quality in pure walk-in clinics. Capacity planning is one of the major challenges in walk-in clinics because of the uncertainty in both patient demand and arrival times. This work presents a discrete-event simulation model for walk-in clinics that takes into consideration patient behavior in terms of arrival times for capacity planning at the clinic level. The goal of the model is to provide a tool that will allow clinics to develop protocols that will reduce patient waiting times by scheduling doctor and medical assistants considering demand uncertainties. A case study is presented to illustrate the benefits of the methodology. The results of the computational study show that by allocating the right number of resources at particular times of the day, walk-in clinics can achieve operational steady state while providing services to patients with minimum waiting times. The tool can be adapted and used to support any walk-in clinic.


SIMULATION ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003754972110309
Author(s):  
Mohd Shoaib ◽  
Varun Ramamohan

We present discrete-event simulation models of the operations of primary health centers (PHCs) in the Indian context. Our PHC simulation models incorporate four types of patients seeking medical care: outpatients, inpatients, childbirth cases, and patients seeking antenatal care. A generic modeling approach was adopted to develop simulation models of PHC operations. This involved developing an archetype PHC simulation, which was then adapted to represent two other PHC configurations, differing in numbers of resources and types of services provided, encountered during PHC visits. A model representing a benchmark configuration conforming to government-mandated operational guidelines, with demand estimated from disease burden data and service times closer to international estimates (higher than observed), was also developed. Simulation outcomes for the three observed configurations indicate negligible patient waiting times and low resource utilization values at observed patient demand estimates. However, simulation outcomes for the benchmark configuration indicated significantly higher resource utilization. Simulation experiments to evaluate the effect of potential changes in operational patterns on reducing the utilization of stressed resources for the benchmark case were performed. Our analysis also motivated the development of simple analytical approximations of the average utilization of a server in a queueing system with characteristics similar to the PHC doctor/patient system. Our study represents the first step in an ongoing effort to establish the computational infrastructure required to analyze public health operations in India and can provide researchers in other settings with hierarchical health systems, a template for the development of simulation models of their primary healthcare facilities.


Author(s):  
Matthias Grot ◽  
Tristan Becker ◽  
Pia Mareike Steenweg ◽  
Brigitte Werners

AbstractIn order to allocate limited resources in emergency medical services (EMS) networks, mathematical models are used to select sites and their capacities. Many existing standard models are based on simplifying assumptions, including site independency and a similar system-wide busyness of ambulances. In practice, when a site is busy, a call is forwarded to another site. Thus, the busyness of each site depends not only on the rate of calls in the surrounding area, but also on interactions with other facilities. If the demand varies across the urban area, assuming an average system-wide server busy fraction may lead to an overestimation of the actual coverage. We show that site interdependencies can be integrated into the well-known Maximum Expected Covering Location Problem (MEXCLP) by introducing an upper bound for the busyness of each site. We apply our new mathematical formulation to the case of a local EMS provider. To evaluate the solution quality, we use a discrete event simulation based on anonymized real-world call data. Results of our simulation-optimization approach indicate that the coverage can be improved in most cases by taking site interdependencies into account, leading to an improved ambulance allocation and a faster emergency care.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 970-985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ola Ringdahl ◽  
Thomas Hellström ◽  
Ola Lindroos

In conventional mechanized cut-to-length systems, a harvester fells and cuts trees into logs that are stored on the ground until a forwarder picks them up and carries them to landing sites. A proposed improvement is to place logs directly into the load spaces of transporting machines as they are cut. Such integrated loading could result in cost reductions, shorter lead times from stump to landing, and lower fuel consumption. However, it might also create waiting times for the machines involved, whereas multifunctional machines are likely to be expensive. Thus, it is important to analyze whether or not the advantages of any changes outweigh the disadvantages. The conventional system was compared with four potential systems, including two with autonomous forwarders, using discrete-event simulation with stochastic elements in which harvests of more than 1000 final felling stands (containing in total 1.6 million m3) were simulated 35 times per system. The results indicate that harwarders have substantial potential (less expensive on ≥80% of the volume and fuel consumption decreased by ≥18%) and may become competitive if key innovations are developed. Systems with cooperating machines have considerably less potential, limited to very specific stand conditions. The results conform with expected difficulties in integrating processing and transporting machines’ work in variable environments.


2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Weinreuter ◽  
Balázs Szigeti ◽  
Nadine-Rebecca Strelau ◽  
Barbara Deml ◽  
Michael Heizmann

Abstract Autonomous driving is a promising technology to, among many aspects, improve road safety. There are however several scenarios that are challenging for autonomous vehicles. One of these are unsignalized junctions. There exist scenarios in which there is no clear regulation as to is allowed to drive first. Instead, communication and cooperation are necessary to solve such scenarios. This is especially challenging when interacting with human drivers. In this work we focus on unsignalized T-intersections. For that scenario we propose a discrete event system (DES) that is able to solve the cooperation with human drivers at a T-intersection with limited visibility and no direct communication. The algorithm is validated in a simulation environment, and the parameters for the algorithm are based on an analysis of typical human behavior at intersections using real-world data.


Author(s):  
Ignace Djitog ◽  
Hamzat Olanrewaju Aliyu ◽  
Mamadou Kaba Traoré

This paper presents a multi-perspective approach to Modeling and Simulation (M&S) of Healthcare Systems (HS) such that different perspectives are defined and integrated together. The interactions between the isolated perspectives are done through dynamic update of models output-to-parameter integration during concurrent simulations. Most often, simulation-based studies of HS in the literature focus on specific problem like allocation of resources, disease propagation, and population dynamics that are studied with constant parameters from their respective experimental frames throughout the simulation. The proposed idea provides a closer representation of the real situation and helps to capture the interactions between seemingly independent concerns - and the effects of such interactions - in simulation results. The article provides a DEVS (Discrete Event System Specification)-based formalization of the loose integration of the different perspectives, an Object-Oriented framework for its realization and a case study as illustration and proof of concept.


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