Basics Tutorial Task 1.2 - Get Data from the 3D Model
Task 1.2 - Get Data from the 3D Model
Task Overview
In this tutorial task, you'll learn how to get data from your model using various
simulation tools such as dashboards, charts, and statistics collectors.
Since the purpose of building this simulation model is to make the customer service
center more efficient and to increase customer satisfaction, you'll gather data with the
purpose of answering the following questions:
How long does the waiting line get at various points during the simulation?
What is the average amount of time that customers spend waiting in line?
How many customers are leaving feeling satisfied or unsatisfied?
What percentage of the time is the service desk busy helping customers (as opposed
to being idle)?
You'll learn how to create charts that will help you better answer these questions. When
you're finished, you'll create a dashboard that has charts similar to the ones in the
following image:
Step 1 Create a Dashboard
In this step, you'll add a dashboard to your simulation model. A dashboard is a blank
space that you can fill up with charts that will display data about your simulation model
as it runs, updating in real time. You'll create the actual charts in the next step.
In this step, you'll add, rename, and resize the dashboard:
On the main toolbar, click the Dashboards button to
open a menu. Select Add a dashboard. The new dashboard will
open as a separate pane to the right of the 3D model.
In Properties in the Dashboard Name box, delete
the current text and type Customer Service Metrics to give the dashboard a new
name.
Lastly, you'll resize the dashboard so it is a little bigger. Mouse over the left
edge of the dashboard until the mouse pointer changes to a set of arrows.
Click the edge of the window or pane and drag it until the dashboard pane is about a
third larger than the default size.
Step 2 Pin a Statistic from Properties
In this step, you'll learn how to pin a statistic from a 3D object to your dashboard.
Each object in your 3D model collects automatic statistics such as its current content (how
many flow items are currently at that fixed resource) and its staytime (how long flow items
are staying at the fixed resource). You can view these statistics for a specific object in
Properties and watch them update in real time as a simulation runs.
You can also pin statistics from these objects to the dashboard to help with data
collection. Since you're interested in gathering data about the customer waiting times,
you'll pin some content statistics for the Waiting Line queue to the dashboard in this
step.
When you pin a statistic to the dashboard, it automatically creates something called a
statistics collector to track this data. Statistics collectors work behind the
scenes to gather specific data from the objects in your model. During a simulation run, each
statistics collector listens to events on the 3D objects in the model and collects data
about those events in a data table. You can either view the data table directly or
visualize the data using a chart in the dashboard. (You can also export the table if you
would prefer to analyze or visualize the data using a third-party software program such as
Excel or Tableau.) See the chapter about
Getting Data from Your
Simulation Model for more information.
You'll use this statistic to create a timeplot chart that will show the content of the
waiting line as it increases or decreases over time. To create this chart:
In the 3D model, click the Waiting Line queue to select
it. In Properties, click the Expand button
next to the
Statistics group to open the object's statistics.
Next to the Content statistics, click the
Pin button
to open a menu. Point to Pin to Customer Service Metrics,
then select Content vs Time.
Confirm that the Content vs Time chart now appears in the dashboard. If the chart is
not already selected, click this chart to select it. Mouse over the right edge of the
chart until the mouse point changes to a set of arrows. Drag the edge of the chart to
make it bigger.
Open the Toolbox in the left pane. Under the Statistics
Collectors group, confirm that there is a new
WaitingLineContentvsTime statistics collector.
In the dashboard, double-click the Content vs Time
chart to open its properties.
In the name box at the top of the properties, change the chart's display name to
Waiting Line Content Over Time.
Confirm that the Data Source displays the
WaitingLineContentvsTime Statistics Collector.
Press the OK button to save the changes and close the
window.
If you were to run your simulation model at this point, your chart would look similar to
this over time:
Step 3 Add a Chart from the Library
In this step, you'll learn how to add a chart from the Library to the dashboard. When you
pin a chart from the dashboard, most of the time you get a simple text display. However,
you'll notice that when you have the dashboard open and active, the Library (in the left
pane) changes to show a variety of charts. You can choose a chart from the Library depending
on how you would like to visualize the data.
In this step, you'll add charts that will track the staytime of customers in the waiting
line. These statistics will give you data about the average and maximum wait times that
customers are experiencing.
To add a chart from the library:
In the 3D model, click the Waiting Line queue again to
select it.
Next to the Staytime statistics, click the
Pin button
to open a menu. Point to
Pin to Customer Service Metrics, then select
Staytime. Notice that there is now both a new chart in the
dashboard and a new statistics collector named WaitingLineStaytime in the
Toolbox.
In the dashboard, double-click the Staytime chart to
open its properties.
In the name box at the top of the properties, change the chart's display name to
Wait Times.
In the Include group, clear the
Object and Min checkboxes.
Press the OK button to save the changes.
In the left pane, click the Library tab to switch to
the Library. (Make sure the dashboard is still the active window.)
Under the Charts group, drag a Bar
Chart to the dashboard. Its properties window will open automatically.
In the name box at the top of the properties, change the chart's display name to
Average Waiting Time.
In the Data tab, open the Data
Source menu and select WaitingLineStaytime.
In the Bar Title menu, select
Object.
In the Include group, clear the
Object checkbox and check the
Average checkbox.
In the Settings tab, clear the Show
Legend and Show Percentages checkboxes.
Press the OK button to save the changes and close the
properties.
Feel free to resize or re-position the charts in the dashboard as needed.
If you were to run your simulation model at this point, your charts would look similar to
this over time:
Step 4 Create a Custom Statistics Collector
Up to this point, you've used the auto-generated statistics collectors to create your
charts. In this step, you'll customize a statistics collector to compare two sources of
data: the ratio of unhappy customers to happy customers. You'll measure this by comparing
the number of customers that exit through the Happy Customers sink as opposed to the Unhappy
Customers sink. The throughput statistic is the best statistic for capturing this kind of
data.
This is also the first tutorial in which you will use a useful tool called the Sampler
button . When you click this button, your
mouse will change to a sampler icon to indicate that you're in sampling mode. In sampling
mode you can sample objects in your simulation model quickly and easily as needed. In this
step, you'll sample one of the sinks to add it to your custom statistics collector.
To create a custom statistics collector:
In the 3D model, click the Happy Customers sink to
select it.
In Properties next to the Throughput statistics,
click the Pin button
to open a menu. Point to
Pin to Customer Service Metrics, then select
Throughput. Notice that there is now both a new chart in
the dashboard and a new Statistics Collector named HappyCustomersThroughput in
the Toolbox.
In the dashboard, double-click the Throughput chart to
open its properties.
In the Data tab, confirm that the
Data Source menu displays
HappyCustomersThroughput. Then press the
... button next to this menu to open the properties window
for this statistics collector.
In the name box at the top of the properties, change the statistics collector's name
to CustomersThroughput.
In the Events tab click the
EnumeratedObjects from the list on the left. Then under the
Objects section click the
Sampler button
to enter sampling mode. Notice that your
mouse pointer changes to a sampler icon.
Click the Unhappy Customers sink in the 3D model to
sample it and add it to the Enumerated Rows.
Press the OK button to save the changes and return to
the chart properties.
With the Data tab open in the chart properties, in the
Include list, clear the
Output checkbox.
Press the OK button to save the changes.
In the Library under Charts, drag another
Bar Chart into the dashboard. Its properties will
automatically pop up.
In the name box at the top of the properties, change the chart's display name to
Happy vs. Unhappy Customers.
In the Data tab, click the Data
Source menu and select CustomersThroughput.
Click the Bar Title menu and select
Object.
In the Include list, check the
Input box.
In the Settings tab, clear the Show
Legend and Show Percentages checkboxes.
Press the OK button to save the changes and close the
window.
If you were to run your simulation model at this point, your charts would look similar to
this over time:
Step 5 Create a State Chart
In this step, you'll add one last chart to your dashboard: a pie chart that shows how
well the service desk is being utilized. To create this chart:
In the 3D model, click the Service Desk process to
select it.
In Properties next to the State box, click the
Pin button
to open a menu. Point to Pin to Customer Service Metrics,
then select Pie Chart. Notice that there is now both a new
chart in the dashboard and a new Statistics Collector named ServiceDeskPieChart
in the Toolbox.
Double-click the Pie Chart to open its properties.
In the name box at the top of the properties, change the chart's display name to
Service Desk Utilization.
In the Include list, clear all of the checkboxes except
Idle and Processing.
Press the OK button to save the changes and close the
window.
If you were to run your simulation model at this point, your chart would look similar to
this over time:
Step 6 Analyze the Data
In this step, you'll run your simulation model and view your charts. Using the
information gathered from these charts, you'll learn how to identify problem areas in your
business system.
If you haven't already, you should change the speed at which your simulation model runs
to 1000 so that you can get more comprehensive data faster. You should also set the
simulation model to stop running after 12 hours (43,200 seconds). See
Step 6 in the previous tutorial
task for specific directions.
Press the Reset button on the simulation bar to reset the model. Then press the Run
button.
As the simulation runs, the charts will update in real time. When the chart is finished,
analyze them to see what they the reveal about the potential problems in the customer
service center.
For example, notice that, while there are more happy customers than unhappy customers
overall, there is still an unacceptable number of customers who left because of overly long
waiting times:
Also notice that the service desk was utilized almost constantly. It is good that the
employees at the service desk are always working hard and are constantly helping customers.
But the lack of any down time probably indicates that the service desk is being
over-utilized.
Based on these results, it might be good to experiment with adding more service desks to
see how many desks will help increase the number of happy customers without causing too much
idle time. You'll make this change by the end of the last task in this tutorial.
Conclusion
In the next tutorial task, you'll build this same simulation model using the Process Flow
tool, which provides a different approach to modeling. Continue to
Tutorial Task 1.3 - Build a
Process Flow Model.