1. Proceedings
  2. I3M
  3. 2018
  4. MAS
  5. 10.46354/i3m.2018.mas.014

Simulation improves service and resource allocation at a salon

  • a Ganapathi Baliada Ramesh  , 
  • a Brittany Harju   ,
  • a Daniel Scipione   ,
  • a Kristina Vujic   ,
  • a Edward J Williams  
  • a Business Analytics, College of Business, University of Michigan – Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, USA
Cite as
Ramesh G.B., Harju B., Scipione D., Vujic K., Williams E.J. (2018). Simulation improves service and resource allocation at a salon. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Modeling & Applied Simulation (MAS 2018), pp. 89-94. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46354/i3m.2018.mas.014

Abstract

Simulation, historically first used in manufacturing industries, has steadily and deservedly expanded its reach into helping service businesses evaluate and implement solutions to problems such as slow service, overutilized or underutilized resources, suboptimal scheduling, and inefficient workflow. Such service industries have included banks, retail stores, hospitals and clinics, hotels, call centers, and credit unions. In the present work, the authors used discrete-event process simulation to analyze and resolve such problems at a salon. This salon provides a complex mix of services such as haircuts and/or hair coloring, massages, manicures and pedicures, and other spa services. This simulation modeling and analysis project successfully addressed issues such as size of the waiting area, asymmetry of utilizations across various resources, ways of handling schedules and arrival rates differing by days of the week, and best allocation of priorities among customers and tasks.

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