ABSTRACT
A company has a force of over 100 maintenance engineers servicing a population of over 200,000 ice-cream cabinets, refrigerated vehicles and cold stores throughout the British Isles. In order to determine the effects of engineers having larger or smaller areas than at present, 10-km. squares were added to or subtracted from the existing areas so as to give a small percentage increase or decrease in the expected number of calls per annum. The results from the simulation run, in which the engineers’ areas and the original seasonal pattern was used, were analysed area by area. Comparisons were made with actual figures for the total annual calls received, the weekly seasonal pattern, the average hours per call and the maximum weekly hours worked. Management is interested in knowing the service level at the worst times in the year as well as the average, and in knowing the levels for each priority class.
