Track: Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

Stochastic Petri nets (SPN) and Arena simulation software can both be used to study the qualitative and quantitative behavior of systems in a single environment. However, no comparative studies of the two formalisms have been conducted. Therefore, this paper proposes a methodology to evaluate the selected formalisms by using the ViseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method, which can provide a better understanding of both formalisms and prepare a fertile ground for exchanging ideas and techniques between the two. A real world system of the main student restaurant of the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia is discussed in this paper to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. First, data for the study is collected, and thereafter, the appropriate distribution is adapted for the data points using the Arena input analyzer. A visual network was then developed and run on the stochastic Petri nets and Arena simulation software in order to acquire output for the simulation. The results have shown that Arena and SPN simulation softwares are convenient for the modeling and analyzing the case study. However, based on VIKOR approach, the comparative analysis has shown that SPN is better than Arena.