A new apartment building is being designed. It will have ten floors and will have six apartments on each floor. There will, in addition be two underground parking levels. The developer needs to make a decision about the elevator system that is to be installed in the building. The choice has been reduced to two alternatives: either two elevators each with a capacity of 15 or three smaller elevators each with a capacity of 10. A modeling and simulation study is to be undertaken to provide a basis for making the choice between the two alternatives.

a) Develop a list of possible performance criteria that could be used to evaluate the relative merits of the two alternative designs.

b) Develop a list of behavioural rules that would be incorporated in the formulation of the model of the elevator system (e.g., when does an elevator change its direction of motion, which of the elevators responds to a particular call for service, where does an idle elevator ‘park,’ etc.?)

c) A model’s behaviour can ‘unfold’ only as a consequence of input data. Develop a list of input data requirements that would necessarily become an integral part of a study of the elevator system, for example, arrival rates of tenants at each of the floors, velocity of the elevators, and so on.