Proceedings of the 1999 Winter Simulation Conference P. A. Farrington, H. B. Nembhard, D. T. Sturrock, and G. W. Evans, eds. A SIMULATION APPROACH FOR IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES Yasser Dessouky Brian Senkandwa Department of Computer, Information, and Systems Engineering San Jose State University San Jose, CA 95192-0180, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Simulation as a primary tool was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Santa Teresa Department of Motor Vehicles, California. The Department of Motor Vehicles was analyzed to determine improvement methods that would curtail the long customer lines or queues that are prevalent. A 2 3 factorial experimental design was performed to improve overall system effectiveness as measured by time in the system. With the above tools, a more efficient model of the Santa Teresa Department of Motor Vehicles was developed and proposed. This paper describes the developed model used and provides details on the analysis performed. 1 INTRODUCTION Anyone who has been to any Department of Motor Vehicles branch would certainly know about the inconvenience of waiting in the queues for an incredibly long time regardless of the requested service. In fact, it is not uncommon for people to budget the entire morning or afternoon of their time to complete a successful trip at the Department of Motor Vehicles. It is due to this inefficiency that prompted this study (Senkandwa 1998). In order to reduce the waiting time at the DMV, simulation was chosen as the method of analysis because it easily lends itself to incorporating the complexity of the relationships between system components (Banks et al. 1996). Furthermore, a 2 3 factorial experiment (Box et al. 1978) was performed to test the sensitivity of time spent at the DMV to the following factors: interarrival time, number of servers, and service time. 2 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION Figure 1 illustrates the DMV system. After entering the DMV system, customers may seek help at the information desk. While they are in the Department of Motor Vehicles, they have different avenues or courses of action to choose Parking Lot (Exit) Information Desk THE SYSTEM Entrance Appointment Line Road Test Non-Appointment Line Written Test Figure 1: The DMV System 1681