Kinetic models and intrinsic timescales: Simulation comparison for a 2nd order queueing model

Kinetic models of stochastic production ows can be expanded into deterministic moment equations and thus approximated with appropriate closures. A second order model for the product density and the product speed has previously been proposed. A systematic analysis comparing simulations of the partial differential equations (PDE) with discrete event simulations (DES) is performed. Specifically, factory production is modeled as an M/M/1 queue where the arrival process is a non-homogeneous Poisson process. Three fundamental scenarios for such a time dependent in ux are studied: An instant step up/step down of the arrival rate, an exponential step up/step down and periodic variation of the average arrival rate. It is shown that the second order model in general yields significant improvements over the first order model. Adding diffusion into the PDE further improves the agreement in particular for queues with low utilization. The analysis also points to fundamental open issues regarding kinetic models of time dependent agent based simulations. Memory effects and the possibility of resonance in deterministic models are caused by intrinsic timescales of the PDE that are not present in the original stochastic processes.