Tech Support Queue Simulation

This project simulates a tech support call center using discrete-event simulation with SimPy. It models customer arrivals, agent service, queueing, priority customers, and abandonment due to impatience.

Features

• Simulates normal and priority customer calls
• Models agent availability and queueing
• Tracks wait times, service times, abandonments, and agent utilization
• Includes multiple scenarios (normal, high traffic, understaffed)
• NEW: Command line arguments for custom simulation runs
• NEW: Optional charting of queue length over time
• NEW: Save queue length chart to a PNG file

Requirements

Install dependencies with:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Run the simulation script from the command line:

python tech_support_sim.py

By default, the script will run three scenarios:

1. Normal Operations
2. High Traffic Period
3. Understaffed

Each scenario prints statistics and metrics to the console.

Custom Simulation with Command Line Arguments

You can run a single custom scenario by providing any of the following arguments:

• --sim_duration (int): Simulation duration in minutes (default: 480)
• --num_agents (int): Number of support agents (default: 5)
• --arrival_rate (float): Customer arrival rate (customers per minute, default: 0.8)
• --avg_call_duration (float): Average call duration in minutes (default: 8)
• --plot: Show a chart of queue length over time after the simulation
• --save_plot <filename.png>: Save the queue length chart to a PNG file

Example: Custom Run with Plot

python tech_support_sim.py --sim_duration 300 --num_agents 4 --arrival_rate 1.0 --avg_call_duration 7 --plot

Example: Save Chart to File

python tech_support_sim.py --sim_duration 300 --num_agents 4 --arrival_rate 1.0 --avg_call_duration 7 --save_plot my_queue_chart.png

Example: Show and Save Chart

python tech_support_sim.py --sim_duration 300 --num_agents 4 --arrival_rate 1.0 --avg_call_duration 7 --plot --save_plot my_queue_chart.png

If any simulation parameter is provided, only a single scenario will run with those parameters. The --plot flag will display a matplotlib chart of the queue length over time, and the --save_plot flag will save it to a file. You can use either or both flags.

Output

The script prints:

• Customer arrivals and departures
• Queue and agent status
• Summary statistics after each scenario
• (Optional) A chart of queue length over time if --plot is used
• (Optional) Saves the chart to a PNG file if --save_plot is used

Extending the Script

You can further customize the simulation or add new features by editing tech_support_sim.py.

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For questions or improvements, feel free to modify the code or open an issue!