Abstract

The growth of higher education enrollment implies a series of logistical challenges for Universities. One such challenges is to provide food services according to adequate quality standards. This work is motivated by the real-life case of the Universidad Católica del Maule-Chile (UCM), where a sustained growth in student enrollment has led to re-evaluating food service capacity. Determining whether the available infrastructure can serve current and projected student demand becomes particularly important. By developing a computerized simulation model based on discrete events, this study addresses the capacity usage in the UCM food services. As a result, we note that the current infrastructure can meet demand needs. However, a considerable number of users are mostly waiting for attention, which creates a feeling of agglomeration in the service.