Modeling car dealership credit operations using arena as a business process reengineering demonstration

An experiment was conducted in the Management Department at GMI which involved teaching management concepts by creating business models. An important part of this effort is the development of student projects taken from their co-op experiences. One of these projects is the Car Dealership Credit Operations model. This paper describes how these operations were quite nicely modeled using Arena as a class project. A dealership processing 200 people per week was selected for the initial modeling effort. The model includes preliminary credit checks, including prequalifying the buyer at the dealer. Further interactions between the car dealer finance officer and as many as seven banks are modeled to show how this credit approval process works.