2. "A large number of scenarios and
outcomes … are impossible to
comprehend and evaluate without
the help of a computer simulation
model (Harrington and Tumay,
2000)."
Concept of Simulation
3. Simulation
Acting out an actual or probable real life condition, event, or
situation to find a cause of a past occurrence (such as an
accident), or to forecast future effects (outcomes) of assumed
circumstances or factors.
Simulation is an imitation of the operation of a real-world
process or system.
Simulation is normally used to assess the current, or predict
the future, performance of a business process.
Simulation typically uses statistical and computer modelling
to investigate the performance of a business process either for a
new situation or to improve an existing set of processes.
Concept of Simulation
4. A simulation may be performed through
Solving a set of equations (a mathematical model)
Constructing a physical (scale) model
Games (such as war games)
Computer graphics model (such as an animated
flowchart)
Concept of Simulation
5. Advantages of simulation
New policies, operating procedures, information flows
and so on can be explored without disrupting ongoing
operation of the real system.
New hardware designs, physical layouts, transportation
systems can be tested without committing resources for
their acquisition.
Time can be compressed or expanded to allow for a speed-
up or slow-down of the phenomenon( clock is self-control).
6. Advantages of simulation
Insight can be obtained about interaction of variables and
important variables to the performance.
Bottleneck analysis can be performed to discover where
work in process, the system is delayed.
A simulation study can help in understanding how the
system operates.
“What if” questions can be answered.
7. Disadvantages of simulation
Model building requires special training
Vendors of simulation software have been actively
developing packages that contain models that only need
input (templates).
Simulation results can be difficult to interpret.
Simulation modeling and analysis can be time
consuming and expensive
Many simulation software have output-analysis.
