Simulations study the interaction of random variables in a business process over time – how many customers might walk in the door at any moment, the return on an upcoming advertising campaign, the chance of your information system going down – and use the results to improve business policies. This article provides an overview of simulation and shows how it’s particularly useful for learning about the dynamics of a business process over time. It includes a simulation step-through designed to teach the basics of the technique, its structure, and its function. The paper goes over the necessary components of a simulation model, how the model actually works, and what to do with the data generated by the simulation. A discussion on issues surrounding the commercial use of simulation runs throughout the paper. [BNET Annotation]
Author: Ricki G. Ingalls
Source: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
Subjects: Operations, Statistics
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