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Stimulating good simulation

- improved decision support systems are needed to help practitioners to ensure experimental validity

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OR Insight

Abstract

Visual Interactive Simulation has reached the stage where its use is becoming commonplace in manufacturing and widespread in other sectors. Current software makes model building relatively straightforward, but little attention has so far been given to producing tools to assist in experimentation beyond automatic run replication and report generation. A series of interviews with selected experts and users suggests that many simulation practitioners just rely on gut feel and rule of thumb in the choice of warm-up times, run lengths and numbers of replications. This article argues that it is time for a simple methodology of experimentation to be developed with real users in mind.

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*Karl Wadsack graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1991 with an MSc in Operational Research. He has stayed on at Birmingham to take up a Research Associateship working in collaboration with AT&T Istel Visual Interactive Systems. He hopes to submit his doctoral thesis in early 1994.

**Andrew Tobias has been a Lecturer at the University of Birmingham since 1988 and is now Director of the Masters' Course in Operational Research. He is regularly involved in a wide variety of projects work for clients throughout industry. His research interests include simulation and business modelling.

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Wadsack, K., Tobias, A. Stimulating good simulation. OR Insight 7, 28–31 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1057/ori.1994.6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ori.1994.6

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