SIMULATION PROCESS
by
MR. THOMAS KWANTWI
University OF MINES & TECHNOLOGY
Steps in a Simulation Study
How is a Simulation Study conducted?
What are the steps involved?
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Steps in a Simulation Study
The following steps should be taken in every simulation study:
• Problem definition – Defining the goals of the study so that the purpose
of the study is known.
• Project Planning –Making sure that there are sufficient personnel,
management support, computer hardware, and software resources to do
the job.
• System Definition – Determining the boundaries and restrictions to be
used in defining the system or process and investigating how the system
works.
• Conceptual Model Formulation – Developing a preliminary model either
graphically e.g. block diagrams or in pseudo-code to define the
components, descriptive variables, and interactions or logic that
constitute the system.
• Preliminary Experimental Design –Selection of the measures of
effectiveness to be used, the factors to be varied, and the level of those
factors to be investigated that knows what data needs to be gathered
from the model, in what form, and to what extent. 3
SIMULATION PROCESS
• Input Data Preparation – Identifying and collecting the input data
needed by the model.
• Model Translation – Formulating the model in an appropriate
simulation language.
• Verification and Validation – This involves the confirmation that the
model operates the way the analyst intended and that the output of the
model is believable and representative of the output of the real system.
• Final Experimental Design – Designing an experiment that will yield the
desired information and determining how each of the test runs
specified in the experimental design is to be executed.
• Experimentation – Executing the simulation to generate the desired
data and to perform a sensitivity analysis.
• Analysis and Interpretation – Drawing inferences from the data
generated by the simulation.
• Implementation and Documentations – That is putting the results to
use, recording the findings, and documenting the model and its use.
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DECISION FOR SIMULATION
To recognize if simulation is the correct
approach to solving a particular problem, four
items should be evaluated before deciding to
conduct the study:
• Type of Problem
• Availability of Resources
• Costs
• Availability of Data
Type of Problem:
• If a problem can be solved by common sense
or analytically, the use of simulation is
unnecessary.
• Using algorithms and mathematical equations
may be faster and less expensive than
simulating. Also,
• If the problem can be solved by performing
direct experiments on the system to be
evaluated, then conducting direct experiments
may be more desirable than simulating.
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Availability of Resources:
• People and time are the determining
resources for conducting a simulation study.
• An experienced analyst is the most important
resource since such a person has the ability
and experience to determine both the model's
appropriate level of detail and how to verify
and validate the model.
• Allocation of time should not be so limited so
as to force the simulator to take shortcuts in
designing the model.
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Costs:
• Cost considerations should be given for each
step in the simulation process, purchasing
simulation software if not already available,
and computer resources.
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Availability of Data:
• Data should be identified and located, and if
the data does not exist, then the data should
be collectible.
• If the data does not exist and cannot be
collected, then continuing with the simulation
study will eventually yield unreliable and
useless results.
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Simulation Project Report
Once a system has been modeled, simulated, and analyzed, the study and its
conclusions are often written up as a project report.
A generic simulation project report addresses the model building stages
described and consists of the following sections:
– Cover page: Includes a project title, author names, date, and contact information in this
order.
– Executive summary: Provides a summary of the problem studied, model findings, and
conclusions.
– Table of contents: Lists section headings, figures, and tables with the corresponding
page numbers.
– Introduction: Sets up the scene with background information on the system under
study (if any), the objectives of the project, and the problems to be solved. If
appropriate, include a brief review of the relevant company, its location, and products
and services.
– System
07/09/2025 description: Describes in detail the system to be studied, using prose, charts, 11
and tables.
Simulation Project Report
• Input analysis: Describes empirical data collection and
statistical data fitting.
• Simulation model description: Describes the modeling
approach of the simulation model, and outlines its structure in
terms of its main components, objects, and the operational logic.
• Verification and validation: Provide supportive evidence for
model goodness via model verification and validation to justify
its use in predicting the performance measures of the system
under study.
• Output analysis: Describes simulation model outputs,
including run scenarios, number of replications, and the
statistical analysis of simulation-produced observations. 12
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Simulation Project Report
• Simulation results: Collects and displays summary statistics
of multiple replicated scenarios.
• Suggested system modifications (if any): A common
motivation for modeling an extant system is to come up with
modifications in system parameters or configurations that
produce improvements, such as better performance and
reduced costs.
• Conclusions and recommendations: Summarize study
findings and furnishes a set of recommendations.
• Appendices: Contains any relevant material that might provide
undesired digression in the report body.
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Overview of Software for Simulation Modeling
20-sim: 20-sim is relatively new software used for blocks modeling
system for continuous systems. 20-sim is a modeling and simulation
program that runs under Windows. With 20-sim one can simulate the
behavior of dynamic systems, such as electrical, mechanical and
hydraulic systems or any combination of these systems.
Arena: This software is used to simulate service, manufacturing,
transformation, and logistics, supply chain and other systems.
Automod: Provides true to scale 3-D virtual reality animation, making
simulation models easy to understand. It provides advanced features
to allow users to simulate complex movement, such as kinematics and
velocity of equipment such as robots, machine tools, transfer lines,
special machinery and more..
EASY5: EASY5 developed by Boeing Inc., is software used to model
and simulate dynamic systems containing hydraulic, pneumatic,
Intrax: This software can support numerous management decisions
regarding the actual process being modeled and simulated. It can be
used to perform strategic, process improvement, synchronous value
chain and day-to-day operations.
Manufacturing engineering: This software performs discrete
simulations to resolve manufacturing problems and design
manufacturing solutions. It predicts throughput, staffing and other
performance measures in a broad range of applications.
Matlab: This is an integrated technical computing environment that
combines numeric computation, advanced graphics and
visualization, and a high level programming language.
Simulink is an interactive tool for modeling, simulating and
analyzing dynamic systems. It allows building graphical block
diagrams, simulating dynamic systems, evaluating system
performance and refining designs.
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Promodel: This software is simulation-based software for
evaluating, planning or re-designing manufacturing, warehousing
and logistics systems. Typical applications include implementation
of lean manufacturing, cycle-time reduction, equipment investment
decisions, throughput & capacity analysis, identifying and
minimizing bottlenecks and resource allocation.
Modsim: This software can be used to simulate transportation
models like port simulation model, railroad network simulation and
aircraft/air traffic management model.
Simplorer: A simulator for industrial design, research projects and
teaching purposes.