Organization and Production Systems Simulation Analysis
Building Organization and Production Effective Capacity Through Simulation Analysis
Organization System Simulation Models and Methods
Organization System simulation models are concerned with software simulation to predict organization behavior and performance. The simulation approaches are based on processes such as workflow process simulation, and organization behavior data simulation.
Strategic Engine Simulation
Strategic management is a discipline concerned with the formulation, implementation, and execution and evaluation of strategies that allow organizations to adapt/respond to changes in their environments in order to achieve their strategic goals, survive, grow and thrive. Strategies have to be well formulated to be good, but good strategies only have value to the organization when they are implemented and executed.
Operations Simulation
Organization System Operations Simulation is based on a discrete-event simulation methods that enable systematic analysis of an organization's value creation and delivery systems and processes. In Model-Based Operations simulation, we are talking about the flow of events that happen over time in real world situations. The simulation helps organizations to determine the optimal configuration of their Operations Systems that define production facilities, capacity Requirements of current resources to meet customer demand, and effective scheduling and schedule management to effectively and efficiently create and deliver products and services to meet customer demands while satisfying stakeholders' expectations expressed through organizational goals.
Visual Analytics & Simulation Visualization
Visual Analytics through visualization of simulation models and outputs allows users and decision makers to study the behavior of resources under various system loads and gain insight into potential capacity throughput and bottlenecks. The analytics simulation is very different from process animation which provides visualization of the flow of goods and services through production and/or service centers, and the buildup of inventory at storage location. Process animation can also help developers step through the execution of a process instance in order to debug potential model errors. Simulation visualization enables interactive exploration and examination of the the simulation outputs and results. This makes it easy for users to consume simulation results (output) without having to be proficient in the underlying statistics and mathematics.
Organization System simulation models are concerned with software simulation to predict organization behavior and performance. The simulation approaches are based on processes such as workflow process simulation, and organization behavior data simulation.
Strategic Engine Simulation
Strategic management is a discipline concerned with the formulation, implementation, and execution and evaluation of strategies that allow organizations to adapt/respond to changes in their environments in order to achieve their strategic goals, survive, grow and thrive. Strategies have to be well formulated to be good, but good strategies only have value to the organization when they are implemented and executed.
Operations Simulation
Organization System Operations Simulation is based on a discrete-event simulation methods that enable systematic analysis of an organization's value creation and delivery systems and processes. In Model-Based Operations simulation, we are talking about the flow of events that happen over time in real world situations. The simulation helps organizations to determine the optimal configuration of their Operations Systems that define production facilities, capacity Requirements of current resources to meet customer demand, and effective scheduling and schedule management to effectively and efficiently create and deliver products and services to meet customer demands while satisfying stakeholders' expectations expressed through organizational goals.
Visual Analytics & Simulation Visualization
Visual Analytics through visualization of simulation models and outputs allows users and decision makers to study the behavior of resources under various system loads and gain insight into potential capacity throughput and bottlenecks. The analytics simulation is very different from process animation which provides visualization of the flow of goods and services through production and/or service centers, and the buildup of inventory at storage location. Process animation can also help developers step through the execution of a process instance in order to debug potential model errors. Simulation visualization enables interactive exploration and examination of the the simulation outputs and results. This makes it easy for users to consume simulation results (output) without having to be proficient in the underlying statistics and mathematics.
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Strategic Engine Simulation
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Operations Engine Simulation
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Operations System Design
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Process Design
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Strategic Engine Simulation
A strategy is an approach or hypothesis of the intended means to accomplish certain defined goals and objectives that contribute to a certain defined vision/"end". Strategies are largely invisible to the organization itself and the people that must intervene to implement and execute them to have value to the organization. A strategy is made visible by explicit model of the strategy statement defined by an orderly grouping of interdependent goals linked together according to a game plan (strategic plan) to achieve a strategic objectives that in turn contribute to achieving the mission. Strategy is accomplished through the constant interplay between doing, planning, and evaluation.
[TBD]
Strategy Simulation
Strategy simulation takes as input an organization system management functions goals network model, and an organization system model. The goals network model is then simulated through goal-refinement methods. The goals network model is a layered model comprising the organizational goals, strategic goals, goals model description of the vision and mission within the organizational context - organization as system. The goals network model is a descriptive viewpoint model of the organization's stakeholders, management, and employees as well as performance measures and goals - functional and non-functional in nature. When modeling non-functional requirements (NFRs) as soft-goals, the analyst explores goal operationalization alternatives and selects the desirable operationalizations by labeling them as Satisficed (denoted by a check mark). The label of each selected soft-goal is evaluated to determine how it impacts the achievement of its parent goal. This evaluation is based on the evaluation procedure selection depending on the appropriate world assumption (i.e., closed or open). The closed assumption has been the key assumption for information systems such as in database systems [Reiter78]. However, for organizational level modeling, especially when modeling stakeholders' perspective, rather than system's perspective, of the world, the open world assumption provides a better world assumption model. Label evaluation and propagation treats soft-goals and contribution links generically at a higher level of abstraction as propositions, making propagation applicable for all proposition-to-proposition combination, including goal-to-goal, goal-to-contribution, contribution-to-goal, and contribution-to-contribution propagation.
Strategy Hierarchy Analysis Model
Strategy simulation models for evaluating strategy-making are comprised of social systems models, elaborated with the goals models of stakeholders' intentions, expectations, and motivations. The simulation model of the organization recognizes the primacy of social actors which are viewed as being intentional, i.e., they have goals, beliefs, abilities, and commitments. Unlike traditional systems analysis methods which strive to abstract away from the people aspects of systems, the analysis focuses on how well the goals of various actors are achieved given some configuration of relationships among a set of actors, and what re-configurations of those relationships can help actors advance their strategic interests. The goals model can be cascaded vertically and horizontally throughout the whole organization facilitated by the organizational structures underlying the social systems network. In creating models of real world situations and/or complex socio-technical systems, we adopt as a premise that the social world is unknowable and uncontrollable, with respect to the behavior of actors and events, to a large extent.
Strategy simulation enables the end-to-end evaluation of strategic decisions of real world organizations from corporate strategy through business/competitive strategies to functional strategies to better understand and gain insight into strategic decisions and the factors that influence implementation and execution success/failure.
Strategy Implementation Model
The strategy implementation model is a social system model of the organization with integrated goals model that defines the goals and objectives for each of the system actors. The goals model is a logic model of statements about an organization's mission, vision, strategy, and policies. The goals and objectives in the model are cascaded vertically and horizontally throughout the whole organization defined by the organizational structures, and actor interactions, and institutional arrangements underlying the social systems network. In creating models of real world situations and/or complex socio-technical systems, we adopt as a premise that the social world is unknowable and uncontrollable, with respect to the behavior of actors and events, to a large extent.
Strategic Action Plan Simulator
The plan simulator and analyzer enables a planner confronted with a situation, an objective, and a set of courses of action (or plans) which are believed to achieve the objective to run a simulation to evaluate the behavior of one or more plans against different conditions in the domain (where the plans will be executed) in order to establish their degree of success/failure, and identify dependencies on the relevant parameters. The final objective of the planner is to make choices regarding which plan to adopt according to pre-established criteria.
In addition, users can also create social systems models of the organization and its environment to represent the context in which the plan is enacted and executed. The emphasis in the social systems is the representation of the dependency relations between actors, the responsibility relationships between actors and the goals and actions assigned to them to perform, and the impact of the outcomes of those actions on organizational behavior.
Strategy Execution Simulation
In Strategy Execution simulation, we are talking about the flow of decisions and resulting actions that occur over time in the real world (expressed in terms of organization system model) that drive changes in the organization as result of planned initiatives or unplanned responses to developments. The simulation takes as input models of the organization as system, organization's intentions, vision and mission, strategic issues as concerns, and strategic goals and objectives. The simulation involves goals refinement of a dynamic goal model of an organization to track performance and progress towards mission goals. The simulation helps organizations to determine the best configuration of organizational structure (functions and operating areas), and choice of strategic resources/assets that are best aligned with strategic objectives, and result in achieving organizational goals. The simulation results are presented to users through visualization methods that enable interactive exploration and examination of the the simulation outputs and results. This makes it easy for users to consume simulation results (output) without having to be proficient in the underlying statistics and mathematics.
A strategy is an approach or hypothesis of the intended means to accomplish certain defined goals and objectives that contribute to a certain defined vision/"end". Strategies are largely invisible to the organization itself and the people that must intervene to implement and execute them to have value to the organization. A strategy is made visible by explicit model of the strategy statement defined by an orderly grouping of interdependent goals linked together according to a game plan (strategic plan) to achieve a strategic objectives that in turn contribute to achieving the mission. Strategy is accomplished through the constant interplay between doing, planning, and evaluation.
[TBD]
Strategy Simulation
Strategy simulation takes as input an organization system management functions goals network model, and an organization system model. The goals network model is then simulated through goal-refinement methods. The goals network model is a layered model comprising the organizational goals, strategic goals, goals model description of the vision and mission within the organizational context - organization as system. The goals network model is a descriptive viewpoint model of the organization's stakeholders, management, and employees as well as performance measures and goals - functional and non-functional in nature. When modeling non-functional requirements (NFRs) as soft-goals, the analyst explores goal operationalization alternatives and selects the desirable operationalizations by labeling them as Satisficed (denoted by a check mark). The label of each selected soft-goal is evaluated to determine how it impacts the achievement of its parent goal. This evaluation is based on the evaluation procedure selection depending on the appropriate world assumption (i.e., closed or open). The closed assumption has been the key assumption for information systems such as in database systems [Reiter78]. However, for organizational level modeling, especially when modeling stakeholders' perspective, rather than system's perspective, of the world, the open world assumption provides a better world assumption model. Label evaluation and propagation treats soft-goals and contribution links generically at a higher level of abstraction as propositions, making propagation applicable for all proposition-to-proposition combination, including goal-to-goal, goal-to-contribution, contribution-to-goal, and contribution-to-contribution propagation.
Strategy Hierarchy Analysis Model
Strategy simulation models for evaluating strategy-making are comprised of social systems models, elaborated with the goals models of stakeholders' intentions, expectations, and motivations. The simulation model of the organization recognizes the primacy of social actors which are viewed as being intentional, i.e., they have goals, beliefs, abilities, and commitments. Unlike traditional systems analysis methods which strive to abstract away from the people aspects of systems, the analysis focuses on how well the goals of various actors are achieved given some configuration of relationships among a set of actors, and what re-configurations of those relationships can help actors advance their strategic interests. The goals model can be cascaded vertically and horizontally throughout the whole organization facilitated by the organizational structures underlying the social systems network. In creating models of real world situations and/or complex socio-technical systems, we adopt as a premise that the social world is unknowable and uncontrollable, with respect to the behavior of actors and events, to a large extent.
Strategy simulation enables the end-to-end evaluation of strategic decisions of real world organizations from corporate strategy through business/competitive strategies to functional strategies to better understand and gain insight into strategic decisions and the factors that influence implementation and execution success/failure.
Strategy Implementation Model
The strategy implementation model is a social system model of the organization with integrated goals model that defines the goals and objectives for each of the system actors. The goals model is a logic model of statements about an organization's mission, vision, strategy, and policies. The goals and objectives in the model are cascaded vertically and horizontally throughout the whole organization defined by the organizational structures, and actor interactions, and institutional arrangements underlying the social systems network. In creating models of real world situations and/or complex socio-technical systems, we adopt as a premise that the social world is unknowable and uncontrollable, with respect to the behavior of actors and events, to a large extent.
Strategic Action Plan Simulator
The plan simulator and analyzer enables a planner confronted with a situation, an objective, and a set of courses of action (or plans) which are believed to achieve the objective to run a simulation to evaluate the behavior of one or more plans against different conditions in the domain (where the plans will be executed) in order to establish their degree of success/failure, and identify dependencies on the relevant parameters. The final objective of the planner is to make choices regarding which plan to adopt according to pre-established criteria.
In addition, users can also create social systems models of the organization and its environment to represent the context in which the plan is enacted and executed. The emphasis in the social systems is the representation of the dependency relations between actors, the responsibility relationships between actors and the goals and actions assigned to them to perform, and the impact of the outcomes of those actions on organizational behavior.
Strategy Execution Simulation
In Strategy Execution simulation, we are talking about the flow of decisions and resulting actions that occur over time in the real world (expressed in terms of organization system model) that drive changes in the organization as result of planned initiatives or unplanned responses to developments. The simulation takes as input models of the organization as system, organization's intentions, vision and mission, strategic issues as concerns, and strategic goals and objectives. The simulation involves goals refinement of a dynamic goal model of an organization to track performance and progress towards mission goals. The simulation helps organizations to determine the best configuration of organizational structure (functions and operating areas), and choice of strategic resources/assets that are best aligned with strategic objectives, and result in achieving organizational goals. The simulation results are presented to users through visualization methods that enable interactive exploration and examination of the the simulation outputs and results. This makes it easy for users to consume simulation results (output) without having to be proficient in the underlying statistics and mathematics.
Operations Engine Simulation
Operations Engine simulator is a discrete-event simulator that enables systematic analysis and evaluation of business organization Operations and production systems. Operations and Production analytics simulation method is concerned with quantifying the impact from changes in production factors on capacity utilization and optimization in a non-financial and/or non-functional way. The simulator enables users to create and execute simulation models of the organization's production and/or service delivery systems in order to evaluate the impact of changes to system inputs, as well as levels and availability of resources (material, people, and equipment) on system throughput, efficiency and effectiveness.
Discrete-Event Simulation Models
These simulation models can be built as deterministic and non-deterministic simulation models in EPCAD or equivalent simulation tool. Deterministic simulation models take as input fixed non-random values, typically representing parameters that describe the occurrence of events in domain of interest. Many real world situations are modeled as non-deterministic simulation model. They typically involve some kind of uncertainty, random variation in the input parameters and factors which would require the input be random variables with appropriate probability distributions.
Typical simulation scenarios (problem definitions) focus either on impact from changes at the resource level (e.g., what if the organization bought a faster check sorter?), the process structure (e.g., what if the organization allowed existing customers to skip the credit check activity?), or the process context (e.g., what if the customer demand increased dramatically because of marketing campaign?) on throughput and effective capacity as well as capacity utilization.
[TBD]
Good Production Systems Simulation
Many organizations strive to optimize their business operations to ensure they have adequate existing capacity (permanent[1] or contingent[2]) to meet service standards and productivity objectives while reducing the need to expand facilities. Manufacturing and service operations employ a number of different strategies for managing demand and capacity in order to improve resource capacity utilization, operations efficiency, and performance measures such as smaller inventories, reduced lead times, and consistent and on-time delivery of value to customers.
The simulation model components include:
The Production System model is an Operations System comprised of set of activities or processes involved in converting labor, materials, etc., into goods or services and resource configuration with resulting competencies to meet particular combination of performance objectives expressed in terms of measures such as quality, reliability, etc. The objectives are translation of identified marketing factors that a selected group of customers want.
[TBD]
Service Production Simulation Model
[TBD]
The simulation takes as input configuration models of the organization as system - organizational structures, organizational work processes, organizational administrative processes, organizational roles and responsibilities (description of organizational behavior, skills, and capabilities), and resources such as physical equipment and storage, products and services manufacturing structures, configuration of people, and customer demand models. The simulator supports visualization methods that enable interactive exploration and examination of the the simulation outputs and results. This makes it easy for users to consume simulation results (output) without having to be proficient in the underlying statistics and mathematics.
Operations Engine simulator is a discrete-event simulator that enables systematic analysis and evaluation of business organization Operations and production systems. Operations and Production analytics simulation method is concerned with quantifying the impact from changes in production factors on capacity utilization and optimization in a non-financial and/or non-functional way. The simulator enables users to create and execute simulation models of the organization's production and/or service delivery systems in order to evaluate the impact of changes to system inputs, as well as levels and availability of resources (material, people, and equipment) on system throughput, efficiency and effectiveness.
Discrete-Event Simulation Models
These simulation models can be built as deterministic and non-deterministic simulation models in EPCAD or equivalent simulation tool. Deterministic simulation models take as input fixed non-random values, typically representing parameters that describe the occurrence of events in domain of interest. Many real world situations are modeled as non-deterministic simulation model. They typically involve some kind of uncertainty, random variation in the input parameters and factors which would require the input be random variables with appropriate probability distributions.
Typical simulation scenarios (problem definitions) focus either on impact from changes at the resource level (e.g., what if the organization bought a faster check sorter?), the process structure (e.g., what if the organization allowed existing customers to skip the credit check activity?), or the process context (e.g., what if the customer demand increased dramatically because of marketing campaign?) on throughput and effective capacity as well as capacity utilization.
[TBD]
Good Production Systems Simulation
Many organizations strive to optimize their business operations to ensure they have adequate existing capacity (permanent[1] or contingent[2]) to meet service standards and productivity objectives while reducing the need to expand facilities. Manufacturing and service operations employ a number of different strategies for managing demand and capacity in order to improve resource capacity utilization, operations efficiency, and performance measures such as smaller inventories, reduced lead times, and consistent and on-time delivery of value to customers.
The simulation model components include:
- Operations and Production Simulation Scenario Profile created using the EPCAD Simulation Profile Workbench to define a simulation experiment for investigation and problem analysis. Each simulation profile refers to a simulation model which is a snapshot of the current state of the real world physical system and elements such as resources and assets as they existed at the time when the simulation model was generated.
- A configuration of factors and resources that represent the determinants of effective capacity. These include: facilities, product mix, organizational work processes output rates, workforce, management policies, supply chain factors, and operational factors.
- Customer demand forecast model for products and services - This includes information about the average rates at which customers request for products and/or services including the breakdown of customer order request types (e.g., for a coffee shop regular coffee vs. espresso, for a barbershop haircut vs. shaves, etc.) – at different times of the day, and the orders' sizes
- Customer service delivery model including the standard operating policies.
- Configuration model of the production facility including workforce and roles, equipment/machines, storage spaces, products and services mix offered by the organization.
- A model of the workforce (people) and equipment operating and maintenance schedules, and facility operating shifts schedules.
- A model of the organization's operating times and holidays.
The Production System model is an Operations System comprised of set of activities or processes involved in converting labor, materials, etc., into goods or services and resource configuration with resulting competencies to meet particular combination of performance objectives expressed in terms of measures such as quality, reliability, etc. The objectives are translation of identified marketing factors that a selected group of customers want.
[TBD]
Service Production Simulation Model
[TBD]
The simulation takes as input configuration models of the organization as system - organizational structures, organizational work processes, organizational administrative processes, organizational roles and responsibilities (description of organizational behavior, skills, and capabilities), and resources such as physical equipment and storage, products and services manufacturing structures, configuration of people, and customer demand models. The simulator supports visualization methods that enable interactive exploration and examination of the the simulation outputs and results. This makes it easy for users to consume simulation results (output) without having to be proficient in the underlying statistics and mathematics.
Operations System Capacity Simulation
Operations Simulation Method allows analysts to investigate and test different configurations of an organization's production system capacity with respect to changes in demand due to seasonal effects and random effects, , quality standards, etc., and the impact of changes to the elements of capacity including:
These factors describe the determinants of effective capacity used in determining the effective capacity from the design capacity.
Operations Simulation Method allows analysts to investigate and test different configurations of an organization's production system capacity with respect to changes in demand due to seasonal effects and random effects, , quality standards, etc., and the impact of changes to the elements of capacity including:
- Facilities Design Factors - Size and provision for expansion.
- Product and Service Factors - Opportunities for standardization of methods and materials.
- Organizational work processes - Throughput productivity, quality standards, and change and setup times.
- Human Factors - Workforce proficiency, skills, competency, and experience required to play assigned roles in performing specified jobs.
- Management Policy Factors - Management decisions on overtime and extended shifts (second, third, etc.)
- Operational Factors - These factors include scheduling problems, production and/or service delivery processes equipment capability differences, inventory stocking decisions, late deliveries, purchasing requirements and costs, quality inspection and control procedures.
- Supply Chain Factors - How does changes in capacity increase impact suppliers, warehousing, transportation, and distribution.
- External Factors - Minimum quality and performance standards can restrict management's options to increasing and using capacity
- Planning - Inadequate planning can be major limiting determinant of effective capacity
These factors describe the determinants of effective capacity used in determining the effective capacity from the design capacity.
Process Design Simulation Analysis
Business Process Simulation to support process design decisions is based on discrete-event simulation that enables systematic analysis of a related set of processes to determine workflow design efficiency, cycle times, and output rates. Simulation is using a computer and computational models of the real world to emulate the real world so it can be studied and better understood. There are lots of variations of simulation; but we are talking about the flow of events that happen over time in real world situations, and providing them as input to a simulation computer model of the end-to-end workflow product of an organization.
A process analytics simulation model consists of:
Process Synthesis
Simulation is used to perform what-if analyses of process designs before they are implemented. Typical simulation solutions focus on experiments to help understand impact of changes at:
Process analytics simulation provides participants, decision-makers, and stakeholders with understanding of interplay of process concepts and elements, and constraints, as well as insight into the influence on future performance (efficiency and effectiveness) of organization processes.
A single-player simulation allows users to explore concepts in process analysis and increase their intuition and understanding of core operations concepts such as:
Business Organization Process Design Analysis
The analysis of process events can focus on:
Advantages
The advantages of process analytics in operations management include:
Business Process Simulation to support process design decisions is based on discrete-event simulation that enables systematic analysis of a related set of processes to determine workflow design efficiency, cycle times, and output rates. Simulation is using a computer and computational models of the real world to emulate the real world so it can be studied and better understood. There are lots of variations of simulation; but we are talking about the flow of events that happen over time in real world situations, and providing them as input to a simulation computer model of the end-to-end workflow product of an organization.
A process analytics simulation model consists of:
- Process definition – A BPMN Business Process Model that provides information about the activities performed, the routes taken, the rules impacting which routes and activities to perform, and the resources (human and machines) used to perform the activities. The activity definition includes the definition of roles representing the function/capability required by a resource to be able to perform the work.
- Incoming Work (Arrival) – The scenario involves work to be processed, and includes information about when the work arrives, as well as appropriate attributes (e.g., region, amount, size, etc.) that may have an impact on processing and routing. The EPCAD Simulator provides an arrival distribution editor which allows users to define arrival rates. The editor uses a business calendar to reflect operating hours, weekends, and holidays.
- Resources, Roles, and Work Shifts – As work is routed to activities in a process, resources are required to perform the activity. Resources may be human resources, equipment, or application systems. The resources are bound to roles using the Resource Configuration Editor provided by EPCAD.
- Activity Details – In order for the EPCAD simulator to reflect the real world, additional information is needed and added to the scenario definition. These include duration of activities provided as numeric values or as probability distribution.
- Routing Information – Simulation scenarios require additional information that is typically not part of a workflow model, in particular routing information which tells the simulator under what conditions certain process paths are taken. Routing information is based on conditional rules and amended with percentages that reflect the likelihood of certain outcomes or path.
Process Synthesis
Simulation is used to perform what-if analyses of process designs before they are implemented. Typical simulation solutions focus on experiments to help understand impact of changes at:
- The resource level (e.g., what if the organization bought a faster check sorter?),
- The process structure level (e.g., what if the organization allowed existing customers to skip the credit check activity?), or
- The process context level (e.g., what if the customer demand increased dramatically because of marketing campaign?).
Process analytics simulation provides participants, decision-makers, and stakeholders with understanding of interplay of process concepts and elements, and constraints, as well as insight into the influence on future performance (efficiency and effectiveness) of organization processes.
A single-player simulation allows users to explore concepts in process analysis and increase their intuition and understanding of core operations concepts such as:
- Cycle time,
- Yield,
- In-process Inventory
- Capacity Management,
- Bottlenecks and constraints,
- Throughput (Time and Rates)
- Line and Batch Processes
Business Organization Process Design Analysis
The analysis of process events can focus on:
- Evaluating the behavior of completed processes,
- Evaluating design effectiveness of processes,
- Predicting the impact of design changes on behavior of future instances of processes.
Advantages
The advantages of process analytics in operations management include:
- Find and resolve bottlenecks
- Try changing the business and see the changes that make it work better for less.
- Reduce cost and eliminate waste.
- Optimize standards by testing expected performance.
- Collaborate with co-workers and get buy in on decisions from the start.
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