Arena Newsletter and Blog

Simulation allows us to understand our day to day operations and make improvements based on changes both internal and external. During a pandemic, it is more critical than ever to utilize this tool to avoid extra costs and effectively changeover. We’re seeing many different organizations tackle large changes through the power from Arena Simulation such as machine retooling, social distancing requirements, and of course, health care needs.

Data driven models are quick to develop, yet powerful for complex processes. SimWell, our Premier Partner in Canada, has put together this four part series which will explain what Data Driven Models are, why they are important, and how to begin making your own in Arena.

It comes as no surprise that being organized is the key to success in project management and that means creating a functional specification.  Whether you are building one model you are going to use for analysis or two or three, organization is key.  A critical aspect of organization will be defining those elements that you are going to use in the model or share across models.  Taking the time to define the key resources, variables, attributes and other elements will allow you to potentially create one master database to test your models, saving you time and helping to keep your analysis organized as well.  Members of the Arena Consulting Team have employed this technique with great success, using one master database structure and two very different models for a client to test out potential design ideas. 

In this month’s case study, one of the chief goals of the simulation model was to test several potential operational modifications. When there are several changes to test, the questions arise:

If your team is consistently underperforming, you’ve got a tough road ahead.  I hate to break it to you, but in our consulting practice we find that people can and want to perform well, and it’s most often the systems put in place that force underperformance.