Art of Simulation, Technical Corner
Simulation vs. Spreadsheets for Process Modeling
Sander / Jun 23, 2015
There are common reasons against using simulation as a method of process modeling and instead users favor spreadsheet modeling. There are a range of advantages of simulation and many ways to improve accuracy in analysis through the power of simulation…
In this video I talk about the advantages of simulation over spreadsheets over a range of areas including:
- Variability
- Resources
- Animation
- Pathway Dependencies
When working on simulation in excel, for example, there are limitations – many of which can be addressed using simulation software. In my experience, most of our customers have benefited from the visual aspect of simulation at presentation stage. When demonstrating to stakeholders it is important to be clear and concise and with SIMUL8 we are able to view the process in a more “user-friendly” way. By simply showing a big matrix of data or charts we limit general understanding of the process.
Simulation allows us to communicate changes effectively and can encourage stakeholder buy-in before any changes are made to the real system. Generally, once organizations have witnessed the benefits of simulation modeling they quickly move from spreadsheets to simulation.