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Chapter 9: Simulation for Research

©Barry L. Nelson

Northwestern University

March 2013

Simulation as a research tool

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Practitioner vs. Researcher

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Research experiments vs. illustrations

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Standard test problems

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Why not the "standard approach?"

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Including correlation in the design

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Random & relevant test problems

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S1

S2

S3

S4

D1

D2

D3

D4

S1

S2

S3

S4

D1

D2

D3

D4

One factory to 1 car model Two factories to each car model

Research question: Is a simple metric based only on structure really valid?

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Linking factors

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Observed

Known

Solve

Testing a useful approximation

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Using simulation to get "the truth"

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Empirical evaluation

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Number of macroreplications

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Macroreps can provide the "truth"

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