Our objective for this second edition of Simio and Simulation: Modeling, Analysis, Applications, as with the first edition, is for it to serve as the primary text in introductory and perhaps second courses in simulation at both the undergraduate and beginning-graduate levels. Such simulation courses are found in departments of industrial and systems engineering, most business schools, and many computer-science departments; simulation courses are also found in other engineering disciplines (mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical), mathematics, statistics, epidemiology, and agriculture. The text or components of it could also support a simulation module of a few weeks within a larger survey course in programs without a stand-alone simulation course (e.g., MBA). It is written in an accessible tutorial-style writing approach centered around specific examples rather than general concepts, and covers a variety of applications. Our experience has shown that these characteristics make the text easier to read and absorb, as well as appealing to students from many different backgrounds.
A first simulation course would probably cover Chapters 1 through 8 thoroughly, and likely Chapters 9 and 10, particularly for advanced-undergraduate or graduate students. For a second simulation course, it might work to skip or quickly review all of Part I (Chapters 1-4), thoroughly cover all of Part II (Chapters 5-10), and use Part III as reinforcing assignments. The extensibility introduced in Chapter 10 could provide interesting project work for a graduate student with some programming background, as it could be easily linked to other research topics. For a simulation module that's part of a larger survey course, concentrating on Chapters 1, 5, and 6, and then perhaps lightly touching on Chapters 7 and 8 and some of Chapters 2-4, as time permits, would be recommended. Supplemental course material is available on-line as described later in this preface.
We assume basic familiarity with the Microsoft Windows operating system and common applications like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word . This book also assumes prior coursework in, and comfort with, probability and statistics. Readers don't need to be experts, but do need command of the basics of probability and statistics; more specific topics are outlined at the beginning of Chapters 2 and 4.
This textbook was written for use with the Simio simulation software. The following products are available for academic use:
The Simio Evaluation Edition permits full modeling capability but supports saving and experimentation on only very small models (up to 18 objects and 16 steps). It can be downloaded without cost from
www.simio.com/evaluate. While this is useful for personal learning and short classes, the small model limitation generally makes it inadequate for a classroom environment where larger problems and projects will be involved.
On-line resources are available in three categories. A web site containing general textbook information and resources available to the public can be found at www.simio.com/publications/SASMAA. Information and resources available only to students is at www.simio.com/publications/SASMAA/students. Here you'll find the model files and other files used in the examples and end-of-chapter problems, additional problems, and other useful resources. The username is student and the password is XXX. There's a special restricted-access site available to professors, which contains slides and other helpful teaching resources. A professor of record must contact Simio (academic@simio.com) for the web site and login information.
This second edition incorporates changes suggested by first-edition readers, as well as changes we initiated. Many small typos and other errors have been corrected, and end-of-chapter Problems have been improved and added. Additional queueing material in Chapter 2 has been introduced (a program for numerical evaluation of the M/M/c; treatment of the G/M/1 queue and a spreadsheet program to solve it numerically in one case). A more capable “textbook" version of the Stat::Fit distribution-fitting software has replaced the prior “student" version in Chapter 4. Some of the new Simio features added since the first edition are now described here. And we have completely rewritten the case studies in Part III.
Many people helped us get to this point. First, as co-author on the first edition, Dr. Alexander Verbraeck has provided immeasurable contributions to the structure, quality, and content. The Simio LLC technical staff – Cory Crooks, Glenn Drake, Dennis Pegden, Dan Spice, Dave Takus, Renee Thiesing, and Christine Watson -- were great in helping us understand the features, find the best way to describe and illustrate them, and even providing proof-reading and help with the case studies. Ian Blyth, Christie Miller, and Rich Ritchie of Simio LLC provided great support in helping get the word out and working with early adopters. Hazal Karaman, Cagatay Mekiker, Karun Alaganan, and Daniel Marquez generously shared their University of Pittsburgh class projects for our case studies. From Auburn University, Chris Bevelle and Josh Kentrick worked on the new introductory case studies and James Christakos and Yingde Li work on material for the first edition. While we appreciate the participation of all of the early adopters (including students who were subjected to the draft materials) and those who used the first edition, we'd like to give special thanks to Jim Grayson, Josh Kendrick, Gary Kochenberger, Mike McFarlane, Deb Medeiros, Barry Nelson, Leonard Perry, and Laurel Travis (and her students at Virginia Tech) for providing feedback to help us improve. Finally, we'd like to thank James Doepke for working with us at McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions to make this book a reality, and Fairfax Hutter for the great cover design.
W. David Kelton
University of Cincinnati
david.kelton@uc.edu
Jeffrey S. Smith
Auburn University
jsmith@auburn.edu
David T. Sturrock
Simio LLC and the University of Pittsburgh
dsturrock@simio.com