Difference Between Simulation and Optimization

The timing of capacity changes also needs to be taken into consideration to achieve maximum efficenty given that demands of their products varies with seasonal changes. The ability to react to market demand changes quickly will determine manufacturers flexibility in keeping up with these demands. Manufacturers needs facilities to produce, whether warehouses to store its raw materials or finished goods, or manufacturing plants to produce their products. Services facilities are needed by certain manufacturing industries such as consumer electronics to cater for returns. Distribution centres also determine the efficenty of production distribution and un-nesessary inventory holding will result in higher holding cost. Such facilities require large investments and are integral of the manufacturer’s supply chain strategy and thus proper planning is needed when making these decisions regardong the size, location which affect the overall operations. How manufacturers run their productions also determine how successful will they be in terms of productivity and quality levels. Different types of equipment and processes also affect the cost and output of the manufacturing plant. Information systems that flow both upstream and downstream affects the forecasting, planning, inventory and production levels, they must be robust to ensure the manufacturing firm is able to react accordingly to changing demands and variations. In addition to their internal environment,

Throughout the simulation I encountered instruction that I can apply the use of supply and demand at my workplace. As a soldier, leader and educator, supply and demand is represented by available student seats, man hours, supply, and equipment. The cost of educating one soldier costs $600 plus or minus. In today’s economy, we are forced to become creative in determining the best means to decrease costs. Although our demand remains consistent the military must meet the supply of inventory that is available. As demand decreases the military also has to decrease supply on hand while also cutting labor hours of not only soldiers as well as civilian personnel to remain profitable. When the demand increases for our services the need for increased personnel and the supplies also increases. The simulation also showed me several ways businesses can operate by simply adjusting supply to meet

The Supply and Demand Simulation consist of microeconomics and macroeconomics concepts. The concepts are explained and how they apply to the principle of microeconomics and macroeconomics. The simulations presents shifts in the supply and demand curve, the rationale for the shift is given. Each shift is analyzed showing the effects of the equilibrium price, quantity, and decision making for the company presented. An explanation of the price elasticity affects the pricing strategy for consumers and company.

Repeatability: In real life, its difficult repeat the exact circumstances again, so you only get one chance to collect the results and you can’t test different ideas under the exact same circumstances. So how do you know which idea is really the best. With simulation software, you can test the same system again and again with different inputs.

The objective of the simulation was to maximise profits of Universal Car Rental Company. The simulation was run across three cities in Florida; Tampa, Orlando and Miami.

How may you apply what you learned about supply and demand from the simulation to your workplace or your understanding of a real-world product with which you are familiar?

The strategy I chose for the simulation is “Niche Cost Leader." First, with the key focus being value, this strategy will challenge me to keep costs at a minimum and force me to streamline overall costs to produce a valuable commodity that, in turn, will generate financial success that can be shared with internal and external stakeholders. Second, as the success of this strategy primarily relies on the existing product line being prosperous, I will be able to practice and hone my forecasting skills based on one product. Though I eventually will produce more than one product, most of the simulation will be conducting under making the primary product as successful as it can be, and reliable forecasts are

The simulation is useful because it evaluates project performance using real criteria, such as the scope, schedule and

The initial supply chain scenario required users to download the case titled “Collaborative Supply Chain.” Google Chrome was the preferred browser recommended to avoid many issues that could be encountered with the simulation if multiple windows were open during the running of simulations.

When dealing with closed loop supply chains, complexity increases, management information systems may have to be restructured, and uncertainty may also build up. “Several sources of uncertainty were identified such as demand, availability of raw materials, prices, promotion of new products and for the closed-loop supply chains uncertainty in the amount of non-conformance products or on the level of returnable end of life products”.(Cardoso,Science direct). Demand levels and other

Over the past three weeks in the University of Phoenix Marketing Management class, I have completed three simulations based on real life marketing situations. The first simulation was titled, "Forecasting Market Demand." This simulation discussed the importance of determining the future demand for your product in the voice commanded software industry. The marketing team for the new Listensoft software needed to accurately forecast the production capacity of the new product and the pricing strategy. This task is especially difficult because human behavior is difficult to predict. Forecasting behavior "…is about generating numbers out of expectations, opinions, statements, prior patterns and a host of other subjective elements" (Forecasting

Simulation is a computer process that gives a probable NPV or IRR for a project. All factors that affect the project’s returns are input. The computer then randomly selects one observation from each category. All of the observations are combined and the NPV or IRR is calculated from those figures. Simulation gives a range of outcomes as well as the probability of the outcomes. It provides the total risk level of a project.

The multifunctional nature of Operations Management requires a high level of process- and system-based synchronization across many different departments and divisions to be successful. The structural organization of the US Army is heavily dependent on Operations Management for missions to be accomplished, and long-term strategic visions to be attained (VanVactor, 2007). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how the five areas of accounting, industrial engineering, management, management science and statistics, in conjunction with critical path analysis and linear programming, are used extensively throughout the US Army's supply chain operations.

The issues inherent in the simulation are not textbook problems or questions in which answers are cut and dried and determined quickly.

(Bowersox, D.J., Closs, D.J., and Cooper, M.B. (2010). Supply Chain Logistics Management. (3rd Edition) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.