COMPARING MODEL DEVELOPMENT IN （比较模型的发展）.pdf

Proceedings of the 2009 Winter Simulation Conference M. D. Rossetti, R. R. Hill, B. Johansson, A. Dunkin and R. G. Ingalls, eds. COMPARING MODEL DEVELOPMENT IN DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION AND SYSTEM DYNAMICS Antuela A. Tako Stewart Robinson Warwick Business School University of Warwick Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom ABSTRACT This paper provides an empirical study on the comparison of model building in Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) and System Dynamics (SD). Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA) is used to study the model building process of ten expert modellers (5 SD and 5 DES). Participants are asked to build a simulation model based on a prison population case study and to think aloud while modelling. The generated verbal protocols are divided into 7 modelling topics: problem structuring, conceptual model- ling, data inputs, model coding, validation verification, results experimentation and implementation and then analyzed. Our results suggest that all modellers switch between modelling topics, however DES modellers follow a more linear pro- gression compared to SD modellers. DES modellers focus significantly more on model coding and verification validation, whereas SD modellers on conceptual modelling. This quantitative analysis of the processes followed by expert modellers contributes towards the comparison of DES and SD modelling. 1 INTRODUCTION Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) and System Dynamics (SD) are two established simulation approaches in Operational Re- search (OR). Both simulation approaches started and evolved almost simultaneously with the advent of computers, but very little communication existed between these fields (Sweetser 19