Health Care Operations and Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Operations, Planning, and Control

CHAPTER 6

SIMULATION

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand process flows and how to create a process flow diagram.
• Understand the basics of discrete and continuous probability distributions and how they are used in the context of simulation.
• Understand the characteristics of good random number generators and how they are used in the context of simulation.
• Understand what is meant by discrete-event versus continuous simulation.
• Understand the basics of Monte Carlo simulation.
• Understand basic concepts of queuing theory, including how to model arrival and service processes, possible queue disciplines, and applications of Little’s formula.

INTRODUCTION

Simulation is a tool that utilizes a model of an existing or proposed system to determine the impacts ...