I taught a one-on-one ExtendSim class where a student asked about ONLINE resources a new modeler should be aware of. Great question. It was an interesting discussion I want to share.
One of the online resources I suggested was the Winter Simulation Conference Proceeding archives. Coincidentally, I noticed that the proceedings from the last conference (2017) has recently been posted. There are papers on basic simulation concepts that is a must read for everyone! Even for the advanced modeler, these concepts are a great refresher from time to time. Here is the short list of suggestions.
Winter Simulation Conference Proceedings (https://informs-sim.org/)
- A Tutorial on How to Select Simulation Input Probability Distributions by Averill Law (2016)
- Inside Discrete-event Simulation Software: How It Works and Why It Matters by Tom Schriber (2017)
- A Tutorial on Simulation Conceptual Modeling by Stewart Robinson (2017)
- A Tutorial on the Operational Validation of Simulation Models by Robert Sargent (2016)
- A Practical Look at Simulation Project Management by Joseph Hugan (2014)
- Information and Process Modeling for Simulation by Gerd Wagner (2014)
- How to Build Valid and Credible Simulation Models by Averill M. Law (2009)
There are also many advanced topics that I think are interesting that you can find information on WSC. I recently become interested in agent based simulation. I attended several presentations on this topic this past year at WSC. After attending these presentations and doing some studying up on the topic, I built an ABS model myself in ExtendSim. I discovered ExtendSim was a great fit for a certain type of agent based models. I used some of the advanced database features along with the Queue Equation block and the Query Equation blocks. If anyone is interested in agent based modeling then I suggest you look up the WSC paper below and look for other good articles on the WSC website.
- Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation by Charles M. Macal and Michael J. North (2015)
I also pointed out to my student there are lots of papers on actual customer models. We did a search together on the site and found his company had published a few papers on WSC about a decade ago. What a coincidence. It turned out to be a great resource for him.
Here are other great online resources.
- ExtendSim Exchange
- ExtendSim YouTube Channel
- ExtendSim Vimeo Channel
- LinkedIn ExtendSim Group (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1705447)
- SimSavvy Blog
- ExtendSim Industries Page
You might be reading this post on either Linked In or the Blogspot - so you might know about one and not the other - so I posted both. And if you have other online resources that I have not mentioned then please share by adding it!