What makes this book different? This book is different than most. First, it's written in what might be called a participatory style. You don't sit and read the book without a computer loaded with SIMIO. This book expects your active participation in using SIMIO as you turn the pages. We try to carry on a conversation with you. Our belief is that simulation is not a spectator sport. You have to practice to gain skill with it and you develop that skill through modeling practice. This book encourages you to practice and use your skill.
Second, this book is focused on simulation modeling with SIMIO and most of the statistical analysis and analytical issues are left as topics to be explored elsewhere. Now it's not that we don't think these are important, because they are vital (and when we teach simulation, they are a fundamental part of the course). But we aren't going to spend much time on these topics here, since there are excellent simulation books that can fill our omission.
Active learning: Our intent is that you become an active learner and, as our title suggests, you "work" as you read. Our classroom experience is that students learn most by "doing", so this workbook is centered about "labs" - which our students do during class. The chapters in this book generally correspond to one lab. If you are not in a classroom, but want to learn SIMIO on your own, we think you will find this approach attractive for self-learning. You can work through a chapter in an evening.
Organization of this book: This book is conceptually organized so you build models quickly. In the first five chapters, we concentrate of the use of the Standard Library Objects in SIMIO. You can do a lot of simulation modeling without resorting to more complex concepts. Then the next seven chapters show you how to extend the standard objects using processes. Learning how to extend the objects gives you more modeling flexibility without having to invent your own library of objects. In the later chapters, we discuss the creation of new objects and the modification of existing objects within SIMIO and show you the power of its object-oriented capabilities.
The book is designed to be read from chapter to chapter, although it may be possible to pick out certain concepts and topics. In the beginning chapters we construct models rather directly without much explanation as to why certain features are chosen. In the later chapters we provide more explanation on why the modeling features are chosen and what else might be done. Some later chapters return to topics that were previously introduced, but we try to present them in more detail. Some redundancy is helpful in learning. By the time you have finished this book you should be well-prepared to build models in SIMIO and to understand the virtues of different modeling approaches.
At the end of most chapters, we offer commentary on topics presented. We will emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of the modeling approach and the language (we have no financial stake in SIMIO). The designers of SIMIO were also the designers of Arena and there are Arena fingerprints on SIMIO. Since a number of you will be migrating from Arena, we will provide some observations on these "fingerprints." However, be prepared to go well beyond what you have learned in Arena or in any other simulation language. SIMIO has a far more modern "look and feel" and, in our opinion, is generally superior to most other simulation language choices.
