7.2: Points Made in the Case Study

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This application study shows how the trade-off between competing factors such as minimizing lead time and minimizing buffer space can be assessed using simulation.

Generally accepted analytic and experimental results are applied in the design of a first simulation experiment. Justification for using equally sized buffers is based on these results. Performance measure values from this first experiment are used in designing additional experiments.

Sometimes a statistically significant improvement in system performance is not operationally meaningful. Doubling the buffer size leads to a small reduction in lead time. Though statistically significant, the amount of the increase is not operationally meaningful.

The benefit of evolving new models from existing models is shown. Models of serial systems are evolved from the model of the single workstation presented in chapter 6.