Simulation Project Characteristics in Industrial Settings

In a survey of practitioners of discrete-event simulation from industry and research institutes who “build models for money,” we asked about project goals, user backgrounds and training, organizational types and activities, software and hardware choices, modeling team composition, and effort allocation within a modeling project. We found that (1) only about half of the practitioners have three or more years experience, (2) many academics feel strongly affiliated with their industry clients rather than with their university employers, (3) shop-floor supervisors rarely lead simulation projects, even though their knowledge of the system may be unparalleled, (4)simulation models are generally described as unique custom models, yet practitioners indicate that they commonly build similar models, (5) although simulators (parameter-driven simulation environments that require no user coding) are now available, few respondents indicate using any simulators for simulation projects.