Simulation Software Key Terms

Learn about simulation software and its components

Simulation software is a great tool for many businesses that want to determine future outcomes in business ventures. Simulation software can serve a variety of purposes, from predicting the changes needed in a budget to helping estimate costs for a new product launch. Often, simulation software is the starting point for businesses to make plans. Simulation software works on a number of complex algorithms and key information to help make use of the information provided.

Templates

Templates in simulation software provide companies with a way to easily input information to determine a specific outcome. Most simulation software titles provide a variety of templates for basic and advanced simulation processes.

Models

Models in simulation differ from templates in that models offer a chance to create a continuous budget or business process, while a template offers only a one-time simulation.
University of Baltimore offers information on modeling and simulations in simulation software.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a method of simulation in business that specifically does away with many defects in data to find a near-perfect measure of quality. This method is used in simulation software to help save money and better predict actual costs of projects.

Supply chain processes

Another function of simulation software is the ability to create, organize and maintain successful supply chain processes in a business. The supply chain process is the way that products go from a company into the hands of the consumer.
Supply Chain Council offers the Supply Chains Operations Reference (SCOR) model used by many types of simulation software to help improve supply chain processes.

Causal relationships

Causal relationships are the relationships where one action is directly related to the cause of another action. Causal relationships in simulation software help determine outcomes by predicting where the causal relationships are in the topic being simulated.

Cycle times

The cycle time of a simulation is the time that it takes a simulation process to complete.
University of Southern California offers a detailed examination of using simulation and modeling software to predict processes in software development.

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