Key performance indicators for successful simulation projects

There are many factors that may contribute to the successful delivery of a simulation project. To provide a structured approach to assessing the impact various factors have on project success, we propose a top-down framework whereby 15 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are developed that represent the level of successfulness of simulation projects from various perspectives. They are linked to a set of Critical Success Factors (CSF) as reported in the simulation literature. A single measure called Project’s Success Measure (PSM), which represents the project’s total success level, is proposed. The framework is tested against 9 simulation exemplar cases in healthcare and this provides support for its reliability. The results suggest that responsiveness to the customer’s needs and expectations, when compared with other factors, holds the strongest association with the overall success of simulation projects. The findings highlight some patterns about the significance of individual CSFs, and how the KPIs are used to identify problem areas in simulation projects

Simulation in manufacturing and business: A review

Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.This paper reports the results of a review of simulation applications published within peer-reviewed literature between 1997 and 2006 to provide an up-to-date picture of the role of simulation techniques within manufacturing and business. The review is characterised by three factors: wide coverage, broad scope of the simulation techniques, and a focus on real-world applications. A structured methodology was followed to narrow down the search from around 20,000 papers to 281. Results include interesting trends and patterns. For instance, although discrete event simulation is the most popular technique, it has lower stakeholder engagement than other techniques, such as system dynamics or gaming. This is highly correlated with modelling lead time and purpose. Considering application areas, modelling is mostly used in scheduling. Finally, this review shows an increasing interest in hybrid modelling as an approach to cope with complex enterprise-wide systems

Modelling and simulation techniques for supporting healthcare decision making : a selection framework

The development of this workbook has been led by a team of researchers from five UK universities with a grant from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). They are investigating the use of modelling and simulation in healthcare as part of the RIGHT (Research Into Global Healthcare Tools) project. The workbook was developed following an extensive review of literature on the application of modelling and simulation in healthcare and other safety- critical industries, supplemented by the team’s extensive expertise of modelling and simulation in healthcare. In order to produce this summary guide, thousands of articles were categorised according to the techniques used, when they were used, and with what resources.peer-reviewe

Causal factors of low stakeholder engagement: A survey of expert opinions in the context of healthcare simulation projects

While simulation methods have proved to be very effective in identifying efficiency gains, low stakeholder engagement creates a significant limitation on the achievement of simulation modeling projects in practice. This study reports causal factors—at two hierarchical levels (i.e., primary and secondary)—that could significantly affect low stakeholder engagement in healthcare simulation projects. A self-completed questionnaire was administered online to 91 experts in the field from whom 37 responded. The results were reinforced using a bootstrapped sample (n = 1000). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Kendal’s tau-b correlations, and non-linear multiple regression. Based on our research, while such factors as “communication gap”, “stakeholders’ high workload”, and “too much complexity involved” represent the most significant primary causal factors, some others such as “reluctance to change” proved interestingly insignificant. The research suggests that high-impact public health projects can exemplify the areas that will potentially generate engagement in the healthcare simulation domain

Simulation in manufacturing and business: A review

This paper reports the results of a review of simulation applications published within peer-reviewed literature between 1997 and 2006 to provide an up-to-date picture of the role of simulation techniques within manufacturing and business. The review is characterised by three factors: wide coverage, broad scope of the simulation techniques, and a focus on real-world applications. A structured methodology was followed to narrow down the search from around 20,000 papers to 281. Results include interesting trends and patterns. For instance, although discrete event simulation is the most popular technique, it has lower stakeholder engagement than other techniques, such as system dynamics or gaming. This is highly correlated with modelling lead time and purpose. Considering application areas, modelling is mostly used in scheduling. Finally, this review shows an increasing interest in hybrid modelling as an approach to cope with complex enterprise-wide systems.Simulation System dynamics Modelling methods Business and manufacturing

RF Generator up to 4.4 GHz with ADF4350

The aim of this work is design, realization, and measurement of wideband microwave generator, which is based on the ADF4350 frequency synthesizers. The generator uses the principle of mixing, for frequencies up to 2.2GHz. Higher frequencies are obtained through direct channels. The first part describes the theory of phase locked loop . The following section describes the parameters of the ADF4350 and their management. A PCB was also designed to control the generator with Atmel s AVR AT-mega32. The Generator software is written in AVR Studio in C programming language. The realized generator is housed in a stainless steel box and can be controlled using the keyboard and PC

Simulation in health-care: lessons from other sectors

This paper compares the results of broad-range literature reviews over the period 1997–2006 on the application of simulation in three sectors: commerce, defence, and health-care. The main purpose of these reviews is to see whether there are lessons to learn from the first two sectors to be applied in the health-care sector. Results of our reviews show that, simulation has been commonly used in the three sectors; however, there is clear evidence of lack of consistency in the level of implementation. More specifically, healthcare lags behind the other two sectors, particularly in terms of stakeholder engagement and, consequently, in terms of implementation of simulation outcomes. This paper provides key insights into some challenges in applying simulation methods in healthcare, whilst presenting an up-to-date “big picture” of simulation in three main sectors from an academic point of view