• Business Process Management
• Health Care
• Human Resources
• Call Center
• Logistics/Supply Chain
• SIMPROCESS Features
• Demonstration Models

SIMPROCESS Features

			Electronic Commerce
			External Entity Feature
			Decision Support Interface Entity Feature
			Rational Rose Interface Feature

Electronic Commerce Demonstration Model

Project Statement

This model was presented at a conference as a demonstration of how SIMPROCESS can be applied to eComm implementation. It represents a fictitious company that receives orders for three products - A, B and C. In the model each order will be processed twice, once using the brick and mortar approach and the other time incorporating real time access to the company's inventory levels, a click and order approach.

The focus of this model was to show how the ability to have real time access to existing inventory provides a better estimate of the delivery date. If an item is in stock it will be delivered faster and more accurate information of inventory levels will lead to higher accuracy of the predicted delivery time.

The model does not have much depth, but it shows the "As-Is" process (Brick and Mortar Process) and the "To-Be" approach (Click and Order Process) running at the same time with the order numbers updated on the screen. Building to a real model from a demo version would allow the user to build the business case and determine the number of operators needed, as well as quantify savings.

CACI Services Involvement

SIMPROCESS was used to build the simulation model.

Deliverables

The model was for demonstration purposes only.

Results

This demo model was run for approximately two and a half years (simulation time). In that time 67,737 orders were placed for either product A, B or C. The two different processes produced dramatically different results.

• The Brick and Mortar Process predicted 75% of the items ordered were in stock and therefore would be delivered UPS within two business days. The other 25% were not in stock so they would be delivered within five business days. However, when the simulation was run the company was not that accurate with its results. Almost 15% of their deliveries were later than promised. The company predicted 75% of the items would be delivered within two days but only 70% actually were. Likewise, 25% of the orders were five-day deliveries but only 15% arrived in time.
• The Click and Order Process produced much more favorable results. The company predicted 80% of the orders were in stock and would be delivered within two business days. The simulation run showed close to 78% of those orders arrived in the time promised. In addition, the company promised the other 20% of the orders would be delivered within five business days and close to 17% were delivered in this time frame. In the Click and Order Process only 5% of all orders arrived later than expected.

The strength of simulation modeling comes from comparing the two processes. The Brick and Mortar Process produced three times as many late deliveries as the Click and Order Process, a total of 6741 late deliveries. It is safe to conclude that having real time access to a company's inventory levels produces more accurate delivery predictions. In addition, SIMPROCESS would allow a company the ability to quickly configure the current demo model to more closely resemble their actual process and look at different configurations of resources, product flow, etc.

It is important to remember in this case that this is a demo model only. It would require much more input to accurately represent an actual business process.

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External Entity Generation

The "Two Models Talking" example is an illustration of external entity generation in SIMPROCESS. This feature allows the user to develop portions of a model and distribute them to separate computers to share the workload without writing any Java code. The user simply has to use the External Schedules in one model and the RemoteCall feature in the other.

Download Two Models (A and B) in Zip Format - 2ModelsTalkingEx.zip

The "TwoModelsWorkingA" model has expression scripts in the "Create SW Invoice" and "Create HW Invoice" activities that do RemoteCalls to the "TwoModelsWorkingB" external schedule in the "Receive Orders" activity. These expression scripts define where the entities are sent in the other model by naming its RMI address and model activity name. Therefore, when software and hardware orders enter these activities an entity is generated in "TwoModelsWorkingB."

The expression script in the "Create SW Invoice" looks like this

>> mybool:BOOLEAN;
    mybool:=RemoteCall("rmi://localhost/",
    "SPServer","generateEntity","TwoModelsTalkingB","Receive Orders","External1",
    "Software", -1,1);
<<

The "TwoModelsWorkingB" model has an expression script in the "Send Order to Company B" activity that does a RemoteCall back to the "Receive Orders" for company B. All of the entities that arrive from "TwoModelsWorkingA" are processed and a portion of them is returned to company B - approximately 75%.

To run these models the user must

1. Run the "startmireg.bat" file - this file starts the Java RMI registry and listens for calls from other applications
2. Run the "SPServer.bat" file" - this file starts a Java program that holds user defined methods
3. Start the "TwoModelsWorkingB" model
4. Start the "TwoModelsWorkingA" model

Note: The models need to be started in this order! The "TwoModelsWorkingA" model acts as a master model and controls the statistics and the simulation clock. The other model simply performs the activities when it is called.

While these models are not extremely complex, they show illustrate how separate models can be hooked together to form an integrated modeling environment across a network.

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Decision Support Interface Demonstration Models

Download Decision Support Interface Model and Database - DecisionSupport.zip

The Decision Support Interface is a new feature made available in SIMPROCESS. It helps decision makers/managers take decisions without having to indulge in model building and posses any prior knowledge of simulation. All they have to do is alter some of the model inputs like number of machines, cost per machine, number of QA personnel, etc. and click on the "Run SIMPROCESS Model" button. The model simulates and key results like "Turnaround Time" and "Total Cost" are reported. This gives the decision maker/manager insight of their current/future operational performance. By experimenting with different scenarios a tradeoff analysis can be performed and the decision maker/manager can choose from an alternative that best fits the budget.

When to use it?

Ideal for a decision maker/manager to

• Perform tradeoff analysis
• Run multiple scenarios and take a decision based on quantitative measures
• Get quick insight on the performance of the current/future system

How to use it?

• Store the SimprocDemoDB in the Program Files/SIMPROCESS/SPUSER directory and the Demo3.spm model in the Program Files/SIMPROCESS/models directory
• Open up properties of the ODBC Data Source Administrator by selecting Start/Settings/Control Panel/Administrative Tools
• Create a new data source by clicking on the "Add" button
• Select Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) and click on the "Finish" button
• The Data Source Name field should be named Demo
• Click on Database:Select and browse to the SimprocDemoDB located in your SPUSER directory. Highlight this file
• Close out by clicking on "OK" three times. This will establish the connection
• Open the Demo3.spm model using SIMPROCESS
• Close down the SIMPROCESS application
• Double click on the SimprocDemoDB located in the SPUSER directory (you may want to create a short cut on the desktop)
• Right mouse click anywhere on the "Run Model" workspace and select "Form Design"
• Scroll down and right mouse click on the "Run SIMPROCESS Model" button
• Select Properties/Event/On Click
• Click on the ellipses button
• Start from the beginning of the code and change your path name. It should say Program Files\SIMPROCESS x.x\ (whatever name was given to the installation directory i.e., SIMPROCESS, SIMPROCESS 4.0, etc.)
• Make this change thrice across the top and once in the middle (about 15 lines from the top)
• Click Microsoft Visual Basic saving changes
• Click on the "View" button located on the task bar (first button from the left)
• Close MS Access saving changes
• Reopen MS Access
• Assign values to the number/cost of Polishing Machines and QA Shifts
• Click on "Run SIMPROCESS Model" and await results
• Run multiple scenarios and compare based on available budget and "Turnaround Time" requirements

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Rational Rose Interface Demonstration Model

Rational Rose Use Case diagrams connections can be defined in a SIMPROCESS model, resulting in seamless business process and system requirement definition.

1. Import/Export integration with Rational Rose
   • Exports process models to UML Activity Diagrams via XMI
   • Exports entity and resource definitions as Classes to Rose via XMI
2. Active integration with Rational Rose
   • Provides the capability for the user to connect nodes on the SIMPROCESS model directly to a Rose Use Case diagram via Rose Extensibility Interface and Rose Automation OLE Server
3. Exported HTML views of the SIMPROCESS models are directly linked to Rational Rose exported HTML models to provide wide area review by stakeholders of the business process models in a seamless manner with Rose Use Case models
4. Ties the manual process steps and the automated process steps (supported by Use Case links) together so that the system requirements are in complete context with the business process
5. Provides a seamless flow from business process modeling and simulation analysis to systems models in Rose

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