[工程科技]Chapter 8 Modeling and Simulation.pdf

Chapter 8. Modeling and Simulation J. Will M. Bertrand and Jan C. Fransoo Department of Technology Management, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands. 8.1 Introduction Quantitative Modeling has been the basis of most of the initial research in operations, labeled as Operational Research in Europe, and was the basis of initial management consulting and Operations Research in the USA. Initially, quantitative modeling in Operational Research was oriented very much towards solving real-life problems in operations management rather than towards developing scientific knowledge. Later however, especially in the USA a strong academic research line in operations research has emerged in the 1960s, working on more idealized problems and thus building scientific knowledge in operations management. During that same period however, much of this research lost its empirical foundations, and research methods have been primarily developed for these more or less theoretical research lines, leaving the more empirically oriented research lines for more than 30 years in the blue with regard to research methodology. Recently, this tide has however turned, and the need to develop explanatory and predictive theory regarding operational processes and operations management has become apparent. Articles have been published that formulate requirements for theory development in operations management (Schmenner and Swink (1998), Amundson (1998), Wacker (1998)) or that try to connect the knowledge generated along the various research lines into a more general theoretical framework (Melnyk and Handfield, 1998b). The ideas in this Chapter are based on Bertrand and Fransoo (2001). In this Chapter, we will give an overview of quan