1) What key factors of a business situation indicate the need for simulation (versus the other modeling techniques covered in the course)? 2) Describe the key differences between simulation models and...

Simulation is used to model efficiently a wide variety of systems that are important to managers.
A simulation is basically an imitation, a model that imitates a real-world process or system. In business and
management, decision makers are often concerned with the operating characteristics of a system. One way to
measure or assess the operating characteristics of a system is to observe that system in actual operation.
However, in many types of situations the cost of direct observation can be very high. Furthermore, changing
some of the relationships or parameters within a system on an experimental basis may mean waiting a
considerable amount of time to collect results on all the combinations that are of concern to the decision
maker.
In business and management, a simulation is a mathematical imitation of a real-world system. The use of
computers to conduct simulations is not essential from a theoretical standpoint. However, most...