OptQuest for SIMUL8
How it Works
Suppose the simulation user wants to know:
- What is the most cost effective inventory policy?
- What is the best workforce allocation?
- What is the most productive operating schedule?
Answers to such questions require examination of multiple scenarios. Each scenario requiring some modification to your simulation model. To investigate every possible scenario can be very time consuming. Knowing what decision scenarios should be investigated makes this task far more effective.
OptQuest for SIMUL8 lets the user specify a variety of relationships to determine the optimal decisions. For example:
- ranges of key parameters
- budget limitations
- machine capacities
- minimum and maximum lot sizes
- limits on hours worked
OptQuest for SIMUL8 then isolates scenarios that will yield the highest quality outcomes according to the criteria set by the user. These scenarios are passed to SIMUL8 for evaluation.
Based on SIMUL8's outputs OptQuest for SIMUL8 measures the merit of the inputs that were fed into the model. On the basis of both current and past evaluations, the optimization procedure decides upon a new set of input values.
The process continues until an appropriate termination criterion is satisfied (usually based on the user's preference for the amount of time to be devoted to the search).