Ad Hoc Optimization

The goal of ad hoc optimization is

• to adjust specific parameters of a simulation configuration quickly and
• evaluate the effect of these changes in a simulation run, e.g.

to evaluate how the reduction of available resources would affect the average total process duration.

Optimization Sliders

Adding the Optimizer View

To adjust selected parameters for optimization, you must display the Optimizer View via Window > Show View > Other ... and the following selection in the Show View pop-up dialog

which should open the optimizer view as follows

You now may add optimization sliders to this view.

Adding Sliders

For the parameters

1. availability of a resource,
2. arrival rates of processes,
3. efficiency rates of resources and
4. duration of activities

optimization sliders can be added to the optimizer view. For 1. and 2. the sliders represent a factor multiplied with the distribution of availabilities or arrival rates over time.

All sliders are added to the optimizer view by pushing the slider button

in the various simulation property pages. The following pop up-dialog will be opened to enter properties for the slider to be created:

• Label for the label of the parameter represented by this slider,
• Lower Value for its lower value
• Upper Value for its upper value and
• Resolution for the tick resolution.

After specifying these properties and pushing OK, the slider should appear in the optimizer view:

You can now adjust the specified parameters of the simulation configuration and (re)run the simulation multiple times to observe the effect of changing the parameter.

Pinning Simulation Run Results

To pin the results of a simulation run and compare it with a subsequent run, push the pinning button

in the simulation view. After rerunning the simulation, the results of the pinned run are displayed in parenthesis: