• Course Instructor: Laura Genga - Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)

      Course Title: Business Process Simulation

      When: 4-15 December


      Aims of the course

      After this minicourse the student is able to: 

      • Apply the concepts and methodology for a simulation study designed to answer questions about the performance of operational processes.
      • Formulate a problem and the assumptions made, based on a case description.
      • Design a conceptual model using Petri-nets and UML in order to give a precise specification of the behavior of the operational process that must be analyzed by means of simulation.
      • Implement an executable model in SimPN, for a given conceptual model.
      • Design sound simulation experiments (number of simulation replications, cope with randomness, warm-up period, dependencies) using knowledge on statistics.
      • Analyze data from a simulation and to derive statistically valid observations on the average behavior of the system.

      Content (sketch):

      In this mini-course, you learn to analyse, evaluate and improve the performance of business processes (e.g. throughput time, utilization) by using discrete event simulation. Simulation is an extremely valuable tool in situations where analytical mathematical techniques such as queueing theory are not precise enough, and it’s is one of the most widely used operations research and management science techniques. 

      Simulation models are the backbones of digital twins, which are becoming an increasingly critical tool for organizations to manage and improve their processes effectively. This mini-course couples theoretical knowledge with practice. You will be given a realistic case, for which you will have to derive a working simulation model to answer performance related questions, following the step-wise methodology introduced in the lectures. The mini-course will also cover the statistical aspects of simulation: reliability of results, estimating variance reduction and run length, determining simulation parameters and so on.

    • Course Timetable

      • 04/12/2025 12:30-14:30, Room: 2AB45;
      • 05/12/2025 12:30-14:30, Room: 2AB45;
      • 10/12/2025 11:30-13:30, Room: P1B (Paolotti);
      • 11/12/2025 12:30-14:30, Room: 2AB45;
      • 12/12/2025 12:30-14:30, Room: 2AB45;
      • 15/12/2025 10:30-12:30, Room: 1BC45. 
    • Course materials