ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 introduced simulation as a flexible and general approach for analyzing business processes. This chapter continues to explore the use of simulation by focusing on how to actually build discrete-event simulation models of real business processes using a commercial simulation software package called ExtendSim.* By applying tools like this (ExtendSim is only one of many available on the market), it is relatively easy to create discrete-event simulation models of complex real processes, to use these models to analyze process performance, and to evaluate alternative designs. Hence, discrete-event simulation modeling can be a very useful tool in designing complex business processes that exhibit uncertainty and variation.
