Simulation and the logistics systems laboratory

Systems analysis is the term used to describe the study of large and complex systems. An example would be the problem involved in the employment and support of new weapon systems and the selection among alternative weapon systems for achieving given strategic or tactical objectives. Several techniques have been used in systems analysis, ranging in degree of abstraction from collection and statistical analysis of data gathered in field tests to highly abstract mathematical models and analysis. An intermediate approach in this spectrum of abstraction is called simulation. Its use has been bettered significantly by the availability of electronic computers, which permit the specification of the environment in sufficient detail to obtain good correspondence between the characteristics of the simulated system and the system under study, and by the rapid calculation of the simulated system to study its characteristics. Simulation itself consists of a variety of alternative and complementary techniques for simulating systems. One such method is “game‐simulation” — the principal topic of this paper. The joint and integrated use of people and computers to simulate complex man‐machine systems characterizes game‐simulation. This paper compares game‐simulation with other simulation techniques; describes its use inlogistics research; explains the results obtained in analyzing logistics systems; and gives the advantages and disadvantages of the technique at its present state of development.