BHP Billiton is the world's largest diversified resources company. BHP developed a Strategic Value Chain management

simulation to allow the organization to input market information and demand, and cascade this demand down the value chain to

identify how and where resources needed to be drawn from, and to what extent the organization was required to restructure its

distribution. At the same time, the simulation allows management to explore with various strategic policies, like adding a

new mine, adding a new alloy plant, adding and/or changing the distribution lines, etc. The results of the simulation have

been very good, and it is today used across the organization within all the main segments of the value chain, as well as for

a top-level management view on the entire value chain.

Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of

fast moving consumer goods across food, home and personal product categories. Their products are distributed in 30 countries.

We've been doing a lot of thinking about simulations for Unilever and we feel that it could radically transform the

way they launch new products. It will help them figure out which marketing initiatives to pursue and when to do them. Why?

Partly because of the power of simulation science for capturing insights into the soft and fuzzy -- Is the advertising great

or does it suck? Will consumers love our product or just think it's so-so? Will Wal-Mart gives us more shelf space than our

competitors? What other brands of ours will we cannibalize and how much? We can simulate a thousand different worlds,

identify the most likely and then make it happen.

More details here:

href="http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com/">http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com

Finding this

information out has proven to be rather tricky. Simulation companies are pretty tight-lipped organizations. Maybe because of

all their ties to military work??

Anyway, it seems that inidividuals can purchase games (£20-£125),

software (£30 - £800) and books (£20-£60). The price range for individuals to purchase simulation

software spans a wide and not so clearly understandable range. For example, you can buy mystrategy for £65

and do 80% of your analytical work or you can drop something like $2000 (USD) on buying the same type of software from

Powersim? Go figure. Why buy Powersim Studio? Well, two reasons I suppose: (1) you need to create links between SAP-SEM (or

BW) and your simulation; or (2) you need to create an enterprise level simulation.

But WAIT...you can use any

system dynamics software (vensim, iSee, Powersim, myStrategy) and strip out the equations (think of the equations as a

programming language) and compile them into executable code, slap on a slick web interface and BOOM you've got yourself a

networked simulation ready to go! HVR has a simulation compiler -- talk to Dr. Dave

Exelby -- email me and I'll send you

his details.

Off-the-shelf simulations for training are becoming very popular. Most organizations spend

between £3,000 - £15,000 licensing simulation games for their internal training programs in strategy, business

administration, marketing, finance and others.

Simulation projects completed by HVR Consulting Services and others in the space range from £25,000 two-day working workshops to

£2.5 million IT system roll-outs for banks, oil & gas, FMCG and pharmaceutical companies. The average project fee

to develop a custom simulation to help management improve their decision making is ~£223,000 (based on analysis of

eight companies in the simulation space).To use three of GSD's simulation

games (unlimited, permanent use) would require a £28,350 investment on the part of the organization.

To use all of their simulations (unlimited, permanent use) would require a £73,800 investment.

Pricing and

licensing for using simulations in your training are flexible. GSD offers two ways of buying:

More details here:

href="http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com/">http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com

Procter & Gamble is

a $38 billion corporation that controls and consumes a great many assets and raw materials, processes them along parallel and

intersecting pathways, and produces a large variety of wares that it then distributes all over the world.

In 1998,

some senior managers wondered if their "earth-to-earth" supply chain - the long trail of resource allocation, manufacturing,

distribution, and customer consumption - might not be streamlined somehow. Even an incremental increase in its overall

supply-chain efficiency, they knew, could yield enormous savings and higher profits.

More details here:

http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com

Simulation

Science specialists work with clients to build a custom simulation of the problem being studied to assist decision-makers in

seeing the complexity of the situation so they can 'rise' above it and focus on activities that benefit the entire

company.

For a telecom we build a simulation tool that enables the future performance of the company to be

estimated based on the implementation of different Customer Management strategies.

We pulled together the

resources to support:

• A process to gain a shared understanding of the drivers, issues and potential options

• A simulation that can quantify and trade off competing options

Customer Management strategies will

impact on the telecom's performance as measured by KPIs. However the KPIs should not be viewed as independent.

class="MsoNormal">Hi everyone,

It is a difficult challenge to sell and market simulation and system dynamics. As a

sales agent for several simulation firms, I thought I’d share some of my thinking.

I'd love to get feedback from

the community. justin1028@yahoo.com

When we’re meeting with executives,

we try to focus on the challenges they are facing. It might be a desire to improve the output of an oil field or to cut

operational costs in a bank by closing branches or to optimise marketing spending across a portfolio of brands.

More details here:

href="http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com/">http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com

Simulation Science,

in my mental model, is the application of 'linear science' **AND** 'nonlinear science' to solving problems in the real

world. Companies with investments in SAP-SEM BPS are extremely well-positioned to take advantage of the power of simulation

for radically improving the management of complex supply chains and global enterprises.

More details here:

href="http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com/">http://justinlyonandsimulation.blogspot.com

For the past fifty

years or so, Simulation Science has been extremely niche. That is going to change. We are at the tipping point

for Simulation Science.

The seeds of simulation

science were sown in the 1940's and 50's. Pioneers such as Noel Wiener, A. Rosenblueth, J. Bigelow, J. Von Neuman, M.

Mead, W. McCulloch, W. Pitts, J. Lettvin, L. Von Bertalanfy, J. Rachewsky and A. Rappaport spawned scientific theories

and numerous innovations including cybernetics, data processing, controls, servomechanisms, bionics, industrial robots,

and artificial intelligence. By the early 1960's, the advent of computers provided visionaries such as Jay Forrester with

the tools to unlock the mysteries of complex systems. Over the next three decades, Donella Meadows and Peter Senge

popularized insights from system studies. In the late 1990's, John Sterman and Kim Warren codified simulation insights into

practical management science.

Companies with

investments in SAP-SEM can easily develop simulations for improving their company’s performance into the future. For

the past fifty years or so, Simulation Science has been extremely niche. That is going to change. We are at the tipping point

for Simulation Science.