Ascertaining Important Features of the JAPROSIM Simulation Library

This paper describes important features of JAPROSIM, a free and open source simulation library implemented in Java programming language. It provides a framework for building discrete event simulation models. The process interaction world view adopted by JAPROSIM is discussed. We present the architecture and major components of the simulation library. In order to ascertain important features of JAPROSIM, examples are given. Further motivations are discussed and suggestions for improving our work are given.

A discrete event simulation-based methodology for building a digital twin of patient pathways in the hospital for near real-time monitoring and predictive simulation

Background: Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is one of the many tools and methods used in the analysis and improvement of healthcare services. Indeed, DES provides perhaps the most powerful and intuitive method for analyzing, evaluating, and improving complex healthcare systems. This paper highlights the process of developing a Digital Twin (DT) framework based on online DES to run the DES model in parallel with the real world in real-time. Methods: This paper suggests a new methodology that uses DES connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) devices to build a DT platform of patient pathways in a hospital for near real-time monitoring and predictive simulation. An experimental platform that mimics the behavior of a hospital has been used to validate this methodology. Results: The application of the proposed methodology allowed us to test the monitoring functionality in the DT. Therefore, we noticed that the DT behaves exactly as the emulator does in near real-time, we also tested the prediction functionality and we noticed that the DT provides us with a proactive overview for the near future of the patient pathways. The predictive functionality of this DT must be improved depending on the various reasons mentioned in this article. Conclusions: This paper presents a new methodology called HospiT'Win that uses DES and IoT devices to develop a DT of patient pathways in hospitals. This DT consists of two real-time models, a DT for Monitoring (DTM) and a DT for Predicting (DTP). An experimental platform with an emulator of a real hospital was used to validate this methodology before connecting to the real hospital. In the DTP, "dynamic" empirical distributions were used to perform a predictive simulation for the near future. In future research, some additional features and machine learning algorithms will be used to improve the proposed DT models.

Past challenges and the future of discrete event simulation

The American scientist Carl Sagan once said: “You have to know the past to understand the present.” We argue that having a meaningful dialogue on the future of simulation requires a baseline understanding of previous discussions on its future. For this paper, we conduct a review of the discrete event simulation (DES) literature that focuses on its future to understand better the path that DES has been following, both in terms of who is using simulation and what directions they think DES should take. Our review involves a qualitative literature review of DES and a quantitative bibliometric analysis of the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) literature. The results from the bibliometric study imply that demographics of the M&S community are rapidly changing, both in terms of the nations that use M&S and the academic disciplines from which new simulationists hail. This change in demographics has the potential to help aid the community face some of its future challenges. Our qualitative literature review indicates that DES still faces some significant challenges: these include integrating human behavior; using simulation for exploration, not replication; determining return on investment; and communication issues across a splitting community.

Discrete event simulation applied to single queue management: a case study at a bank agency

Capacity and queue management are currently used in financial institutions. With decreasing bank units due to internet services, research in this field has focused on improving to utilize their employees efficiently and achieve service excellence. In developing countries like Brazil, the customer has become more bank-accounted due to government and labor requirements, such as the wage credit became mandatory in the wage account. The paper's aim is motivated by a real-life case study to simulate discrete events to improve queue management at a Brazilian bank branch with the Arena software simulation environment. The simulation model was designed, tested, and applied considering the Discrete Event Simulation (DES) replication for queuing strategies on a real-world banking scenario. The arrival and service times were collected from 115 customers in Ferraz de Vasconcelos/SP city. It was performed in version 15.10 (2018) of the Arena software, with processor Intel core i3 CPU dual-core 3.07 GHz and 8GB of RAM. The results indicate that the bank agency should consider providing 9 to 11 operators to attend customers considering the arrival and service rate.