Simulation Modeling and Analysis

Averill M. Law is President of Averill M. Law & Associates, Inc. (Tucson, AZ), a company specializing in simulation training, consulting, and software. He was previously Professor of Decision Sciences at the University of Arizona and Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has a Ph.D. and an M.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. in mathematics from California State University-Long Beach, and a B.S. in mathematics from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Law has been a simulation consultant to organizations such as Accenture, Boeing, Booz Allen & Hamilton, ConocoPhillips, Defense Modeling and Simulation Office, Federal Express, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, Kimberly-Clark, M&M/Mars, Monsanto, Sandia National Labs, Swedish Defense Material Administration, U.S. Marine Corps, and Xerox. He has presented more than 550 simulation and statistics short courses in 20 countries, including onsite seminars for ALCOA, AT&T, Boeing, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, CSX, GE, GM, IBM, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Lab, Missile Defense Agency, Motorola, NASA, National Security Agency, Northrop Grumman, 3M, Time Warner, UPS, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and Whirlpool. He is the developer of the ExpertFit distribution-fitting software, which automates the selection of simulation input probability distributions. ExpertFit is used by more than 3000 organizations worldwide. He also developed the videotapes “Simulation of Manufacturing Systems” and “How to Conduct a Successful Simulation Study.” Dr. Law is the author (or coauthor) of three books and numerous papers on simulation, operations research, statistics, manufacturing, and communications networks. His article "Statistical Analysis of Simulation Output Data" was the first invited feature paper on simulation to appear in a major research journal. His series of papers on the simulation of manufacturing systems won the 1988 Institute of Industrial Engineers' best publication award. He was awarded the 2009 INFORMS Simulation Society’s Lifetime Professional Achievement Award for his simulation seminars and book. During his academic career, the Office of Naval Research supported his simulation research for 8 consecutive years. He wrote a regular column on simulation for “Industrial Engineering” during 1990 and 1991.

• 1) Basic Simulation Modeling2) Modeling Complex Systems3) Simulation Software4) Review of Basic Probability and Statistics5) Building Valid, Credible, and Appropriately Detailed Simulation Models6) Selecting Input Probability Distributions7) Random-Number Generators8) Generating Random Variates9) Output Data Analysis for a Single System10) Comparing Alternative System Configurations11) Variance-Reduction Techniques12) Experimental Design, Sensitivity Analysis, and Optimization13) Simulation of Manufacturing Systems