Abstract
Discrete-event simulation first emerged in the late 1950s and it has grown in popularity steadily to be now recognized as the most frequently used of the classical Operational Research techniques across a range of industries—manufacturing, travel, finance, health and beyond. I have been engaged with such simulation from 1964 up to the present day. This paper reviews the history and evolution of discrete-event simulation from his personal perspective, with a particular interest in software development up to 1992. Extrapolating from that history, the paper goes on to comment on the prospective continuing evolution of simulation and its software.
References
Amiry AP (1984). A brief history of Cybor House. Unpublished notes.
ASTMP (1997). Army Science and Technology Master Plan: Section 3, distributed interactive simulation. Available at http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/army/docs/astmp/c6/P6C3.htm, accessed on 5 May 2005.
Backus J and Naur P (1960). Report on the algorithmic language ALGOL 60. Numerische Mathematik 2: 106–136.
Banks J, Aviles E, McLaughlin JR and Yuan RC (1991). The simulator: new member of the simulation family. Interfaces 21: 76–86.
Barber KD, Dewhurst FW, Burns RLDH and Rogers JBB (2003). Business-process modelling and simulation for manufacturing management: a practical way forward. Bus Process Mngt J 9: 527–542.
Beadle RB (1990). Computerised scheduling—a practical guide. Paper to CIM-90 Conference Birmingham, UK, October.
Becker R (1994). SIMPLE++—A New Class of Simulation Software. Aesop GmbH: Stuttgart.
Bent ME (1976). Pilot GSP IV Manual. British Steel Corporation Central Management Services: Sheffield.
BL Systems (1980). SEE WHY User Manual. BL Systems Limited: Redditch, UK.
Booth L (1988). PYRAMID: Quality as a building brick. Personnel Today, September.
British Steel (1975a). FORSS—a simulation system based on Fortran. Report OR67/1, British Steel Corporation, Teesside and Workington Group, Redcar.
British Steel (1975b). HISLABS computer operating instructions. Internal Report, British Steel Corporation Central Management Services, Birmingham, UK.
British Steel (1978). Generalised plate mill modelling system. Report OR 113/1, British Steel Corporation, Teesside Division, Middlesbrough.
British Steel (1980). AIMS—Assistance in manual simulation. Report TM21/1/Tech, British Steel Corporation, Sheffield, UK.
Brooks (2005). AutoStat—fast and easy statistical analysis tool. Available at http://www.brooks.com/pages/1821_autostat_module.cfm, accessed on 29 April 2005.
Brunner DT and Henriksen JO (1989). A general purpose animator. In: MacNair EA, Musselman KJ and Heidelberger P (eds). Proceedings of the 1989 Winter Simulation Conference—Washington. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 155–163.
Business Science Computing (1982). FORSSIGHT User Manual. Business Science Computing: Sheffield, UK.
Business Science Computing (1984). FORGE: FORssight GEnerator user guide. Business Science Computing: Aldwarke, Rotherham, UK.
Buxton JM and Laski JG (1969). Control and Simulation Language. The Comput J 5: 194–199.
Cetron MJ (1969). Technological Forecasting—A Practical Approach. Gordon and Breach: New York.
Cheng RSH and Lamb JD (2000). Making efficient simulation experiments interactively with a desktop simulation language. J Opl Res Soc 51: 501–507.
Christy DP and Watson HJ (1983). The application of simulation: a survey of industrial practice. Interfaces 13: 47–52.
Clark MF (1988). WITNESS—unlocking the power of visual interactive simulation. Paper to International Conference on Visual Interactive Modelling, University of Warwick, UK.
Clementson AT (1973). The New Extended CSL. University of Birmingham: UK.
Clementson AT (1981). Fitting a gallon into a pint pot. J Opl Res Soc 32: 319–326.
Clementson AT (1982). Extended Control and Simulation Language. Cle.Com Ltd: Birmingham, UK.
Conway R (1963). Some tactical problems in digital solutions. Mngt Sci 10: 47–61.
Crookes JG (1983). Simulation on micro computers. Paper to Operational Research Society Seminar, Manchester, UK.
Dahl O and Nygaard K (1965). SIMULA—A Language for Production and Description of Discrete Event Systems—Introduction and User's Manual. Norwegian Computer Centre Publication No. 11.
Dahl O, Myhrhaug B and Nygaard K (1968). The SIMULA 67 Common Base Language. Norwegian Computer Centre Publication S-2.
Davis WJ (1998). On-line simulation: need and evolving research requirements. In: Banks J (ed). Handbook of Simulation. Wiley, New York, pp 465–516.
Disley IJ (1997). A life in OR. J Opl Res Soc 48: 3–9.
Elder M (1995). Why SIMUL8? Strathclyde Business School Research Paper 1995/13. Available at http://www.managementscience.org/research/ab9513.asp, accessed on 13 May 2005.
F & H (1989). Taylor––The Dynamic Analyst. Publicity brochure. F & H Automatisering en Organisation: Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Fan Y (2000). Strategic outsourcing: evidence from British companies. Market Intelligence & Plan 18: 213–221.
Farnsworth K, Norman VB and Norman TA (1986). Integrated software for manufacturing simulation. In: Wilson JR, Henriksen JO and Roberst SD (eds). Proceedings of the 1986 Winter Simulation Conference, Washington. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 184–192.
Fiddy E, Bright JG and Hurrion RD (1981). SEE WHY––interactive simulation on the screen. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, ref C293/81. Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, pp 167–172.
Fildes R and Ranyard JC (1997). Success and survival of Operational Research groups. J Opl Res Soc 48: 336–360.
Fishwick P (2005). Web-based simulation. Available at: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~fishwick/websim.html, accessed on 28 April 2005.
Foster RN (1986). Innovation—The Attackers Advantage. Pan Books: London.
Gilman A and Watramez RM (1986). A tutorial on SEE WHY and WITNESS. In: Wilson JR, Henriksen JO and Roberst SD (eds). Proceedings of the 1986 Winter Simulation Conference. Washington. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 178–183.
Gompertz B (1832). On the nature of the function expressive of the law of human mortality, and on a new mode of determining the value of life contingencies. Phil Trans Roy Soc London 123: 513–585.
Gordon G (1962). A general purpose systems simulator. IBM Systems Journal 1: 18–32.
Grant FH (1989). Scheduling manufacturing systems with FACTOR. In: MacNair EA, Musselman KJ and Heidelberger P (eds). Proceedings of the 1989 Winter Simulation Conference. Washington, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 277–280.
Greasley A and Barlow S (1998). Using simulation modelling for BPR: resource allocation in a police custody process. Int J Opns Product Mngt 18: 978–988.
Harling J (1958). Simulation techniques in operations research—A review. Opns Res 6: 307–319.
Harrell CR and Tumay K (1990). ProModel PC tutorial. In: Balci O, Sadowski RP and Nance RE (eds). Proceedings of the 1990 Winter Simulation Conference. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 128–131.
Head AE (1962). Handbook on the use of the Montecode Mark 2 interpretive program. Report OR/CA/39/62, British Iron and Steel Research Association, London.
Healy KJ (1986). CINEMA tutorial. In: Wilson JR, Henriksen JO and Roberst SD (eds). Proceedings of the 1986 Winter Simulation Conference. Washington. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 207–211.
Healy KJ and Kilgore RA (1997). Silk: a Java-based process simulation language. In: Andadottir S, Healy K, Withers DH and Nelson BL (eds). Proceedings of the 1997 Winter Simulation Conference. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 475–482.
Henriksen JO (1975). Building a better GPSS-H: a 3:1 enhancement. In: Proceedings of the 1975 Winter Simulation Conference. AFIPS Press, Montvale, NJ, pp 465–469.
Hills PR and Poole TG (1969). A method of simplifying the production of computer simulation models. Paper presented at the Institute of Management Services Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
Hills PR (1965). SIMON: a computer simulation language in Algol. In: Hollingdale SH (ed). Proceedings of the NATO Conference on Digital Simulation Operational Research, Hamburg. English Universities Press, London, pp 105–115.
Hollocks BW (1982). FORSSIGHT is better than hindsight. Paper to the North West Group of the OR Society, Manchester.
Hollocks BW (1992). A well-kept secret? Simulation in manufacturing industry reviewed. OR Insight 5: 12–17.
Hollocks BW (1995). Simulation may be dangerous—experimentation practice and the implications for simulation software. In: F Breitenecker and I Husinsky (eds). Proceedings of EUROSIM'95 Congress. Vienna. North Holland/Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 153–158.
Hollocks BW (1996). Support to workgroup decision making. Paper presented at the 14th Triennial Conference of IFORS, Vancouver.
Hollocks BW (1997). Opportunities for software support to simulation experimentation. In: Kosanke K and Nell JG (eds). Proceedings of International Conference on Enterprise Integration, Modelling and Technology. Turin. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp 592–602.
Hollocks BW (1998). The role of models in leveraging information. In: Reimer U (ed). Proceedings of Second International Conference on Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management. Basel. SGAICO, Zurich, pp 10/1–10/6.
Hollocks BW (2001). Discrete-event simulation: an inquiry into user practice. J Simulation Practice and Theory 8: 451–471.
Hollocks BW (2004). Do we have too narrow a view of simulation? Observations on simulation as part of knowledge management. In: Proceedings of UK OR Society Simulation Study Group Workshop. Birmingham, March, pp 287–291.
Hommes B-J (2001). Overview of business process modelling tools. Available at http://is.twi.tudelft.nl/~hommes/toolabc.html, accessed on 17 May 2005.
Hopkins DA (1965). Control and display facilities for simulation games. In: Hollingdale SH (ed). Proceedings of the NATO Conference Digital Simulation in Operational Research. Hamburg. English Universities Press, London, pp 347–356.
Hossain Md Al-Amin and Tobias A (1991). WITNESS in the hands of an Expert System. OR Insight July–September: 10–14.
Hurrion RD (1976). The design use and required facilities of an interactive visual computer simulation language to explore production planning problems. PhD thesis, University of London.
Hurrion RD (1980). An interactive visual simulation system for industrial management. Eur J Opl Res 5: 86–93.
Hurrion RD (1981). Visual interactive simulation using a micro-computer. Comput Opl Res 8: 267–273.
Imagine That! (1995). Extend—Performance modelling for decision support. Imagine That!, Inc, San Jose, CA.
Insight International (1984). Overview of OPTIK. Promotional literature, Insight International Ltd: Woodstock, Oxford.
Jennings NR and Wooldridge MJ (1998). Agent technology, Foundations and Markets. Springer-Verlag: Berlin.
Kemeny JG and Kurtz TE (1964). BASIC Instruction Manual. Dartmouth College: Hanover, NH.
Kiviat P (1990). Interview. New Orleans, December.
Kiviat PJ, Villaneuvec R and Markowitz HM (1973). In: Russell EC (ed). SIMSCRIPT II.5 Programming Language. CACI Inc., Los Angeles.
Klein A (1988). Factory simulation comes of age. Managing Automation August: 24–29.
Kleine B (1986). A SimFactory tutorial. In: Wilson JR, Henriksen JO and Roberst SD (eds). Proceedings of the 1986 Winter Simulation Conference. Washington. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 193–196.
Lanner (2005a). WITNESS optimizer. Available at http://www.lanner.com/products/simulation_suite/witness_optimizer.php, accessed on 29 April 2005.
Lanner (2005b). WITNESS product overview. Available at http://www.lanner.com/products/simulation_suite/witness.php, accessed on 19 September 2005.
Larmouth J (1973). Serious FORTRAN. Software—Practice and Experience 3: 87–107.
Laski JG (1965). On time structure in (Monte Carlo) simulation. Opl Res Quarterly A 16: 329–340.
Law A and Kelton WD (1982). Simulation Modeling and Analysis. McGraw-Hill: New York.
Law AM (1990). Simulation software for manufacturing applications: the next few years. Ind Eng 22: 14–15; 18, 20, 74.
Law AM and McComas MG (1990). Secrets of successful simulation studies. Ind Eng 22: 47–53, 72.
Law AM and Haider SW (1989). Selecting simulation software for manufacturing applications: practical guidelines and software survey. Ind Eng 21: 33–46.
Lines AH (1981). The micro computer in management. J Opl Res Soc 32: 292–302.
Mackulak GT and Lawrence FP (1998). Effective simulation model reuse: a case study for AMHS modeling. In: Meddeiros DJ, Watson EF, Carson JKS and Manivannan MS (eds). Proceedings of the 1998 Winter Simulation Conference. Washington. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 979–984.
Markowitz HM, Hausner B and Karr HW (1962). Simscript: the simulation programming language. Report Rm-3310, Rand Corporation, Cambridge, MA.
Mathewson SC (1974). Simulation program generators. Simulation 23: 181–189.
Mathewson SC (1977). A Programming Manual for SIMON Simulation in FORTRAN. Imperial College: London.
Mathewson SC (1984). Simulation program generators: code and animation on a PC. Paper to Operational Research Society Conference on 16-Bit Micro-computers. November.
McDonald M (1980). VisiCalc. Practical Computing June: 64–67.
Mellichamp B and Park K (1989). A statistical expert system for simulation analysis. Simulation 52: 134–139.
Mellor P and Tocher KD (1963). A steelworks production game. Opl Res Quarterly 14: 131–135.
Moore G (1965). Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Electronics 38.Available from ftp://download.intel.com/research/silicon/moorespaper.pdf, accessed on 15 November 2005.
Mowery DC (2003). 50 years of business computing: LEO to Linux. J Strategic Information Syst 12: 295–308.
Mullarney A and West J (1987). ModSim: A Language for Object-oriented Simulation—Design Specification. CACI Products Inc.: La Jolla, CA.
Nance RE (1993). A history of discrete-event simulation programming languages. ACM SIGPLAN Notices 28: 149–175.
Nance RE and Sargent RG (2002). Perspectives on the evolution of simulation. Opns Res 50: 161–172.
Naylor TH, Balintfy JL, Burdick DS and Chu K (1966). Computer Simulation Techniques. Wiley: New York.
Neate R and Dacey WJ (1958). A simulation of melting shop operations by means of a computer. In: Proceedings of BISRA Conference Digital Computers in the Steel Industry. Report OR/CA/4/58, British Iron and Steel Research Association, London.
Nolan PJ, Lane GM and Fegan JM (1991). ISI—An environment for the engineering use of general purpose simulation languages. Simulation 56: 41–47.
Norman VB (1981). A Semi-automatic GPSS Program Generator. Eaton-Kenway Inc.: Salt Lake City UT.
OptTek (2005). OptQuest product information. Available at www.opttek.com/products/optquest.html, accessed on 29 April 2005.
OR/MS Today (2003). Simulation software survey. OR/MS Today, August. Also available at http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/surveys/Simulation/Simulation1.html, accessed on 19 September 2005.
Page EH (1998). Technology trends: web-based simulation technology. In: Lunceford WH (ed). Newsletter of the Simulation Inter-operability Standards Organisation, Vol. 1, No. 1 September, article 28. Available at http://www.sisostds.org/webletter/siso/Iss_1/art_28.htm, accessed on 5 May 2005.
Palm J (1977). Moving pictures show simulation to users. Simulation 29: 204–209.
Paul RJ and Doukidis GI (1985). Further developments in the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques which formulate simulation problems. Paper to the 27th Conference of the Operational Research Society, Durham.
PE (1996). What is Kameleon? Product literature, PE International: Egham, Surrey, UK.
Pegden CD (1982). Introduction to SIMAN. Systems Modelling Corporation: Sewickley, PA.
Pegden CD (1990). Interview. New Orleans. December.
Pidd M (1988). Choosing discrete event simulation software. OR Insight 2: 22–23.
Pidd M (2004). Computer simulation in Management Science, 5th edn. Wiley: London.
Pritsker & Associates (1984). MAP/1: The Manufacturing Simulator. Pritsker & Associates Inc.: West Lafayette, IN.
Pritsker AAB (1974). The GASP IV Simulation Language. Wiley: New York.
Pritsker AAB (1977). Modelling and Analysis Using Q-GERT Networks. Wiley: NewYork.
Pritsker AAB (1986). Introduction to Simulation and SLAM II. Wiley: NewYork.
Pritsker AAB and Kiviat PJ (1969). Programming in GASP II. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs NJ.
Pritsker AAB and Pegden CD (1979). Introduction to Simulation and SLAM. Wiley: New York.
Ranyard J (1981). Introducing the micro computer into the OR department. J Opl Res Soc 32: 277–296.
Reese R and Wyatt DL (1987). Software reuse and simulation. In: Thesen A, Grant H and Kelton WD (eds). Proceedings of the 1987 Winter Simulation Conference. Atlanta. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 185–192.
Reitman J (1988). A concise history of the ups and downs of simulation. In: Abrams M, Haigh P and Comfort J (eds). Proceedings of the 1988 Winter Simulation Conference. San Diego. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 1–6.
Reitman J (1990). Interview. Newark NJ, December.
Robinson S (2005). Discrete-event simulation: from the pioneers to the present, what next? J Opl Res Soc 56: 619–629.
Rooks B and Baker R (1990). Engineers spearhead Bloxwich transformation. Integrated Manufacturing Systems April: 75–78.
Saran C (2005). Time is running out for Moore's Law as chip developments reach atomic levels. Computer Weekly 19 April: 12.
Sargent RG (2004). Conversation. Publisher: Birmingham, UK, March.
Shanehchi J (1985). EXPRESS: A man-machine interface for simulation. In: Heginbotham WB (ed). Proceedings of the First International Conference on Simulation in Manufacturing, Stratford-on-Avon. IFS, Bedford, UK, pp 97–104.
Simulation (1988). A catalog of simulation software. Simulation 51: 136–156.
Smith R (2000). Strategic directions in distributed simulation. Available at: www.modelbenders.com/papers/sim2000/SimulationDirections.PDF, accessed on 5 May 2005.
Snow CP (1962). Scientists and decision making. In: Greenberger M (ed). Computers and the World of the Future. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp 3–13.
Standridge TR, Vaughan DK, Laval DK and Simpson TD (1986). A tutorial on TESS. In: Wilson JR, Henriksen JO and Roberst SD (eds). Proceedings of the 1986 Winter Simulation Conference. Washington. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp 212–217.
Szabo LJ and Lyons D (1971). Manual simulation technique. Work Study and Management Services March: 196–198.
Szymankiewicz JZ (1977). A Description of the HOCUS Simulation System. PE Consulting Group: UK.
The CIMulation Centre (1992). PREACTOR Commercial brochure. The CIMulation Centre, Leamington Spa.
TMCnet (2000). SIMUL8 to demo new web-based call-center simulation technology. Available at http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/newsccs/ccs1000399.htm, dated 24 April 2000; accessed on 28 April 2005.
Tocher KD (1952). Report of a meeting on marshalling and queuing. Opl Res Quarterly 3: 12–13.
Tocher KD (1960). How to achieve optimum use of Appleby soakers. Report 71/AF2/2, United Steel Companies Department of OR, Sheffield.
Tocher KD (1963). The Art of Simulation. English Universities Press: London.
Tocher KD and Hopkins DA (1964). Handbook of the GSP Mark II. Report 118/ORD/10/TECH(June), United Steel Companies' Department of Operational Research, Sheffield.
Tocher KD and Owen DG (1960). The automatic programming of simulations. In: Banbury J and Maitland J (eds). Proceedings of the Second Conference of the International Federation of OR Societies, Aix-En-Province. English Universities Press, London, pp 50–68.
Van Breedam A, Raes J and Van der Velde K (1990). Segmenting the simulation market. OR Insight 3: 9–12.
Veith TL, Kobza JE and Koelling CP (1998). World wide web-based simulation. Int J Eng Education. 14: 316–321.
Vincent S and Law AM (1995). ExpertFit: total support for simulation input modeling. In: Proceedings of the 1995 Winter Simulation Conference. Las Vegas, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp. 395–400.
Wallach SL (1988). Production planning with simulation. Managing Automation, April.
Wenning WB (2005). Remington Rand's first computer: a short history. Available at http://www.rowayton.org/rhs/Computers/hstrandsfirst.htm, accessed 20 September 2005.
Williams JWJ (1962). ESP: The Elliott Simulator Package. Comput J 5: 328–331.
Zarei B (2001). Simulation for business process re-engineering: case study of a database management system. J Opl Res Soc 52: 1327–1337.
Acknowledgements
The basis of this paper was first presented at the OR Society Simulation Study Group Workshop, Birmingham, UK, 23–24 March 2004. All trademarks referred to in this paper are acknowledged as appropriate. I am grateful to Philip Kiviat, Dennis Pegden and Julian Reitman, as well as others named and un-named, for their time in sharing recollections of past activities. Thanks are also due to those organizations (essentially, British Steel Corporation and ISTEL) that, in the past, granted me leave to freely make use of photographs and illustrations included. And to all those whose guidance, advice, assistance and friendship have enriched my 40 years in simulation—thank you.
If readers are aware of material omissions from or errors in what I have described (although I have sought only to document what I believe evidenced), please let me know. History continues.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hollocks, B. Forty years of discrete-event simulation—a personal reflection. J Oper Res Soc 57, 1383–1399 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602128
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602128