Such changes might bear little resemblance to the current state and often involve considerable risk. A new process for taxpayer collections that was not prototyped by the IRS, although far superior to the old process, had an unanticipated negative impact on workers. The use of simulation is useful in capturing such consequences prior to implementation. Simulation has been widely used by decision makers because of the degree of realism that can be included in simulation models, and the ease with which such models can be explained to non-technical personnel. Simulation technique is useful in the prototyping stage of the Design and Implementation of the New Process.
Computer simulation marks the first phase of the prototyping stage.
S2A1 Inform Stakeholders S4A1 Define and analyze new process concepts. A very nice tutorial providing an introduction to use of the technique is available. If you happen to be at LSU, the ISDS lab might be a good place to start. As of this writing it has an installed version of Arena ver 2.0 which includes good tutorials on using simulation. I have developed an example , which shows the use of simulation in understanding the Patient Services core process of a dental clinic.