The simulation life-cycle: Supporting the data collection and representation phase

The life-cycle of a DES study goes through a number of phases, from initially goal setting to validation of experiments. Of these, the phases to support DES data collection and representation have been underrepresented in the literature to date. This paper sets out to describe a process of data collection and representation for DES within the context of the DES life-cycle. It is recognized that for large companies the data collection and representation phase differs when compared to SMEs. Due to the high complexity in performing a DES study in an SME data might not be in a DES ready format in existence whatsoever. This complexity can cost without budgets to meet it. This paper describes an expanded process in relation to the data collection and representation phase specifically for SMEs. Finally, a preliminary high level overview of a prototype is presented which supports this phase at an SME level.