An experimental design for conducting simulation studies in effect of shop control factors

Summary form only given. It is pointed out that, one of the major challenges faced by managers of job-shop-type operations is the selection of the appropriate control policies for improved system performance. The performance of a job shop is dependent on several factors, which can be categorized as control factors, and environmental factors. The difference between these factors is that management can exercise full control over the environmental factors. Most job shop simulation studies recommend the use of a hypothetical model of the job shop because it makes the results of the study more generalizable than the use of a model of any particular shop. To test the effect of various shop control factors by using simulation methodology, a mechanism is required to select the best combination of the factors. An experimental design for examining all sorts of shop control through simulation methodology has been developed