Using simulation to teach business processes design and improvement

A course titled, "Process Design and Improvement - Computer Based Tools" was developed and offered by the authors in Fall 2000 and 2001 for part-time graduate students in Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Technology Management programs at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, . The objective of the course is to introduce students to the current software and methods used to organize data and model manufacturing and industrial systems through virtual representation of business operations choosing problems from their workplaces. The course was created to make the complex processes and tools of computer modeling more accessible to non-specialists for a better understanding of how their operations work. It is not unusual that people only know a small part of their overall system. This gives them a way to see the big picture. A case study illustrates the application of these tools.