Modeling Operational Activities in Object‐Oriented Simulation

Abstract

In the process of system modeling, the components of the system, their interactions, and the possible outcomes of their association are identified. The next step is the mapping of these components to the respective terminology in the modeling environment. At this stage, comprehensible physical components have to be represented in terms of transactions, queues, resources, attributes, etc. in a network‐oriented simulation language. The object‐oriented approach minimizes the need to “understand and learn” a model that presumably mimics a physical system whose components may already be well understood. Object‐oriented approaches are an attempt to bridge the gap between physical systems and their computer representation. This paper utilizes object‐oriented concepts in the modeling and simulation of construction operations. The concepts involved are demonstrated in a customer‐server scheme for an earthmoving project. In this paper MODSIM, a new object‐oriented simulation language, is used to demonstrate the merits of object‐oriented simulation. Comparisons with SIMAN, a conventional simulation language, is also demonstrated.