The invention discloses
simulation of a process of discrete events or tasks having a plurality of available resources associated therewith. A
database stores a plurality of models, each including a plurality of one or more entity, task, and resource parameter, and dependencies and relationships. A
model application communicates with the
database and is configured to receive commands from a user, to retrieve one of the plurality of models and the corresponding plurality of one or more entity, task, and resource parameter in response to a user command, to receive input data corresponding to one or more entity, task, and resource parameter from a business
database system, and to generate a
simulation model based on the business database
system and the input data. An optimizing application in communication with the
model application and is configured to receive commands from a user, to select one or more entity, task, and resource parameter of the
simulation model with respect to an objective function, to define bounds of the one or more entity, task, and resource parameter selected, to generate values for the objective function based on the one or more of the entity, task, and resource parameter selected, and to generate financial performance data based on the values generated for the objective function. A
server performs a simulation of the process by
processing the simulation model and generates an output
data file containing output data representative thereof. The objective function comprises a combination of
system financial performance measures (e.g., operational margin) and process performance measures (e.g.,
cycle time,
throughput, utilization.