Getting Access to Spreadsheet Models for Managers

Spreadsheet Models for Managers

Modeling truly is an art, because the modeler must make decisions about what to include and what to omit. Often, these decisions cannot be made systematically — there is no concise set of rules that tells you what parts of a system to include in your model and what parts to ignore. For this reason, people and organizations who know how to design useful models have a competitive edge.

Most of the models people build are static models. That is, they simulate a property of a system that doesn't change over time. For example, we can make a model of a fast-food drive-through that will tell us how long the driveway has to be, given the average service time, the average length of a car, and the average arrival rate of customers. See Problem 12.1, and the readings on models.

Dynamic models, on the other hand, make predictions about system attributes that vary with time. For example, we can make a model of a business that predicts the number of sofas in inventory through the year, given expected demand and the requirements for ordering. See Problem 3.1.

In your course project, you'll be building a dynamic model. Be very certain that you understand the difference between the two types of models. See Course Project.