Spreadsheet Models for Managers


Getting Access to Spreadsheet Models for Managers


If Spreadsheet Models for Managersyou use Excel to model businesses, business processes, or business transactions, this course will change your life. You’ll learn how to create tools for yourself that will amaze even you. Unrestricted use of this material is available in two ways.

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It resides on your computer, and you can use it anywhere. No need for Internet access.
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Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, on-line edition, one month" by credit card, for USD 69.95 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.
Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, on-line edition, three months" by credit card, for USD 199.00 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.
Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, downloadable hyperbook edition" by credit card, for USD 199.00 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.

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Make your check payable to Chaco Canyon Consulting, for the amount indicated:
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To use the course software you’ll need some other applications, which you very probably already have. By placing your order, you’re confirming that you have the software you need, as described on this site.

Spreadsheet Models for Managers

Session 12 Home Page
Service Systems

A service system is a system in which customers present themselves, are serviced, and depart. For example, an airline ticket counter is a service system. Service systems are very common in business, and knowing how to model a service system’s capacity is an important skill for a modeler.

As common as service systems might seem, they are actually even more common. For example, a telephone switch is a service system — and so is the printer and copier in that little room down the hall from your office. So modeling service systems is even more important than you might think at first.

In this session, we’ll study single-server systems, probably the simplest form of service system, but also the most common. We’ll give you the tools you need to model them with enough fidelity that your models will make useful predictions of their capability and capacity. This is just what you need to determine whether these systems fulfill — or over-fulfill — the needs of the businesses they serve.

Below is a summary of the materials for Session 12.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 27-Apr-2016 04:15:26 EDT

The Power of Simplifying Assumptions

Modeling service systems in general is extraordinarily complex, but as we’ve seen, if we make reasonable approximations, we can gain powerful tools that are very easy to apply. In the case of service systems, we assumed that the system was at equilibrium or close to it. Analogously, we can make simplifying assumptions for many other complex questions. Examples are process control, resource scheduling, resource allocation, cost allocation, vehicle routing, and many more.