Business Modeling and IT Simulation with Witness 12

A bit about Witness

Hi% username%. In recent years, the growing trend of business modeling and business process simulation has found wide application in the Western market. In today's article I want to talk about Witness 12 software - the brainchild of Lanner, which began operations back in 1978. Being formed as a department of British Leyland Motors, little known to us (in the future AT&T), the company grew into the largest organization offering operational reporting, business simulation and optimization services. Today in the list of clients and users of Witness there are such representatives of production activities as:

• Nissan
• Ford
• British airways
• HP
• Honda
• BP
• Gazprom
• etc

How does it work?

Let's dig into the essence of the simulation for a second.

• Simulation, like any other process, consists of components
• Creates a visual perception of the "picture" of the business
• Features for experimenting with a model
• Wide opportunities for application in various industries of production and service areas

Witness uses simplified models that can recreate core business processes. The system is able to reproduce various situations, including statistical models - a one-time situation with the inability to determine the outcome, and dynamic models - capable of changing over time. While linear programming can only work with deterministic types of simulation where there is no variability, Witness is able to work with stochastic types - changeable modeling using random numbers (often using random tables), allowing you to look at the process from all "angles".

So what is simulation and what is it eaten with? As I mentioned earlier, any process is divided into components (the so-called entities), which change their state (state) after passing a unit of time.

• Entity - Modeled Object
• State - the current state of the entity
• Event - an instant action that changes the state of the system

This is how the simplest model for making coffee might look like (I apologize to readers who do not understand English, I’ll be ready to answer / translate all questions by email)


Going to Witness, each entity, state and event has already prepared models (detailed down to different industries), which are arranged in an interconnected manner so that the condition is met. Created models can be reprogrammed in the future, taking into account time, location and priority.
Following further, I bring to your attention some ready-made models created for different business sectors.



Here is an example of a hospital with the organization and control of incoming patients. This shows how much time it takes to wait, and how much to work.
Opening the operation view for the next model (assembly of components at the plant), it is clear which parts of the production process were occupied, and if you go deeper, you can analyze how long.




Moving to the next example, Witness will calculate the average value, standard deviation, as well as the minimum and maximum values ​​that allow you to quickly and easily analyze the success of a particular process.




And of course, most importantly, you can analyze the financial performance of the model taking into account the given parameters.



Summing up, I would like to transfer your attention to the advantages of this software. First of all, obviously, the system significantly reduces costs and time for the implementation of a complete project. Being controlled, you can analyze various possible situations in a calm and safe place without endangering your or someone else's life. (if the project is dangerous) And finally, using this modeling method, much less resources are used than in any other case.

In this post I tried to describe the main features and benefits of business modeling with Witness. If the habro-community shows interest in this topic, I will be glad to write a series of posts with more detailed examples and possibilities for implementing this product.

Manufacturer Website: Lanner