Stochastic Simulation Research in Management Science

When the Simulation Department of Management Science was created in 1978 it ushered in an era of significant methodological advances in stochastic simulation. However, the foundation for the field—not just the work that has been published in Management Science—was provided by two papers published long before simulation had its own department in the journal. We will review the seminal papers of Conway, Johnson and Maxwell (1959) and Conway (1963), and then trace their impact through eight award-winning papers that appeared much later in Management Science. 1 Two Seminal Papers Our objective is to discuss the technique of digital system simulation. This procedure has already achieved a considerable stature in industrial and research organizations and promises to attain even greater importance in the future. Yet, with few exceptions, the published literature in the area consists of introductory expositions or of descriptions of the solution of particular problems (Conway, Johnson and Maxwell 1959, p. 92). From these opening remarks on the state of published research in computer simulation, Conway, et al. (1959), in conjunction with a later paper by Conway (1963), described a number of simulation problems that continue to occupy researchers to this day. In fact, it