Simulation of the drug development process: a case study from the pharmaceutical industry
Russell W. Workman · 2000
This paper uses a case study from the pharmaceutical industry to show how simulation modeling can be applied to understanding large, highly-complex processes such as drug development. I conclude that simulation provides an enhanced resource planning capability compared with that provided by traditional spreadsheet analysis. This capability difference stems from the ability of a simulation to better reflect the variation which defines such complicated processes. The conditions which facilitate exploitation of this advantage include: capturing process information at the correct level of abstraction; successfully incorporating this information into a simulation model; and allowing easy user access to critical parameters via an intuitive interface.