SPARKS Dynamic Process Simulator

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (née Coopers & Lybrand)

Project — SPARKS (System Performance Analysis using Real-time Knowledge-based Simulation) is an object-oriented, knowledge-based modeling and process simulation tool for operations analysis and redesign. Built on top of Gensym's G2, it combines discrete event simulation of job and task flow, operations management models and a GUI interface.

When I began working on SPARKS it was an operations simulation and analysis tool that had several incarnations, each specific to the client models performed. Only the Kernal (see Figure 1) was generic across all models. During each new engagement, SPARKS' Structural and Application layers were reworked for the new customer's specific needs. Each aspect of model development and simulation output was specific to the particular client's environment and could not be applied to the next engagement.

While working on SPARKS and applyling it to new clients, I created generic mechanisms at the Structural and Application Layers to generalize the model creation and reporting aspects of SPARKS. Additionally, as the Gensym G2 language evolved from purely rule-based simulation to a powerful high-level procedural and rule-based language, a team and I converted SPARKS to take advantage of G2's greater power.

These efforts succeeded in making SPARKS capabale of simulating environments requiring models of several orders of magnitude greater size and complexity. Moreover, the application of SPARKS to any new engagment became simpler and faster so that clients could directly create their own models with only minimal guidance from Coopers & Lybrand consultants.

Some of our applications of SPARKS include:

• The redesign of the cross-continent back office operations of an international Wall Street trading firm.
• Analysis of the home banking system of a major commercial bank.
• An assessment of the impact of new technology on the claims renewal processing of a national insurance company.

Figure 1: A high-level view of SPARKS' architecture

Figure 2: SPARKS Main Screen allowing access to model-building elements, simulation parameters and feedback, and statistical performance output.

Figure 3: Diagram of the breakdown of Process flow into Operations and Tasks, and of the Resource Model into Functional and Work Units.

Figure 4: Demonstration of the breakdown of Functional Units into other Functional Units and Work Units with their work buffers. Work Units could have multiple buffers from several Functional Units.

Figure 5: A "hello world" simple model.