Virtual simulation in business Essay Example for Free

Virtual simulation in business Essay Management games (or business simulations) have been finding favour in business education in recent years. Business simulations that incorporate a dynamic model enable experimentation with business strategies in a risk free environment and provide a useful extension to case study discussions. training sessions anytime and anyplace on a global basis. †¢ Faster time to insight †¢ Lower training costs; higher training capacity for training staff †¢ Faster time to competence; better coordination of inter organizational activity †¢ Minimize operational error for dangerous job tasks Faster capture, dissemination, and application of lessons learned actual manufacturing environments. Some features include: †¢ Real-world what if Scenarios †¢ Industry Control Systems †¢ Multi-axis Milling Turning †¢ NC Programs †¢ Collision Detection †¢ Material Removal Other applications of virtual simulation Flight simulators, marine simulators and truck simulators are very popular virtual systems. Figure 11. A flight simulator (from Wikipedia) Performance enhancements are a well-known advantage of simulator training. Researchers have shown that flight simulators effectively improve pilot performance related to landing skills (Hays, Jacobs, Prince, Salas, 1992) and instrument and flight control abilities (Pfeiffer, Horey, Butrimas, 1991). Training using virtual environments has also been demonstrated to improve user performance. For example, Sebrechts (2000) found that wayfinding ability (ability to navigate through a space) was greater in users who were allowed to explore a virtual environment in comparison to the actual building. To successfully evaluate performance in their own programs, trainers should proceed through four levels of training evaluation including reaction, learning, behavior, and results. In addition, trainers who wish to measure performance must begin with valid and reliable performance metrics. Technical obstacles or barriers to development or usage Implications to a manager in a high-technology organization Trends: Future directions in historical or other dimensions THE FUTURE Technologies such as Simulation and Virtual Reality will dominate the entertainment and science forefronts well into the next Century. Since early childhood, we have always learned by role playing and building models of things. With todays computer prices, personal computers are highly affordable. Armed with your computer, you can proceed to build models of reality and let them loose to see what happens and to learn more about reality by modeling it. While what we may do today may be primitive by standards set in science fiction shows such as Star Trek (The Holodeck) and Lawnmower Man, the present computer simulation discipline will lead the way to these eventual goals. The key word is digital as pointed out by many such as Nicholas Negroponte at the MIT Media Lab in his recent text Being Digital. We want to create digital replicas of everything you see as you look around you while reading this article. When you want to construct a digital world, you will pick digital objects, using a 3D, immersive construction tool to put them together. The digital objects may be located anywhere on the Internet and you will use help tools (or autonomous agents) to locate the building block objects for your digital world. Some of this type of work is being done in Distributed Interactive Simulation which is a thrust pioneered by the Department of Defense. The implications of these types of simulations are profound since the idea of distributed simulation has enormous potential, also, in industrial and entertainment fields. (Fishwick, 1995)