Discrete-event simulation is alive and kicking!

At the 2010 OR Society Simulation Workshop, there was a lively panel discussion entitled “Discrete-event simulation is dead, long live agent-based simulation!” which was subsequently written up as a position paper for the Journal of Simulation. This paper continues that discussion and, to quote Mark Twain, argues that rumours of the death of DES are greatly exaggerated. There has undoubtedly been a recent surge of interest within the mainstream OR community in the use of agent-based modelling, but this paper suggests that many of the cited benefits of ABS can be achieved through the use of a traditional DES approach. These arguments are illustrated by several examples where DES has been used successfully to tackle “ABS-type” problems.