the SIMEON Framework

A powerful combination of simulation and optimization has been successfully applied to solve real-world decision making problems. Unfortunately, there are scientific and application problems with this method. Firstly, there is no transparent and formal structure to define the integration between simulation and optimization techniques. Secondly, there are challenges to ensure a proper balance between the various desired features of the simulation-based optimization method (i.e. generality, efficiency, high-dimensionality and transparency).This research provides two contributions to the problems above by providing: 1) the design of the framework that addresses the knowledge gap above; 2) the implementation of the framework that fulfills the aforementioned features in Java. The proposed framework is developed based on Zeigler’s modeling and simulation framework and the phases of an optimization study in operations research. The test and evaluation show that the desired features are successfully satisfied.