Welcome to the 2012 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), recognized as the premiere international conference for simulation professionals in discrete and combined discrete-continuous simulation. Our venue of Berlin this year continues the trend of new and exciting locations for the conference. While enjoying this year’s conference, please look forward to next year’s conference in Washington, DC.
The conference theme for WSC ‘12 is “WSC Goes Europe” since–after 43 years–for the first time WSC will take place outside of the US. Over the years, WSC attendees have become more international and it seemed only natural to come to one of their home countries, too. By chance, I was the first one who made this proposal to the WSC Board of Directors, and therefore Berlin was selected to be the first non-US WSC location. We have had an exciting five years to prepare this conference because, as you all know, Europe is a bit different than the US in a variety of aspects. In addition to this local spirit, we also tried to bring some new ideas to the conference to make it more attractive to you, our valued attendees. We kept most of the traditional tracks but also introduced some new ones, and we tried to make the poster track more interesting both for the presenters and the audience. The biggest change, however, was the introduction of a more rigorous review process that will help us to improve the overall quality of the papers. To that end, program committees were established for each track to deal with the management of a considerable number of reviews. We will see during future conferences which ideas will prevail. Please, do not hesitate to contact us and tell us your opinion.
WSC ’12 offers again many of the traditional tracks that long-time attendees have grown to expect including introductory tutorials, modeling methodology, manufacturing and the continuation of the MASM (Modeling and Analysis for Semiconductor Manufacturing) conference within WSC ‘12. In all, the conference features 23 tracks giving us all a wide variety of difficult choices to make on which sessions to attend. This year, most of the tracks will have two track coordinators, one from the US and one from Europe, to reflect the fact that we will have considerably more attendees from Europe than usual.
This year we have another great lineup of featured speakers. Our two keynote addresses will be given by Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Germany) and by Thomas A. Henzinger of the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology. We will also have a Titan of Simulation presentation during lunch time on Monday given by Gianfranco Balbo of the University of Torino (Italy). The program also includes a Ph.D. colloquium on Sunday, an attendee orientation on Sunday evening, and the traditional Monday Evening reception.
The Winter Simulation Conference is a nonprofit event sponsored by many professional organizations with a shared interest in simulation. We are grateful for the support of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society; the National Institute of Standards and Technology; the Society for Modeling and Simulation International; the American Statistical Association; the Association for Computing Machinery-Special Interest Group on Simulation; the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences- Simulation Society; the Institute of Industrial Engineers; and, for this special year, the German Arbeitsgemeinschaft Simulation.
The planning and preparation for each WSC begins five years before the event. City selection, hotel selection, conference theme and the hard work of the volunteer conference committee have made WSC the quality conference that it is today. I would like to thank this year’s committee for their efforts. There are many behind-the-scenes tasks and decisions that go into a conference like WSC. Each committee member worked many hours to ensure the conference would run smoothly and the program would live up to the excellence we expect at WSC.
The driving forces behind this year’s conference were the Program Chair, Lin Uhrmacher and the Local Chair, Markus Rabe. In addition to the difficult task of producing a high quality program, Lin was the first Program Chair to work without backup with the new paper management system. I would also like to extend sincere thanks to Mark Montague of Linklings for his unrelenting efforts to operate the new paper management system flawlessly and to react to our requests for changes and additions in almost no time. I am confident that we have established the base upon which the conference will continue to thrive in the coming years. The Local Chair Markus Rabe provided incredible support due to his great expertise in running large conferences and due to the fact that he lives at Berlin. Every time we needed details about the hotel or support in all aspects of the planning process, he was of great help in solving problems quickly.
Once the papers have been accepted and the program has been planned, the hard work of the Proceedings Editors takes center stage. We were blessed to have three outstanding editors this year: Christoph Laroque, Jan Himmelspach and Raghu Pasupathy. The lasting quality of the WSC proceedings is driven by the hard work of the editors. The consistent look and feel of the papers, the proper formatting and the attention to detail needed to ensure that over 300 papers are delivered on time is truly a large task. WSC ’12 has also continued the long-standing relationship with Omnipress as our publisher. Tom Wagner and his team at Omnipress have helped make the paper management process seamless, and we are glad that this year the proceedings can once again be offered on a USB key option.
As a former General Chair, Jeff Smith was a real asset to the committee this year as the Publicity Chair. He and his team were able to set up a completely new web site for the conference. Due to his hard work we are able to offer our information in a modern layout and with better usability. Our Business Chair, Young Jun Son, was able to pull together important details for the many budget conversations we had during the year and help us keep focus on the important aspects of the conference. Sandy Owens filled the role of Exhibits and Sponsorship Chair. She did an excellent job of communicating with exhibitors and sponsors, and working with our website provider to get out the email updates about the key dates associated with the conference. As our Registration Chair, Seshadri Subramanian has kept us apprised of the registration counts as we approached the conference. He also tied together the conference with the program by ensuring that each paper in the program had a registered author for the presentation.
The long-term continuity of the conference is one of the main functions of the WSC Board of Directors. The board selects the General Chair for each conference and approves the location and hotel contracts for each conference. I would like to extend a special thanks to John Fowler who was the WSC ’12 board liaison. Whenever we had questions about the conference, John was quick with advice and answers to keep the process moving.
Even with all the volunteers, the conference would never get off the ground without the management team from INFORMS. Terry Cryan, Cheryl Clark, Sandy Owens, Paulette Bronis, Ellen Tralongo and Jessica Bennett kept the committee moving forward, reminded us of our target dates, and basically made our lives easier than we could have hoped when we agreed to serve on the committee.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of the authors, track coordinators, session chairs, track program committee members, reviewers and exhibitors. Your contributions to the conference are what make WSC possible. We hope that you find WSC ’12 interesting, informative and thought provoking.
Oliver Rose
WSC 2012 General Chair
In its forty-fifth year, the 2012 Winter Simulation Conference continues with the tradition of being the premier global forum for researchers, practitioners and vendors of stochastic simulation thanks to literally hundreds of volunteers who generously gave their time and professional expertise to ensure the success of the conference. As all WSC conferences before, the 2012 WSC strikes a balance between tradition and innovation. New tracks have been added to established tracks to account for new developments or specific anniversaries in the modeling and simulation realm. The modeling methodology track, which historically hosted all methodological research that did not fit into the analysis track, has now been split into two methodological tracks, i.e., the modeling methodology, and the simulation methods and tools track. Further tracks have been incorporated, e.g., on application in social sciences and organizations and a track to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Adam Petri’s Ph.D. thesis, which laid the foundation for the work on Petri Nets. The case studies track has been turned into a full track with regular and invited peer-reviewed paper submissions. The track is complemented by an industrial case studies track. Also with respect to organizing the reviewing process and elements of the final program, WSC 2012 broke new ground. For the first time, program committees have been introduced to all tracks to support the reviewing process of the WSC. For the first time an oral presentation for posters (two minutes each)–Poster Madness–has been introduced, and the length of written poster publications has significantly been extended. Most tracks are headed by two track chairs to account for the high workload and, in addition, the two track chairs come from different continents, which emphasizes the international character of the WSC.
WSC 2012 features 23 tracks along with the MASM (Modeling and Analysis of Semiconductor Manufacturing) conference, the Ph.D. colloquium, and tutorials: all in all, 154 sessions participants can select from. The keynote talks by Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Germany) and from Thomas A. Henzinger of the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology, as well as the titan talk by Gianfranco Balbo of the University of Torino (Italy) complete the program of the Winter Simulation Conference 2012.
The program of WSC 2012 reflects the work of 40 track chairs, three editors, 230 PC members, more than 100 external reviewers, and around 1200 authors from five continents. In total, the conference includes 340 peer-reviewed contributed and invited papers, 66 posters, 28 Ph.D. colloquium contributions, and 30 submissions from vendors and industry. Contributed and invited papers received at least two, typically between three and four detailed reviews from peers. Posters, abstracts, and other submissions received at least one review from the respective track chairs. Thus, more than 1500 reviews have been completed. In the reviewing process, the role of the newly introduced program committees has proven to be vital. The acceptance rate of contributed papers was 46%, and 65% for posters.
These figures give an indication of the tremendous effort and dedication that is required from many people to put such a program together. I would like to express my gratitude to the WSC 2012 track chairs Petra Ahrweiler, Gianfranco Balbo, Argon Chen, Stephen Chick, Uwe Clausen, Roland Ewald, Paul Fishwick, John Fowler, Richard Fujimoto, Stephen Gilmor, David Goldsman, (Andy) Myoungsoo Ham, Timo Hartmann, Monika Heiner, Jan Himmelspach, R. Raymond Issa, Mathias John, Peter Kemper, Markus Klug, Pierre L’Ecuyer, Axel Lehmann, lke Martens, Orianne Mazemondet, Lars Mönch, Barry L. Nelson, David Nicol, Sandy Owens, Ernie Page, Markus Rabe, Oliver Rose, Flaminio Squazzoni, Claudia Szabo, Helena Szczerbicka , Andreas Tolk, John Tufarolo, Bruno Tuffin, Gabriel Wainer, K. Heinz Weigl, Sigrid Wenzel, Jochen Wittmann. I know that with the more rigorous reviewing process and by breaking with old traditions I put you through a lot. I think we laid a good foundation for the next WSC committees to build on. Thank you so much for this! Also it has been a pleasure working with the editors of the WSC 2012 proceedings: Jan Himmelspach, Christoph Laroque and Raghu Pasupathy. I wonder whether anybody can imagine the work that has to be done behind the scenes for this.
The new paper management system had been introduced only two years ago, and due to new requirements and suggestions, e.g., bidding on papers, discussion of reviews among reviewers, and reviewing of revisions, a lot of changes have been introduced. I would therefore like to thank all the track coordinators for their patience and understanding if something has not worked directly as intended and Mark Montague of Linklings LLP, who was there for me seven days a week integrating all required changes and answering the many questions instantly: within the last ten months I alone have sent more than 300 mails to you. Jeff Smith also deserves special thanks, as he designed and maintained the new web page that now also includes detailed information about the content and the committees of each track. Support from Terry Cryan, Cheryl Clark, Sandy Owens, Paulette Bronis and Jessica Bennett has again proved to be invaluable. Thank you for your help and professionalism in ensuring that all the pieces of the conference fit together.
I would like to thank the WSC Board of Directors for the confidence they entrusted in me, and for giving me the leeway for doing things differently. Last but not least, I would like to thank Oliver Rose and Markus Rabe–I think we were a great team. Oliver took over when I needed a vacation, and Markus left no question about rooms or local organization unanswered. Through the entire time when I needed things to talk through, you both were always there–thank you so much for this.
Adelinde Uhrmacher
WSC 2012 Program Chair
We hope you enjoy the Proceedings of the 2012 Winter Simulation Conference. It contains a large number of interesting items. For those new to simulation, the proceedings contain introductory as well as advanced tutorials. These tutorials are especially helpful in classrooms throughout the world. As usual, the high quality methodology papers cover the latest research in modeling, simulation and analysis. Moreover, the reader will find a wide range of wonderful applications and case studies of simulation technology including in the areas of transportation, logistics, manufacturing, health care, construction, education and more. This depth and breadth of coverage of all topics in simulation continues to make the proceedings a much needed and valuable resource to simulation practitioners and academics. Enjoy!
The full proceedings consists of nearly 350 full papers and more than 100 different kind of abstracts with a total of more than 1000 authors. We made only a small number of changes to the submission guidelines this year. We believe that the result is a nice tradeoff between authoring ease and quality of the final product, particularly in the age of electronic reading; we hope that you agree.
We’d like to thank the authors for responding quickly to our requests and bearing with us when we asked for additional information and fine-tuning of their contributions to WSC. We’d also like to thank Mark Montague of Linklings LLC for helping us with the paper management system in “real time,” whenever needed! Finally, we’d like to thank Omnipress, particularly John Hinch, for his guidance through the process and his patience. The three of us enjoyed working together. We hope we have succeeded in bringing in our “piece of puzzle” to make the 2012 Winter Simulation Conference in Europe a great success!
Christoph Laroque
Jan Himmelspach
Raghu Pasupathy
WSC 2012 Proceedings Co-Editors