This chapter surveys two methods for the optimization of real-world systems that are modelled through simulation. These methods use either linear regression metamodels, or Kriging (Gaussian processes). The metamodel type guides the design of the experiment; this design fixes the input...

This tutorial reviews the design and analysis of simulation experiments. These experiments may have various goals: validation, prediction, sensitivity analysis, optimization (possibly robust), and risk or uncertainty analysis. These goals may be realized through metamodels. Two types of...

In this chapter we present Kriging also known as a Gaussian process (GP) model which is a mathematical interpolation method. To select the input combinations to be simulated, we use Latin hypercube sampling (LHS); we allow uniform and non-uniform distributions of the simulation inputs. Besides...

We derive new statistical tests for leave-one-out cross-validation of Kriging models. Graphically, we present these tests as scatterplots augmented with confidence intervals. We may wish to avoid extrapolation, which we define as prediction of the output for a point that is a vertex of the...

Sequential bifurcation (or SB) is an efficient and effective factor-screening method; i.e., SB quickly identifies the important factors (inputs) in experiments with simulation models that have very many factors — provided the SB assumptions are valid. The specific SB assumptions are: (i) a...

Efficient Global Optimization (EGO) is a popular method that searches sequentially for the global optimum of a simulated system. EGO treats the simulation model as a black-box, and balances local and global searches. In deterministic simulation, EGO uses ordinary Kriging (OK), which is a special...

We study the correct estimation of the true variance of the predictor in stochastic Kriging (SK). First, we obtain macroreplications for a SK metamodel that approximates a single-server simulation model; these macroreplications give independently and identically distributed predictions. This...

An important goal of simulation is optimization of the corresponding real system. We focus on simulation models with multiple responses (out-puts), selecting one response as the variable to be maximized or minimized while the remaining responses satisfy prespecified thresholds; i.e., we focus on...

Factor screening searches for the really important inputs (factors) among the many inputs that are changed in a realistic simulation experiment. Sequential bifurcation (SB) is a sequential method that changes groups of inputs simultaneously. SB is the most efficient and effective method if the...

This article uses a sequentialized experimental design to select simulation input combinations for global optimization, based on Kriging (also called Gaussian process or spatial correlation modeling); this Kriging is used to analyze the input/output data of the simulation model (computer code)....