Simulation Lab 3
Scott D. Anderson

Read the inv.cc program in the lab directory, think about it, and answer the following questions:

1.

What is the meaning of each line of the input file?

2.

What is the meaning of each line of the output file?

3.

What is the best strategy?

4.

How are the demands generated? (Hint: it's a generalization of what we did in class.)

5.

How are the ordering lag times generated. (Hint: this is just like we did in class.)

6.

How are the various costs computed?

7.

Change the simulation so that

• The simulation is for 60 months
• The initial inventory is zero units
• The shortage cost is 10 dollars
• Demands arrive at a rate of 20 per month

Before you re-run the simulation, what expectations do you have? What strategy do you think will be best?

8.

What difference do you think the initial inventory makes?

9.

Look at how the program does formatted output. This is C style formatted output, which I personally find to be much better than C++ style formatted output. Do you know how to do formatted output in C++? Do a man printf to find out more about C style formatted output.

10.

Why is it important that the variables are initialized in a function? Why not just initialize them when they are declared?

11.

Notice the great number of global variables. Do they all have to be global? Why or why not?

12.

How would this program have to change if there were n different products, instead of just one?