When you build a simulation model of a system, part of the process is likely to include analyzing data in various formats so that they can be used as inputs to drive the simulation model. This data might be in the form of raw data sets that must be read directly by the simulation model or from which a statistical distribution must be estimated and then sampled in the model. In any case, extreme care must be taken to determine appropriate inputs for a simulation model because the accuracy of a model’s output data is directly dependent on how accurately you estimate the inputs.