Running simulation models has the potential to generate large volumes of data. The subject matter of your simulation investigation or the sophistication of your model often dictates what type of data you need to collect from each of your simulation runs along with the amount of data required to perform an appropriate analysis. Different stages of model development might also have different data collection requirements. For example, when you are initially building and debugging your model, you might collect data that are not necessary after the model is validated.
Simulation Studio provides various blocks with data collection capabilities and plots for displaying data. The experiment features in Simulation Studio provide another way to collect data. (See Chapter 5, Experiments. ) After you have collected and saved your data from simulation runs, SAS and JMP software offer many options for analyzing the data and generating reports. Since data analysis and reporting requirements vary widely for different simulation scenarios, this chapter focuses on the data collection aspects of Simulation Studio.