Simulation Experiments in Practice : Statistical Design and Regression Analysis

In practice, simulation analysts often change only one factor at a time, and use graphical analysis of the resulting Input/Output (I/O) data. Statistical theory proves that more information is obtained when applying Design Of Experiments (DOE) and linear regression analysis. Unfortunately, classic theory assumes a single simulation response that is normally and independently distributed with a constant variance; moreover, the regression (meta)model of the simulation model's I/O behaviour is assumed to have residuals with zero means. This article addresses the following questions: (i) How realistic are these assumptions, in practice? (ii) How can these assumptions be tested? (iii) If assumptions are violated, can the simulation's I/O data be transformed such that the assumptions do hold? (iv) If not, which alternative statistical methods can then be applied?