Integrating System Dynamics and Enterprise Modeling to Address Dynamic and Structural Complexities of Choice Situations

The ability of enterprise managers to come up with the decisions leading to the best outcome for the enterprise is hampered by their cognitive limits in understanding and addressing the dynamic and structural complexities residing in choice situations. Dynamic complexities deal with the behavior of the enterprise and its environment over time. Structural complexities, on the other hand, arise from the number of the departments within the enterprise, their interactions and the interactions between the enterprise and the entities across its boundary. The policy aiding methods developed to assist managers in the analysis of choice scenarios address these two types of complexities in separation. In this paper adopting a holistic approach, we integrate System Dynamics (SD) - a method for understanding the behavior of systems over time - and Systemic Enterprise Architecture Methodology (SEAM) - a modeling method that provides insights into how an enterprise and its interactions with other entities are structured. Integrating SD and SEAM, we present an approach to modeling, analysis and simulation of choice scenarios aiming at reducing the dynamic and structural complexities involved in the decision making process. We illustrate the applicability of our approach by applying it to an example of a choice situation in a manufacturing company.