New Partnership Seeks to Expand Use of Monte Carlo Simulation

CONSULTING WITH IMPACT, LTD. ADOPTS @RISK TO MAXIMIZE PROJECT RETURNS FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS

3 September 2008, Rochester - Palisade Corporation has entered into a partnership with Consulting With Impact, Ltd., a Rochester, New York–area firm specializing in process and efficiency improvement. The goal of their new effort is to expand the uses of Monte Carlo simulation in the Lean Six Sigma process. Consulting With Impact brings to the project its more than 25 years of experience in successful bottom-line improvement for client companies, and Palisade brings its flagship software @RISK, a Monte Carlo add-in to Microsoft Excel.  

Edward Biernat, president of Consulting With Impact, sees the Six Sigma market for a Monte Carlo simulation tool as being wide open because he believes that although the technique is not widely recognized, Monte Carlo simulation is an obvious next step in process optimization for many companies. “For those companies just beginning to work with Six Sigma or other approaches to quality performance, Monte Carlo simulation is a fast-lane to precision. And precision is important because even if you’re mostly right, you’re still approximately wrong.” Precision is even more important, he says, for those companies that have experienced several rounds of process improvement.  “At these later stages, a company can’t afford to be wrong—or even slightly wrong.” 

Palisade Corporation is known for making quantitative analysis add-ins to Excel that produce robust results for users of all levels of experience.  @RISK’s total integration with Excel was essential for Biernat.  “It means I don’t have to retrain all my clients.  They can build a Monte Carlo model in their own familiar spreadsheet.”

The desire to continue working in a known, comfortable environment is something Palisade’s Six Sigma specialist Steve Hunt hears about frequently.  “What we’ve done at Palisade is to make it possible for people who use our software to stay in an environment where they can work efficiently and still get highly precise optimization results.” 

Optimum is the way Ed Biernat thinks.  “If there’s an optimum way and your organization is not following it, then you are not optimal.”

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