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Exercise 25: Running and graphing scenarios to compare outcomes

Watch the video presentation and/or read the full text below

In all the earlier exercises, we have just ‘run the model’ (File/Run or <F5>). Now we have added these variants for the tariff input, we need to be more specific:

  1. Select Scenarios and Sensitivities on the File menu (after Run). The Scenarios and Sensitivities dialog is displayed, with a prominent list of the scenarios defined for the model. Below Low, Medium and High in the list, there is a checkbox labelled Include Working Model which allows for the model to be run with the current value displayed in the Tariffs dialog. This is currently still 60.0, but may be varied independently of the Variant Data. (The Working Model is like a separate, default scenario.)
  2. Check Include Working Model (so our existing results will remain up to date), and then click All under Save and Run (or you can first select all the scenarios in the list, and the click Selection under the same heading).

Figure 53: Running all scenarios, including the working model

The model is run four times in parallel (once for each scenario, with the new values 80.0/100.0/120.0 plugged in, plus the working model at 60.0). If you are quick, you will see some fleeting messages in the status bar at the bottom left of the Editor.

The Results program is activated, and the graphs are updated, but nothing appears to have changed! All of the existing graphs relate to the working model (which was all we could graph before), and we have not changed the working value in the Tariffs dialog.

Now we will modify the NPV graph to show the different scenario results instead:

  1. Double-click where it says Working Model on the NPV graph. The Change Selections dialog is displayed with an extra Scenariostab listing the available scenarios.
  2. Double click each of Low, Medium and High to add them to the Selected list (or click and drag to select them all and then click the button).
  3. Double click Working Model in the Selected list to remove it (or click to select it and then click the button).
  4. Click OK. The graph is redrawn with three lines, one for each scenario.

Figure 54: Changing the NPV graph to show Low, Medium and High instead of the Working Model

Our choices were not aggressive enough to achieve the desired results, but the spread on the graph makes it much easier to assess what values we might need. For payback at the end of Y5, it looks like we need a value between the current Medium and High, say 90.0. For Y4, it needs to be slightly more than the current High, perhaps 125.0, whereas for Y3 we will still have to guess at something like 150.0. Try it!

  1. Enter the new values 90.0/125.0/150.0 for Low/Medium/High in the Variant Data dialog in the Editor. (You can access this directly from the Tariff scenarios icon.)
  2. You can still just press <F5> to re-run the model. All the scenarios that were run last time will be run again. The Results program is activated, and the graphs are updated.
  3. Repeat this process until the lines on the NPV graph cross the axis as desired.

Figure 55: The business achieves payback in Y5/Y4/Y3 in the Low/Medium/High scenarios

Things that you should have seen and understood

Scenarios and Sensitivities, Include Working Model, Run Selection, Run All
Scenarios tab, Working Model

 

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