Pritsker Corporation.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: Profile - Company profile

Computer Modeling for Manufacturers

PRITSKER CORPORATION

For television viewers, the word "simulation" brings to mind the disclaimer that appears on screen when a commercial depicts a fictional scene rather than displays footage of an actual event.

For employees of Indiana's Pritsker Corporation and those who use its software, simulation is also viewed on screen. The screen, however, is a computer screen, and the model is likely a new production facility, process or manufacturing schedule.

Pritsker's analysis and planning software products model and help users select the best alternatives for planning a myriad of business activities. The theory is that simulation can help a company save time and money by trying something out on a computer model before making an investment in new construction, equipment or personnel changes.

As far as software companies go, Pritsker is unique in several ways. It's in Indiana rather than California or Massachusetts, the hubs for software development. It's also headed into its 17th year of business, ranking it among software industry seniors (many developers fail long before their fifth anniversary). And Pritsker Corporation is still privately held. Its president furthermore declines comment on any prospects of its going public.

What Pritsker does share with many software companies, however, is its academic origins. University researchers frequently develop computer applications that can be readily adapted to businesses. Many who try to take their ideas from basements of computer labs to the front offices of industry never succeed, however. But not so with Pritsker Corporation. While university-conceived, Pritsker Corporation quickly adapted to the business world, which may be its secret to success.

Or the success could stem from the fortune cookie story co-founder Alan Pritsker tells. As his story goes, Pritsker, then a Purdue University professor, was returning from a consulting trip in Ohio with academic cohorts, David Wortman and Elliot Segal, when the conversation turned to a discussion of industry's and government's failure to recognize how modeling and simulation could improve their operations. As they drove along, three began talking about the possibilities of forming a company to fill that niche themselves. When they stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant, Pritsker drew a fortune that read: "Your new business venture will be prosperous."

Whether it's true, or the fortune cookie held the power to...