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Discrete Event Simulation Software

Time-tested and proven, the Simio Discrete Event Simulation Software Platform delivers unmatched versatility and capabilities for solving complex operational challenges

Why Discrete Event Simulation?

Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is a powerful and versatile software technology for the design, analysis, improvement, and execution of complex operational processes. It can be applied to both greenfield and brownfield projects, for the design of new operational processes or improving the behavior and performance of existing ones. Discrete Event Simulation software provides deep insights into the impact of variability and variation, parallel and series task sequences, resource and material constraints, fluctuating product and service demands, and many other factors that affect system performance. Discrete Event Simulation software allows you to simulate and analyze behavior occurring in the present or at any time in the future, whether for a single mission-critical process or a complex network of processes that constitute a system or systems at one or multiple sites. This versatility makes Discrete Event Simulation (DES) highly effective across a wide range of applications and industries.

Visualize & Understand the System

  • Capture all required rules and decision logic to replicate current behavior and performance benchmarks.
  • Help stakeholders visualize and understand the process to identify and determine the best configuration and process parameters.

Reduce New Implementation Risks

  • Evaluate the impact of different equipment options and configurations on system performance.
  • Understand, update and test all related IT systems data to ensure effective digital transformation and integration.

Analyze & Optimize Performance

  • Evaluate process performance by varying specific operating parameters to identify optimal settings or configurations.
  • Low-risk environment for running unlimited experimentation to optimize system performance based on key business KPIs.

Evaluate & Analyze Alternatives

  • Analyze the impact of layout changes, operating rules, or alternate workflows on system performance.
  • Evaluate the impact of shift schedules, as well as different labor and skill configurations, on overall process efficiency and throughput.

Improve System Design & CapEx Deployment

  • Understand and analyze proposed new equipment, layouts, and configurations for best performance and value delivery before committing capital expenditures.
  • Evaluate project phasing and value delivery options for effective capital deployment and release schedules.

Understand the Impact of Variation

  • Unlike Excel models and calculations, Discrete Event Simulation provides the ability to understand and evaluate the impact of randomness and variation on system performance.
  • Most systems contain variation that dramatically impacts overall system performance, such as demand and supplier variation, equipment and personnel failures, and quality issues.

Continuously Explore Process Improvements

  • Explore new and innovative workflow and automation concepts to identify and evaluate potential performance improvement opportunities.
  • Evaluate value versus cost impact of new process changes to prioritize and support final implementation decisions.

Why Simio for Discrete Event Simulation?

The development team behind Simio released their first commercially available Discrete Event Simulation software product over 46 years ago. For more than five decades, this team has continuously advanced the science and art of Discrete Event Simulation. Simio’s platform is not simply an adaptation or repackaging of an existing application but represents an evolutionary fourth-generation design of a Discrete Event Simulation software architecture, built from the ground up to be robust, scalable, and capable of seamless integration with third-party applications and enterprise IT environments. This architecture excels in both depth of functionality and the ability to handle large, complex models. Simio is designed not only to master traditional Discrete Event Simulation tasks but also to replace legacy applications that have historically struggled with challenging operational tasks such as Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS).

The Simio Discrete Event Simulation software platform is designed to be user-friendly, fast, and feature-rich, providing a scalable experience that supports you from initial ramp-up to expert-level use. Our commitment to your success extends beyond our products. The dedicated team behind Simio is customer-focused and experienced, offering expert knowledge in the operation and application of our software. We maintain extensive support and services resources to ensure you achieve your goals.

Simio: The Best Choice for Simulation

Intuitive Modeling Experience

  • Simio provides a traditional point-and-click user interface alongside an intuitive and powerful data-generated, data-driven approach for developing Process Digital Twin models.
  • A data-driven approach:
    • Facilitates rapid model creation and simplifies model development for complex scenarios
    • Promotes reuse and scaling of models to new sites, multi-site, and supply chain applications
    • Minimizes support requirements associated with long-term use models
  • Simio includes out-of-the-box configurable intelligent object libraries.
    • Reducing ramp-up time for new users
    • Models can be instantiated as objects in other models, enabling hierarchical design
    • Libraries can quickly be expanded through subclassing
    • Industry and company specific templates and libraries can easily be created
  • Simio provides a library of application-specific templates containing predefined objects, process logic, and data schemas to jump-start Process Digital Twin model development for complex operational processes. Each template is customizable to fit any user-specific requirements.
  • No coding is required to build Simio Process Digital Twin models.

3D Visualization & Animation

  • Simio Process Digital Twin models are true digital twins in both operational accuracy and visual detail. With 3D, GIS, and VR capabilities, users have powerful visualization features at their disposal.
  • Animations visually depict events as they unfold during simulations, along with real-time updates to charts and tables embedded in models.
  • Import 2D & 3D graphics from applications such as SketchUp, AutoCAD, Inventor, and SOLIDWORKS.
  • Access over one million free 3D symbols from 3D Warehouse.

Simulation Experimentation & Analysis

  • Simio’s integrated model building, simulation, experimentation, and analysis functions are crucial for empowering users to fully harness the real-world decision-making support power of our Discrete Event Simulation platform.
    • Build, verify, and refine model behavior through a streamlined process to ensure that your simulations are both accurate and reliable, giving you confidence in the outcomes they generate.
  • Fully configurable interactive dashboard reports can be customized to match and expand upon the reports familiar to stakeholders.
    • Generate clear visualizations that make it easy to interpret and share operational performance, enhancing decision-making and stakeholder communication.
  • Gantt Charts display the behavior of your processes, whether occurring in the present or at any time in the future, with extreme accuracy and exceptional clarity.
    • Build deep insight into operational behavior for a single mission-critical process or a complex network of processes that constitute a system or systems at one or multiple sites.
    • Break down processes to the level of individual workers, tools, and resources.
    • Simio’s “Glass Box” approach allows you to easily identify and address constraints or delays related to material or resource availability, ensuring that Process Digital Twin results are both transparent and actionable.
  • Simio’s experimentation interface is designed for ease of use, enabling you to quickly define and adjust parameters and levers across different scenarios.
    • Compare different configurations against your business KPIs using optimization tools that help you pinpoint the most effective setup, all without the need for coding.
  • Simio logs extensive data and provides customizable outputs that can be exported to populate data visualization tools or integrate with systems of record.
    • Data logging and export flexibility ensures that your results are not only easy to access and interpret but also seamlessly integrate into your overall decision-making processes.
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Fast Runtimes

  • Simio’s Discrete Event Simulation software is designed to run efficiently and quickly, no matter the model size.
  • Fast runtimes are essential to unlock the full potential of limitless experimentation and scenario analysis.
  • Simulation runs can be performed manually or designed to be fully automated and event-triggered.
  • Simio Discrete Event Simulation is capable of supporting Process Digital Twin models of large, complex operational environments such as single or multi-site manufacturing and warehouse facilities, as well as end-to-end supply chains.

True Object-Oriented Design

  • Simio’s patented software architecture enables the creation and modification of intelligent objects without the need for programming.
    • Simio objects are process-based rather than code-based.
    • Objects are defined by creating graphical process flows that describe behavior.
    • Process behavior is captured in a flowchart that describes sequences of activities and decisions made by an object.
    • A process may span time and be constrained by limited resources.
  • Objects can easily be shared between projects and users.
  • Simio operates as a “Glass Box.”
    • Details associated with intelligent objects are easy to understand and modify.
    • Models and projects are stored in a readable XML format, seamlessly integrating with third-party revision control applications.
  • Intelligent objects interact as “agents,” making autonomous and informed decisions.

Advanced Software Architecture

  • Simio leverages the latest .NET technology and an agile development process to rapidly deliver new features and technology enhancements.
  • Simio offers robust support for scaling computing power and memory to efficiently handle increased scenario replications/runs, ensuring confidence in optimized solutions.
  • Simio is built on an efficient, ultra-fast in-memory relational database that can be fully configured to match the schema of any external data source, providing unparalleled flexibility.
  • Simio can be extended with .NET languages to add new features, enhance functionality, and tailor the environment to specific needs.

Fully AI/DNN/ML Enabled

  • Embed AI agents to capture complex decision logic, simplify models, and optimize operational processes to improve the performance of your system.
  • Simio Process Digital Twin models can create clean, labeled, and fully feasible data covering the entire solution space for training AI agents.
  • Embedded Neural Networks can be trained using Simio’s built-in Gradient Descent training algorithm.
  • Synthetic training data can be exported to external third-party Neural Networks for training. The trained Neural Networks can then be imported back into Simio for execution.
  • Test and validate the performance and behavior of AI algorithms prior to implementation in a virtual sandbox environment.
  • Easily fine-tune the performance of AI agents by evaluating different Machine Learning configurations and hyperparameter settings.
  • Simio is designed from the ground up to support seamless bidirectional data integration and streamlined automation with third-party applications and programming languages such as Python. This design enables tight coupling with Simio Process Digital Twins to quickly and automatically create new data and scenarios.
    • This powerful methodology supports system design, workflow automation, and ongoing system optimization.
    • Simio’s architecture empowers web developers and data scientists to fully leverage Process Digital Twin technology. This enables the creation of what-if and optimization scenarios that support decision-making for stakeholders across the enterprise.

Flexible Data & Integration Framework

  • Simio’s open architecture features an extensive, fully configurable set of data connectors that support the streamlined import of transactional and operational data from any external source.
    • Data connectors enable temporary or user-specific systems to access operator-specific data maintained in Excel or CSV files, snapshots from custom systems, and data recorded in Excel during operations.
    • Data connectors for database applications such as SQL Server and Oracle facilitate direct integration with databases used for staging and data transformation, as well as direct access to enterprise-level, application-specific data sources.
    • Out-of-the-box Simio APIs or web services can be used to integrate with MES systems such as AVEVA and Tulip to access dynamic process-related data for initializing a Process Digital Twin with the current factory status. They can also provide execution data, such as task lists and start times, back to MES systems.
    • Utilize industry-standard applications such as PTC Kepware IoT Gateway and HighByte Intelligence Hub to directly connect to IoT devices, external solvers, and AI-based applications or algorithms for dynamic real-time inputs and optimization during simulation runtime.
    • Simio Web APIs facilitate integration with cloud-based data sources such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, which hold mission-critical data published by underlying enterprise systems. They also support direct integration with Enterprise Resource and Supply Chain Planning systems (ERP/SCP) such as SAP S/4HANA, OMP, Kinaxis, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics.

Scalable Deployments

  • Simio offers a range of deployment options, including desktop and cloud-based solutions, to broaden the reach and utility of Process Digital Twins and Discrete Event Simulation for both internal and external stakeholders across the enterprise.
  • Leveraging the power of the cloud:
    • Deploy Process Digital Twin simulations on Simio’s web-based platform, enabling you to efficiently run large-scale experiments.
    • Support large user groups with the ability to initiate numerous runs frequently, while scaling effortlessly with cloud resources.
    • Expand the reach of your Process Digital Twin simulations to include a broader range of stakeholders and transform decision-making through dynamic scenario analysis. Allow users to define and run scenarios, adjusting parameters or incorporating new data, such as demand profiles, inventory levels, or resource availability.
    • Maximize the use of collaborative web-based visualization functionality by utilizing comparative, interactive dashboards to visualize and present “what-if” scenario results to stakeholders.
    • Define roles and user groups to empower stakeholders across the enterprise to collaborate on and review published results. This collaborative role and user group management ensures that every team member can contribute to and benefit from the simulation process.
  • Simio’s comprehensive application workstreams span Simulation & Analysis, Process Design & Optimization, Planning & Scheduling, Shop Floor Orchestration, and Design-to-Operate Process Management.

User Feedback

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“Our customers want both choice and speed. By understanding where our customers’ expectations are going, and by leveraging rapid modeling with Simio, we are prepared to tackle this challenge.”

Jarrod Thome

Manager of Process Design & Simulation Modeling

McDonald’s

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“The Simio Digital Twin is now used 24/7 to generate plans that are accessible to all. These plans are used in daily management meetings to establish the strategy. The Simio Digital Twin model has now been run over 65,000 times to generate plans. It is equivalent to running the model every hour for over 7 years.”

Jonathan Miller

Industrial Engineer & Simulation Modeler

Alcoa

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“Frankly, I’ve been stunned that every time we came up with a new question or level of complexity that we needed to account for in the simulation, the Simio software answered the bell and responded to our needs.”

J. Spencer Williams

Founder, President & CEO

Retirement Clearinghouse

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“Across our sites we have multiple Simio users of varying skill level, and we have been able to successfully hand-off models to local teams with guided instructions for how to make conceptual level model changes through data-driven inputs. We view Simio’s data-driven and data-generated model configuration as a key enabler for Digital Twin development.”

Thomas Lewis

Associate Director – Business Insight & Analytics

Bristol Myers Squibb

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“We find that the use of objects to quickly build a working model of a plant layout very appropriate. Moreover, the possibility to add additional logic in the case of movement and synchronization of different lines through a set of instructions is easy to implement and expanded our capability to solve more complex problems.”

José Vilar

Project Manager

Nissan Europe

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“Simio cannot be replaced or trumped for the power and ability that you gain by using it. The information gleaned from a model like this is truly unmatched. Simio is an incredibly powerful tool that helps make Penske better every day.”

Morgan Mistysyn

Operational Excellence Manager

Penske

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“By using the forward-looking benefits that Simio simulation-based performance analytics offer, we saved tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary investments in building expansion projects.”

Mike Lazzaroni

Senior Planning Analyst

Vancouver International Airport

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“We modeled the prototype assembly process in Simio and adjusted resources to reduce the lead times from 3 weeks to less than 1 week.”

Carlos Lares

Senior Business Unit Ops Manager

Skyworks Solutions

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“Across all [production] lines and all tested schedules, we were able to demonstrate an 8% throughput lift. This lift was achieved using a black box optimizer developed by McKinsey and a Simio Digital Twin model.”

Wim de Villiers

Senior Data Scientist, QuantumBlack AI by McKinsey

McKinsey & Company

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“I like how fast Simio is when I run experiments because it uses all the [processing] cores on my computer. ‘Boom’ and it is done!”

Anna Palmerius

Project Engineer

Vantage Airport Group

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“What gives a tool value is flexibility… Simio provides me greater value through flexibility with the addition of 3D animation.”

John T. Carson

Staff Operations Engineer

Lockheed Martin

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“The ability to test the planned facilities under various conditions enabled us to understand the different tradeoffs and deliver designs well suited to our customers’ needs, which can be expanded as traffic increases.”

Louis Roy

Senior Airport Planner

AECOM

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“The model proved to be very adherent to the real dynamics of the operations of CTC’s cane sugar internal movement in the plant. It also allows you to view points of queuing and resources with high and low occupancy.”

Mara Veronez

Project Engineer

Cosan Combustiveis e Lubrificantes S.A.

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“We have built dozens of scalable Digital Twins for our clients with 99% prediction accuracy by leveraging commercial solutions such as Simio as well as building custom solutions in Python.”

Benjamin Braverman

Principle Product Manager, QuantumBlack AI by McKinsey

McKinsey & Company

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“The biggest quality of the model was in the realm of visualization. Simio made it easy for those involved to understand the current situation and the projections for future growth. The structure also enabled people to understand how things worked in the background.”

Pascal Poudenx

Airport Process Engineer

Vantage Airport Group

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“In my view, Simio allows detailed analysis and individual ‘links’ as well as an aggregated end-to-end analysis and optimization of complex supply chains of the Bundeswehr. Simio adheres particularly well to the supply chain approach.”

Hans-Georg Konert

Managing Director

Konekta Consulting GmbH

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Who Uses Simio Simulation Software?

Discrete Event Simulation (DES) creates a low-risk environment for modeling and accurately predicting the behavior and performance of any process or complete system. Through a workstream involving simulation and experimentation, users experience full 3D visualization and deep insight into operational behavior, detailed performance analysis, and powerful process and system performance optimization, leading to informed decision-making and improved system operation. From commercial businesses and government agencies to academic institutions, across every industry and business size, organizations grappling with complex operational challenges can harness the versatile capabilities of Simio’s Discrete Event Simulation software.