Blog

Today, more than a quarter of simulation professionals worldwide choose AnyLogic as the best simulation software tool for business applications, according to the market share analysis we recently conducted. There is no official research on the size of the market and the market shares of simulation tools, and software companies’ revenue numbers are not public. Nevertheless, we can use indirect data to make estimations.

The military aircraft maintenance turnaround process is highly complex and includes multiple interacting and parallel workflows between humans and machines. Lockheed Martin, one of the largest companies in the aerospace, defense, security, and technologies industry sought to improve decision-making in regards to the complete turnaround process and to identify process changes that could be implemented to reduce turnaround time. There are two distinct features unique to the project. One being the use of AnyLogic to model people, machines and workstations, and how they interact, which identified previously unknown workflow peculiarities. The second, a portable Android tablet application developed and tested by the team for workflow authoring and data collection that provided the input data to the process simulation model.

A smart bike sharing system can provide fast and easy access to public transportation where short trips are common for a large portion of the population. Urban planning officials in the City of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico believe the socioeconomic conditions along with its societies adherence to this mode of transportation combined with the urban trace and physical conditions encourage the adoption of a bike sharing system. The City of Leon contracted Karla Margarita Gamez Pérez, Eleazar Puente Rivera, and her team from The University of Monterrey to research the possibility of a bike sharing system prior to implementation. Karla’s team chose AnyLogic Software for simulation modeling to carry out the design and dimensioning of the system.

Jay W. Forrester SM ’45, professor emeritus in the MIT Sloan School of Management, founder of the field of system dynamics, and a pioneer of digital computing, died Nov. 16. He was 98 (1). Forrester received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1939 from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, was inducted in 1949 into Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) the Electrical & Computer Engineering Honor Society, and went on to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he would spend his entire career. During the 1940s and early 50s, he did research in electrical and computer engineering, heading the Whirlwind project, perfecting magnetic-core memory, and developing the "multi-coordinate digital information storage device"

A two day conference of AnyLogic users took place in Beijing. It welcomed 50 representatives from Chinese and international companies. With their own models, they demonstrated how to handle business issues using the AnyLogic simulation tool. Along with Alena Beloshapko, we showcased Russian and international simulation modeling projects for transportation, manufacturing, logistics, and pedestrian traffic. At the workshops, conference participants learned more about new AnyLogic libraries for various business areas.

There's still time to register!

Are you just becoming familiar with Multimethod or Hybrid Modeling? A long-time AnyLogic software modeler, Dr. Benjamin Schumann from decisionLab would like to introduce you to the notion of “paradigm-free modeling”; modeling without the limitations of a specific language such as DE, SD or AB. Dr. Schumann elaborated on this concept in a recent blog post where he discussed the future of modeling, suggesting a new mentality is required for simulation modeling to become truly mainstream. Dr. Schumann came across the idea of paradigm-free modeling through Stefan Bengtsson, a very experienced modeler from Sweden who has represented multiple commercial and academic organizations. Some examples of his work: System Thinking and Simulation Presentation , Modeling Applications in Healthcare Video.

A multi-national pharmaceutical company recently launched a new non-generic drug. Since the company already owned the leading non-generic drug in that market, cannibalization was a concern. The goal was to create market share for the new drug, while maintaining or increasing market share for the well-established drug by modifying types of promotional spend. Traditionally, the Analytics Department would employ a Marketing-Mix Model (MMM) to determine the impact of promotional spend, but the company was looking for further insight into the mechanics behind the MMM. After exploring multiple options, they determined agent-based modeling, and ultimately AnyLogic would allow for the greatest flexibility and visualization.

If you have ever created a railyard consisting of multiple railway tracks in AnyLogic, then you might be familiar with the hint described in the video. If not, watch it and learn how convert GIS shapefiles to AnyLogic rail markup. It will save your time while building the railroad model and acquaint you with the Railroad library.

Quick question: how old were the characters of the famous “Friends” TV-show? Not a clue? Watch our new video to know the answer and find out how to read agent attributes from a database in AnyLogic! The new video shows how to create a population of agents and read the agent attributes from a database with the example of six friends from the TV-show. You will also learn how to add parameters to each agent and upload the database table from Excel file.