Blog

Being #26 in last years’ Fortune 500 list, Cardinal Health is a billion dollar pharmaceutical distribution and logistics company. Its clients are hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, and individual consumers. They face a multitude of typical distribution warehouse challenges that are further complicated by the nature of pharmaceutical products, which are smaller in size, consumable, expensive, and could be life critical. Company’s warehouses have narrow passages, and workers operate big multilevel trolleys. That increases the probability of employees’ mistakes and makes these mistakes costly.

The Handbook of Operations Research Applications at Railroads (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science) is the first book to offer a complete spectrum of the role that operations research has played and can play in the improvement of North American freight railroads. It explores how decisions are made at railroads, contains examples of the mathematical programming formulations to the complex problems, and provides insights into real-world applications. AnyLogic is featured in two chapters: Simulation of Line of Road Operations and Terminal Simulation written by Roger Baugher, who has worked to apply Operations Research tools to railroads for over 40 years as both a railroad employee and consultant (B. Patty, Preface). Roger was instrumental in the development of Algorithmic Blocking and Classification (ABC) while at Norfolk Southern, was the first recipient of the Railroad Applications Special Interest Group (RASIG) Award for his contributions to OR in the railroad industry and is a Franz Edelman Laureate. In addition to Norfolk Southern, Roger Baugher applied his understanding of network optimization approaches to various forms of the transportation organizations, such as BNSF, American Airlines, Pacer Stacktrain, Conrail where he played an integral part in developing the Conrail Network Analysis Model (CNAM)

Centrotherm Photovoltaics AG is a global supplier of technology and equipment for the photovoltaics, semiconductor, and microelectronics industries.

The company needed to identify the best configuration of the automated production line and factory, to minimize costs and maximize throughput and reliability. Centrotherm needed to avoid possible bottlenecks in the material flow and optimize in-factory logistics.

Grapevine leafroll disease (GLRD) threatens the economic sustainability of the grape and wine industry in the United States and around the world. This viral disease reduces yield, delays fruit ripening, and affects wine quality. Shady S. Atallah, Miguel I. Gomez,Jon M. Conrad, and Jan P. Nyrop from the University of New Hampshire published a Plant-level, Spatial, Bioeconomic Model of Plant Disease Difussion and Control: Grapevine Leafroll Disease in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. The project examines the impact of alternative disease control strategies on distributions of bioeconomic outcomes and ranks them based on the vineyard expected net present values (ENPVs). Using simulation modeling them to analyze alternative disease control strategies that would not be possible using classical approaches.

At the AnyLogic Conference 2014, Kyle Johnson, Global Business Services in Advanced Analytics and Optimization at IBM partnered with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, presented a “Multi-Agent-Based Simulation of a Complex Ecosystem of Mental Health Care.” To date, the research paper was published in the Journal of Medical Systems and received the attention of the United States House of Representatives [1]. The project revolves around the housing cycle of the United State’s Severely and Persistently Mentally Ill (SPMI). An SPMI patient defines someone with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, or Major Depressive Disorder, and this group constitutes about 1.7% of the US population. To better understand the condition and possible improvements, IBM Global Research and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals used an agent-based approach to model the SPMI living situations over the second half of the 20th century.

For any industry, adopting new technology can be costly both in time, and money. As most of you know, adopting simulation modeling is the way around making costly unnecessary changes and depleting human resources. New to the simulation and modeling concept as a decision-making and problem-solving tool, is the oil & gas industry. Alvaro Gil from Steam Systems Ltd. guides us through the implementation of simulation modeling, the data behind the models, bumps in the road, and ultimately the return on investment. Utilizing simulation and modeling to address oil & gas industry challenges, Stream Systems helps clients realize billions of dollars in cost-savings.

Incredible value, hands on learning! The AnyLogic 7 Training Course has been a staple for new AnyLogic users whether you’re an academic or commercial customer. Understanding the importance of the course and the benefits modelers have experienced Ilya Grigoryev, Head of Training Services made it his top priority to update the training content ensuring a world class program upon the release of AnyLogic 7, our newest version. Now is the best time to sign up for a course and become familiar with AnyLogic 7 capabilities. The course agenda includes an introduction to multimethod modeling and simulation, both by theory and demonstration getting you familiar with the AnyLogic software model development environment.

AnyLogic 7.3 Beta is released and available for beta testing! The main new feature added is the Road Traffic Library. The Road Traffic Library allows you to simulate vehicle traffic on roads. The library supports detailed physical level modeling of vehicle movement. Each vehicle represents an agent that can have its behavioral patterns inside. The library allows the users to simulate:

As we look back on an exciting 2015, we cannot help but feel honored and humbled by your continued support and contributions enabling AnyLogic to maintain our position as THE global leader in simulation modeling software. Our year was packed full of exciting moments! We released AnyLogic Personal Learning Edition (PLE) FREE to anyone who wants to learn Simulation Modeling. The AnyLogic Conference 2015 was another tremendous success built solidly on our user community willing to share their achievements and collaborate with colleagues.

The Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) is the premier international forum for disseminating recent advances in the field of system simulation. AnyLogic has been a staple at WSC since the year 2000 and due to our community of users and remain the only multi-method modeling and truly agent-based commercial simulation and modeling software. Thank you for making AnyLogic #1. AnyLogic’s presence at WinterSim was robust as usual spanning from vendor workshops, case study tracks, academic presentations, and networking events.