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Conaprole, the biggest dairy production company in Uruguay, produces more than 150 SKUs in their ice cream plant, using five production lines, and up to five different packaging configurations for each line. The company plans ice cream production on a 12-month rolling basis as part of the Sales & Operations Planning process, and the demand plan varies a lot due to seasonality. The factory management needs to prepare the production lines for the peak season during the low season, taking into account product shelf life and the warehouse’s freezing cameras’ capacity and costs. In addition, management found it very difficult to reschedule quickly their detailed plans due to the challenges they faced including bottlenecks, production process constraints, and staff turnover.

An initiative of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, the Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering (CRHE) is a response to the immediate and compelling desire for efficiency and quality improvements in the Canadian health care system. CRHE is committed to both research and education in the field of healthcare delivery. From an academic perspective, their work falls into two categories: research and service. A study completed by the Commenwealth Fund Commision (http://www.commonwealthfund.org/) ranked Canada very low in the categories of quality of health care, access to health care, efficiency, equity and expenditures. This study among others, prompted the CRHE to dedicate a research project that would test potential changes in Canadian healthcare policy that could increase the quality of patient care.

Join us for the“Delivery Fleet Optimization with GIS” webinar May 28th at 12noon CST for a step-by-step process of building a supply chain model with real-time GIS features and optimization capabilities. Webinar Objectives: - Build a regional supply network - Integrate real-time GIS technology - Optimize the delivery fleet assets - Enrich the simulation by integrating additional data sources Webinar attendees will receive the model source code, all necessary associated files and how-to-build written instructions.

Inland waterway logistics have their own special aspects that include high seasonality due to weather conditions, long delivery times, restricted door-to-door delivery capabilities, and more. On the other hand, river transport is cheap, environmentally friendly, and allows large amounts of goods to be carried. Barges are widely used to carry both bulk cargo and containers. Simulation can help companies justify switching to river logistics by comparing water transportation to other means in terms of costs, throughput, or shipping time. Shipping operators can use simulation to optimize routing and fleet management policies, taking into account uncertainties, breakdowns, bottlenecks, weather conditions, and water level. The following is a success story of river transport simulation-based optimization in South America.

Battelle is the world’s largest, non-profit, independent R&D organization, and is a worldwide leader in the development, commercialization, and transfer of technology. They manage or co-manage laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and an international nuclear laboratory in the United Kingdom. Battelle developed a disaster response solution for a federal government agency using AnyLogic, and in particular, agent-based modeling due to its multimethod capabilities. Joe Simkins, Economist at Battelle shared the solution with the AnyLogic community during the AnyLogic Conference 2013 in Washington D.C. Joe works in the fields of applied microeconomics, emergent simulation, and behavioral economics with experience in a wide variety of project applications ranging from health care to disaster response.

The fourth annual AnyLogic Conference will continue to prove the power of collaboration, not only with the AnyLogic team, but other experienced model developers. We are now excepting submissions for 2015 Conference presenters. AnyLogic Conference presenters are leaders in their field, and experienced AnyLogic users that bring innovative ideas and create a thought-provoking environment for attendees. Do you have a recent project utilizing AnyLogic? The AnyLogic community including the AnyLogic Team, advocates of the software, and potential users, are eager to hear your success story. Visit the Conference webpage for submission guidelines and to learn more about the AnyLogic Conference 2015.

“This is how GE does ‘startups’ – putting our researchers, manufacturing talent and commercial teams to work to create technology that serves customer needs around the world,” Immelt (CEO) said. “GE Energy Storage was born in New York’s Capital Region from an idea that we turned into an advanced manufacturing plant and a global business that we expect will generate more than $1 billion in revenue annually in just a few years.” (www.ecomagination.com, 2012) In 2012, GE opened a new battery manufacturing plant in conjunction with the launch of an innovative energy storage business. The new Durathon battery products, which are half the size of conventional lead acid batteries, but last ten times longer, are the result of GE’s $100 million initial investment in battery technology developed at GE’s Global Research Center (geenergystorage.com, 2014). Expanding the facility doubled production, added 100 new jobs, and brought the total factory workforce to 450 when at full capacity (geenergystorage.com, 2014).

Tom Baggio, Sr. Solutions Architect at AnyLogic North America guides you through model building demonstrations that showcase some of our newest features, including the innovative GIS capabilities. The implementation of GIS gives you access to all data stored along with online-based map providers (i.e. Open Street Map): cities, regions, road networks, objects (hospitals, schools, bus stops, etc.). Video demonstration segments include building a route between two cities with trucks moving along the map, looking for a destination based on the shortest route, regional perspective of GIS capabilities, a supply chain demo, and an overview of general user improvements.

Before launching a new drug, a pharmaceutical company should decide the optimal promotional mix for both patient and doctors, and the optimal sampling level, high enough to induce therapy without cannibalizing paid prescriptions. Using AnyLogic Simulation Modeling, JP Tsang, Ph.D. & MBA, addresses the complexities of launching a new drug in the pharmaceutical industry, the need for a Contract Sales Organization (CSO) and the influence of Key Opinion Leaders (KOL). The project zeroed in on the medical group practice in order to better understand the dynamics between physician and patient, and between physician and medical representatives. The Agent Based Model (ABM) allows you to understand local behavior, identify bottlenecks regarding certain output variables and better grasp the big picture.

On November 12th and 13th, 2014, AnyLogic supporters gathered in San Francisco, CA for the annual AnyLogic Conference, a two-day event geared toward innovative projects, business solutions, and networking with experts in the field of simulation modeling. A sincere thank you goes out to the AnyLogic Community that has proven once again to have a passion and forward thinking motivation to solve various complex challenges all over the globe with AnyLogic software. The goal of the AnyLogic Conference program is to provide attendees with a wide variety of industry presentations which encourage a cooperative and educational environment. The 2014 presentations are available now on AnyLogic's YouTube Channel, and include the presenter's slide deck for ease of viewing. Enjoy the presentations and make sure to join us next year for the AnyLogic Conference 2015, November 4th and 5th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania immediately following INFORMS Annual Meeting.