Simio Sync Successfully Showcases the Importance of Adopting Digital Transformation

The fourth Simio Sync conference and the first digital event in its history came to a successful conclusion with participants gaining insightful information about the application of digital transformation solutions and the transformative process.

Aptly titled ‘The Digital Transformation’, sessions across Simio Sync 2021 showcased how industrial giants such as Ernst & Young, Johnson & Johnson, and Bayer have leveraged digital transformation solutions to solve complex problems and to prepare for a changing, more competitive post-pandemic world.

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The agenda for the three-day event was broadly categorized into three important sections. These sections include the importance of starting the digital transformation journey, how digital transformation helps with solving complex operational challenges, and how digital transformation tools such as the digital twin are applied.

Sachin Lulla, Principal, Advisory Global Digital Transformation and IoT Leader at EY, kick-started the event and introduced the importance of navigating operational challenges by leveraging digital transformation. His keynote session set the tone for the event. He discussed the importance of enterprises starting their digital transformation journey now to implement sustainable policies and to remain competitive.

Scott Swann, Modeling and Simulation Lead at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, enlightened attendees about the application of Simio to develop discrete event simulation models at Lockheed Martin. His session introduced the challenges enterprises face with collating accurate data to model a complex system for predictive analysis, risk analysis, and to develop optimized schedules. He concluded by discussing the need to introduce simulation modeling to the different departments within an enterprise and how training operators to become familiar with models helps with decision making in real-time.

On the second day, discussions from representatives of Accenture, Bayer, B&R Automation, and Northrop Grumman introduced the unique value propositions simulation modeling and Digital Twin technologies offer enterprises building smart facilities and processes. Manuel Pereira Remelhe, Principal Expert Process Simulation at Bayer, discussed Bayer’s journey to smart manufacturing and the role digital transformation solutions played in his keynote session. According to Manuel Remelhe, “Bayer collects and connects data from its ERP systems to model its virtual factory…our virtual factory is used for debottlenecking, planning and scheduling, and prescriptive analysis.”

Ken Buxton, Principal Director Supply Chains and Operations Strategy and Roman Buil Gine, Data Science Senior Manager at Accenture, introduced the importance of getting started with digital transformation. According to Ken Buxton, “The digital transformation needs to happen for companies looking to survive, adapt, and thrive to gain long term rewards.” He further stated that “enterprises that successful harness digital transformation initiatives end up becoming leaders within their industries while those who didn’t, lagged.”

Sessions from Martin Larsen, Head of Nordic Business Development, B&R Industrial Automation and Eliza Sheppard, Industrial Engineer Northrop Grumman Space Systems rounded up the second day of the event. Martin focused on utilizing Digital Twin technology to design and operate flexible automated manufacturing systems and Eliza discussed the use of Simio models to develop optimized schedules and improve capacity planning for the space manufacturing industry.

The highlights of the third day of Simio Sync were presentations from Renee Thiesing, Vice President of Products at Simio, and an interactive roundtable. Panelists at the roundtable included Colgate-Palmolive, Bayer and Northrop Grumman. The roundtable discussion covered the implementation of digital transformation, the challenges faced, and its benefits to teams across diverse industrial sectors.

Renee introduced the Simio Digital Twin solution, its features, and digital transformative abilities to develop and operate industrial systems and businesses. Her session demonstrated the creation of models using enterprise data and the application of AI neural networks within Simio Digital Twins to perform prescriptive and predictive analytics. She also highlighted Simio’s modeling capabilities at the individual asset, resource, process, and facility levels through a live demonstration.

She took participants through a Simio Digital Twin showcasing how Simio integrates data from manufacturing enterprise systems and IoT platforms using APIs. Hence, allowing the Digital Twin to automate the performance of risk analysis and evaluations in real-time to optimize business operations.

Renee showcased Simio Digital Twin’s process of automating scheduling and planning processes. Her demonstration highlighted the Digital Twin’s ability to recognize downtime events, automate the rescheduling process, and publish the optimized schedule in real-time. Renee concluded her session by highlighting Simio’s embedded support for feed-forward neural networks that requires no coding.

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The event showcased Simio’s commitment to education as the final session of the final sessions shed the limelight on graduate and undergraduate students utilizing digital transformation solutions to improve lives. Students from the Northeastern University discussed their use of simulation modeling and digital twin to solve real-world problems and Mohammad Dehghani, Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University discussed the design and implementation of a Simio Digital Twin within Industry 4.0.

Finally, the winners of the May 2021 Simio Student Competition closed the event by showcasing the work they put into winning the largest simulation modeling competition in the world. The competition witnessed 1446 students across 333 teams from 49 institutions solve a complex operational challenge using simulation modeling. The Nittany Lion Group from Penn State University emerged as the winners and shared their winning model to close the event.

Eric Howard, Vice President of Marketing Simio, thanked the participants for the roles they played in making the event a success. He said, “We extend our thanks to the speakers for their insightful sessions and taking the time to answer questions from the audience.” He continued by saying that “we were delighted with the turnout and we are thankful to participants for making the event a success.” Relive Simio Sync 2021: Digital Transformation at simiosync.com.