In the thematics about the industry of the future, you have undoubtedly heard about “digital twin/s”.
A digital twin’s primary purpose is to represent an organization’s physical, information, and financial flows.
What are the advantages of a digital twin?
You can test many ideas and have a scripting logic called “what if?” and simulate them with this digital double.
Indeed, when this twin is available, you have the right to test the ideas you have with your teams because mistakes are allowed, and above all, they have no impact on your industrial performance at this stage.
With this reasoning, perhaps ideas for change that seemed relevant to you or, on the contrary, you did not believe initially could have surprising results!
At AGILEA, we use this powerful decision support tool for over eight years now. We see the interest of industrial supply chain players increasing year after year.
How to explain the trend and this interest in Supply Chain simulation?
Flow simulation (whether for discrete events, multi-agents, or system dynamics, for example) is not a recent tool. Work on these subjects began more than forty years ago.
So why are these methods so topical?
Two significant reasons contribute to this:
1- The data are now available. When you want to create a digital twin and the processes associated with your organization, this is a must. Companies, small or large, now have the vast majority of data necessary to carry out simulation projects in their information systems.
2- Computer computing power. As mentioned in the introduction, a digital twin’s main interest is to test a large number of scenarios (“what-if?” Process). The simulation is done within few minutes; the timing depends on the study’s scope and the level of detail of the model. It is now possible to test ideas almost live and to quantify their impacts (in terms of cash, stocks, delivery times, etc.)
The range of possibilities of such methods is immense and suitable for many cases.
Below are the fields of application of the simulation projects carried out by AGILEA:
Why then use simulation on your supply chain?
- Do you have a problem and need to make decisions on a system that seems complex to you?
- You know how to quantify improvements, project your indicators “in the best of all possible worlds,” but you know very well that it is the sources of variability (internal or external) that broadly impact your system.
- You have heard of a ‘digital twin’, a ‘digital twin’ but cannot see how such a project could help you.
If you are in either of these cases, it suggests that it might be beneficial to take a few minutes to think about and discuss the topic.
Please do not hesitate to contact us to find out more about this!
External references :
https://www.supplychaindigital.com/technology-4/digitalising-supply-chain-digital-twin