Are You Considering Using Dynamic Simulation? Here Are the Answers to the 9 Most Common Questions
Thanks to the tool that can virtually streamline logistics, production plan or warehousing, you will understand links between processes and reveal weak spots before you invest in the change. What are the biases or worries circulating around simulation tools? Petr Jaluvka, executive head of DYNAMIC FUTURE, answers the questions.
Do I have to understand dynamic simulation in order to effectively cooperate with you?
You don’t have to be a simulation expert. That’s what we’re here for. For the customer, it’s important to realize that the simulation model should be as close to reality as possible and that it is a reflection of the examined processes. That’s why we often work with a process layout. However, it’s crucial to realize that what the clients put in the study is what we’re working with. The data the client provides us with must correspond with reality.
Are there going to be high demands placed on the company?
Simply put, we go through individual processes together and tell what data the client should provide us with and what needs to be added. It is teamwork and it’s very important that the client is honest and open. Especially towards themself. We’re going to need relevant data, not data the client wishes to have or thinks should have according to some norms. A digital twin that is set correctly is a close reflection of reality, based on results that have an acceptable rate of inaccuracies. If there is no real data when starting with the project, we can’t expect real results when finishing it. So yes, the company that seeks to benefit from dynamic simulation needs to put in a lot of effort in the work.
When can I expect the results?
That depends on the project’s complexity. Sometimes simulating a project is a matter of hours and the results are available for the client immediately. On the other hand, there are projects that take months to finish. The reason for this might be a repeating cycle of verifications and maybe data editing. Sometimes it just happens that the client provides us with data, we process it, simulate everything and the resulting simulation model sets the basis for further clarification requirements. Most times, several months pass from assigning the task to handing over the results to the client.
How many and how difficult meetings the project is going to require?
This one takes a bit of explaining: Based on our experience, we can say that the client’s perspective on the time required – from human resources’ point of view – is usually distorted. There might be a tendency to overestimate mutual meetings and expect that every 3 days, we will attend a whole-day meeting and during that, the data will somehow get processed. The cooperation ratio is quite the opposite: we don’t need to be with the client all the time. We need to set solid milestones and pay attention to the project. That takes place beyond the facility.
Consultations with the client are taking place every 14 days or a month, in accordance with what their topic is. The remaining work is kind of hidden. The client either does it by themself (and doesn’t need us to do so) or our team works separately. Then, we come with a plan with proposals that we’ll talk through together. And move on to the next stage.
What is the investment that I have to count on?
Today, it’s about hundreds of thousands and maybe millions. We are able to execute simulations faster than ever and the price includes a considerable amount of money that we invest in technologies. And that is reflected in the result that makes up for the initial investment completely.
How can I make the decision whether simulation is a right thing to do for me?
The easiest thing to do is to talk with us. There is a rule: there’s no need to fight an ant with a hammer. We are a consulting company, we take care of logistics audits so when we come to the company, we see what needs to be done. Sometimes, the client stands before the first step to the digital level and might lack an information support of individual processes. In this case, starting with a digital twin is really like fighting an ant with a hammer. However, we can talk about what the company needs to work on and plan the projects of partial improvements execution.
A digital twin brings a huge benefit in the places where the processes are so interconnected and complex that they just can’t be, simply put, sketched. And also in cases where the processes change and their results are out of the imagination of the decision making workers. Using simulation tools, we can help them get out of the bubble in which they operate in, before making a radical change in the real world, and show its results in the virtual world.
How can I connect with the companies that are already working with digital twins?
There’s almost an infinite amount of possibilities to do that. For somebody, it’s enough to just be presented with the examples of our work. Somebody wants a phone contact or a direct reference visit. A digital twin is usually built with some kind of an objective, so when we head for the visit, we take a look at what the objective is. However, we can also organize a meeting, in the planning phase, with a company that has experience with simulations. Therefore, the client will be able to see whether the effect that we simulated exists somewhere in reality.
I like to take my customers to places where they can hear that if they hadn’t simulated the relevant processes, they would have had much more work with execution. During the simulation, they realized a lot of ties that needed to be dealt with. The rise curve of the specific process is then much shorter. Our mutual sharing of experience is a huge benefit for our customers. When somebody has smart technologies that are also applicable in another field, we will connect them and provide inspiration.
Is it possible that you deny our request right in the beginning?
When you come to us asking for help, we never say that we can’t do anything for you. We just might choose a different tool then a digital twin. We also cooperate with relatively small companies, with a turnover of like 40 millions CZK annually. That is a lot less compared with some of the bigger companies like Třinecké železárny, Coca-Cola or Siemens. But we can give a piece of advice to anyone. I remember a client that had beautiful business in a family house. He saw that the company was really taking off and wanted to be advised on how to streamline processes. We talked about how much time the employees spent moving from one workspace to another and how workspace ergonomy could bring about increasing capacities and making work more enjoyable… These are simple and quick projects that have a lot of benefits. Cooperation with DYNAMIC FUTURE is not tied to the company’s size, but to the openness of the thoughts behind it.
What expectations should I NOT have about dynamic simulation?
Unreal. Sometimes, we explain everything in the beginning, including how everything works, what the inputs that we’re going to work with are, how the simulations will take place and what we arrived at and because we don’t share the result expectation with the client, they might think that everything is wrong. Fortunately, there’s usually somebody in the team who realizes that we might have been given faulty data. Or that we didn’t clarify everything in the beginning. Or that the new information is absolutely different from what they expected. That can be worked through.
Trust us when we say that if you work with unreal inputs, the output won’t be real either. One example for all: We started working with a client, clarified the requirements, got input data, created a simulation model… and when we went through the production plan in it, the difference was enormous. The employees, from the manager to the technician, started wondering and finally they revealed that the times they provided us with are based on the norms, so the reality is a different story. Okay, we said, but if you want to plan, you need to consider what’s happening, not a norm that is not complied with. They adjusted the data, the project took 14 days longer and when we started modeling, we realized we were still not where we needed to be. They said that they were going to take another look as they changed some numbers also… It took a while to work through to reliable data, and therefore believable outputs. The client was then very surprised at the difference between what is declared and what is really going on.
Using digital twins is possible everywhere where the client is open to change, doesn’t lie and wants to get out of the comfort zone. Only then are they able to take a new perspective at their business and are able to make a great, effective change.
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