Simio reviews

Makes Simulation fun and easy

Opmerkingen: Simio is an extremely powerful tool and it really makes one's life so much easier for simulations. Simio also does have a workbook that has lot of exercises that one can go through and learn a lot about the software. Once one has their head grasped around the concept, this software can save time, money, effort and provide accuracy.

Pluspunten:

I absolutely love using Simio. It is such a powerful tool and it makes sense why the premium paid version is so expensive. However the biggest pro I see is that there is a free version that can be used which can help one understand the world of simulation. Simio has everything one needs to perform the complicated simulation process that otherwise would require us to write 100s of lines of code and make debugging difficult and daunting. I have been using Simio to do various distribution simulations such as uniform, exponential, triangular and so on and I don;t have to think how to do random number generation. Simio has so much more tool such as I love the reliability function where i can define what are likelihood of a machine failing and how much it would affect my throughput and productivity due to the varying repair times. The best part of Simio is that you can see the live simulation of your system in real time. Create a simulation for a M/M/1 queuing system to replicate a ice-cream store and watch how your customers arrival and service times affects your business. Fun part of simio is one can actually assing model entities with actual people and replace boxes with actual images which makes the presentation part of your system more engaging with the team. if you are a simulation guy/girl/business this software has everything one needs to validate, verify the architecture and answer questions that is not possible to be solved analytically.

Minpunten:

It is lot of work to learn this software and there are not much resources online readily available. Most resources are integrated to Simio and so looking at videos provided by Simio and reading the help section is the way to go. The free software however cannot simulate really huge simulation system and at that point one needs to purchase the paid version. getting around the software is daunting and there are lot of aspects one needs to know to figure out how to create their system.

User friendly and great support

Opmerkingen: I learned on Arena in school but have been using Simio for 4-5 years now in a professional setting and it has been great.

Pluspunten:

Simio has been easy to learn and allows great flexibility and power for modeling different scenarios. Additionally, the company has been great to work with and the staff is very knowledgeable, friendly and accessible. You can tell they have a great company culture.

Minpunten:

On bigger models it can run a little slow, but this is probably mainly a hardware issue or a lack of modeling efficiency on my end.

Simio a world of possibilities

Opmerkingen: the software provides a wide range of possibilities to simulate and test known and unknown systems for better preparedness in their implementation.

Pluspunten:

ease of use availability of student version and research version

Minpunten:

none

Excellent software for handling complex simulations.

Pluspunten:

Simio software consists of standardized library. In order to focus on the visuals and to forget the analysis, this software is really easy for creating simulation models. It is no doubt the superb choice for business. It is quite easy to learn while other simulation software are quite difficult to learn comparatively. Its functionalities are really awesome with less time consuming. No doubt best ever simulation software. Matchless software with fantastic 3D animations.

Minpunten:

There are not any specific cons about this software. Simulation is mostly written in graphical programming language which is no doubt easy for small and quick designs but as we move further this software is failed to navigate while discussing large and complex simulations. Above discuss is the only con I can hardly think of.

Taught simulation in an analytics class using Simio

Pluspunten:

The support tools available for Simio are incredible. There are tutorial videos for every level of user and it's very easy to pick up quickly. The software itself is fairly intuitive and you can have simulations created from scratch in a matter of minutes.

Minpunten:

I don't really have any cons that I can think of, maybe navigating from one area of Simio to another can be confusing every now and then.

Very Powerful Simulation Software

Pluspunten:

This software has been the full package for me, providing the functions, details, and support required to build advanced simulations.

Minpunten:

If anything I woudl say that the biggest issue is that the program is so robust that I required an extensive in-service to learn my way through it, difficult to self-start.

Simio: the simplest, most complete way to run your systems simulation and analysis

Opmerkingen: I used SIMIO as part os my Masters course in Industrial Engineering in order to develop a fictional environment and search for better configurations, on an iteractive process. The software easily allowed me to manipulate the system in order to achieve my objectives, it is well designed and is customizable to great extent.

Pluspunten:

Easy of use and very intuitive when you get introduced with the basic. It allows for easy creation, editing and analysis of complex systems simulation.

Minpunten:

Advanced functions might get hard to use if you don't have an experienced user helping you. Error messages could be more explicit and create a reference to where the configurational conflict lies.

Simio is not exactly what we expected but gives more than anticipated

Opmerkingen: Simio certainly delivey more realistic results than the simple spread-sheet based calculations we used previously, however you really need to invest a vast amount of effort in the model to be able to get an accurate and believable result.

Pluspunten:

The program gives an incredible amount of information and is far more accurate than the spread-sheet based caclulations we used in the past.

Minpunten:

Setup of a true working model is very complicated and terribly time consuming. This is not a simple "drop in a box or two to make a production line and there it works" type of program, you need to invest the time using accurate input information in order to be able develop a true working model. Thereafter you need to keep updating your models in order to keep them relevant.

Great software

Pluspunten:

Can be applied to many different scenarios and is easy to toggle between 3D and 2D modelling.

Minpunten:

Available libraries is limited so support is required or training

Versatile and easy to learn simulation tool in market

Opmerkingen: Able to simulate and assess "what-if" scenarios for complex airline operations for understanding investment benefits, operational bottlenecks, and potential benefits of process improvements.

Pluspunten:

Enterprise team version allows us to have multiple users with limited amount of license; Easy to integrate with Excel for data input and output

Minpunten:

Marginally on the higher side of memory intensive application; does not have/limited option/APIs to use the simulation engine outside of the SIMIO application.

Great tool

Opmerkingen: I am a teacher at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and I have been watching the improvement in my students over the years.

Pluspunten:

Ease of use and the software includes almost anything we need

Minpunten:

You don't have a version for Mac OS

The best Discrete Event Simulator

Opmerkingen: As a Professor, I have been using SIMIO. Simio is object oriented and easy to use in complex projects. The user interface and the capabilities to build sophisticated libraries are a big plus. In addition, the utilization by industry makes it a good Industrial Standard and a good line in any CV to look for a job in simulation. The capabilities to make your own libraries are very important to do research. The SIMIO team includes the recent advances in the theory of simulation in this tools and that makes it even more powerful.

Pluspunten:

Object Oriented Easy to Use Use by Industry

University of Houston

Opmerkingen: I find Simio very powerful simulation language with lots of features. I taught ARENA and SIMAN prior to learning Simio three years ago. However, my students find it hard to learn how to model using Simio, especially advanced features (concept of Model vs Model Entity State Variables, tables and matrices). I have not mastered Scheduling part of Simio yet which I would like to teach in a Scheduling Theory course, one of these days.

Pluspunten:

Functionality and modeling flexibility.

Minpunten:

Not easy to teach to my students, not easy to learn advanced features.

Easy to use, very visual

Opmerkingen: Ability to visually show to management how bad the queuing can be and the effect of adding resources.

Pluspunten:

Very easy to use even for someone that has no experience in modelization or operational research.

Minpunten:

We can't write in a single CSV file the results of multiple replications. Need to use a VBA code to merge the CSV file of each replication

Simio for Manufacturing

Opmerkingen: Overall, Simio is a fantastic software package that can we used to optimize current processes and model future state scenarios. I would recommend any manufacturing company to use this software.

Pluspunten:

I enjoyed the out of the box drag and drop functionality that allows for a new user to learn how to configure models quickly. I also like the ability to create logic using the same drag and drop functionality to model some of the more unique processes that happen in a production environment.

Minpunten:

We used a third party to provide support and custom programming in our model. Once we had a complex model, it became very difficult to make changes without requiring the third party's involvement.

Utility for aircraft part development

Opmerkingen: I use Simio for some years now and it is always very fruitful. We simulated shops for aircraft composite parts, not only for us but also for customers. It is very easy to understand how Simio works and how to program it even for big shops to simulate. When we got experience with the software, we even started to link it with Excel to allow to manage shops in real time. Feel free to watch the video of Simio we placed on Youtube. Pierre Severin, engineering team leader at Coexpair

Pluspunten:

The visualisation of the machines and of the shop in general. The link with Excel for daily use in real life.

Minpunten:

Sometime, a bit hard to to understand how to program very specific operations; the tric is to think like a software programmer

Industrial engnieer coordinador

Opmerkingen: SIMIO help me a lot as Teacher for industrial engineer tópics like simulation, optmization and DOE.

Pluspunten:

the graphics diagrams and option to validate results

Minpunten:

Some gaps between the examples and the explanations to define the characteristics.

Great product

Pluspunten:

The ease of use for students to get the basic fundamentals of discrete event simulation. I also like the book and workbook associated with the software.

Minpunten:

More tutorials on how to use certain aspects of the software for students. I also sometimes the way to get clipart sometimes gets stuck.

I supervised graduae students conducting research projects using Simio

Opmerkingen: Simio has been greatly improving our research outputs and soliciting more research projects.

Pluspunten:

Simio provides great animation and is relatively easy to learn. Once you signed up for Simio newsletters, they will deliver emails regularly to inform you of interesting events.

Minpunten:

It might not be a limitation of SImio but rather my unfamiliarity with that function. I know Arena can be integrated with optimization tools. I hope Simio has similar functionalities and promote it.

Great software!

Opmerkingen: It has helped with making recommendations on staffing models, equipment use, and the impact on turnaround times. The stakeholders appreciate the predictability component to be able to test different scenarios before trying it in real life.

Pluspunten:

It has extensive functionality that stakeholders can easily understand and see value in.

Minpunten:

It does not have a good way to represent statistics by hour of day which is important to a hospital that runs 24/7.

Recommended Simulator

Opmerkingen: My team and me are teaching simulation with SIMIO because is friendly and very powerfull. Students understand software quickly an also, a posgraduate student made his Magister Thesis in quality engineering with a simulation as tool to predict behavior. He learned quickly and SIMIO was a useful tool to his work.

Pluspunten:

Is friendly and powerful

Minpunten:

SIMIO hasn`t Analysis of Variance in its modules. So it is necessary to export data to statistical software to analize results.

Very Detailed Simulation Software

Pluspunten:

Simio does a fantastic job of bringing granularity to their product, making it much more detailed than other programs when it comes to controls and outputs.

Minpunten:

Simio is very complex and takes full on training to use well, it is definitely not one to pick up and teach yourself.

Excellent customer support

Opmerkingen: When it comes to using Simio as a simulation modeling and analysis tool, there are many benefits such as user-friendly interface, many powerful features in detail levels, continuous improvements (even though too frequent updates), etc. However, standing out among them is the CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Every time I have any question and contact the support group, they are willing to answer in a timely manner. I have both graduate and undergraduate students using Simio, and they all have been consistently receiving great help.

Pluspunten:

- customer support - many functions

good for discrete event simulation

Pluspunten:

This software has features to simulate different discrete event scenarios and is really good for use in supply chain and industrial engineering applications

Minpunten:

This software is not good for agent based simulations such as multi agent simulations

I find it user friendly with the ability to build and run very complex models swiftly

Opmerkingen: I am using it for my research and teaching and I find it extremely useful.

Pluspunten:

Good documentation, lots of videos for learners, extensive module library, doesn't take much time to learn, interface very similar to Microsoft Office and therefore much easier to work with

Minpunten:

I didn't find anything wrong with it. It's working absolutely the way I want it to run. I find it to be an excellent software