Key Takeaways:
Discrete event simulation (DES) software might be the tool a designer or architect needs for their next institutional or commercial facility. New facilities traditionally look flawless on paper, but no one knows how they actually will perform once people, furnishings, vehicles, equipment and events collide.
What happens when real-world events — queues, delays, conflicts, breakdowns and peak demand — enter the picture? Building owners and executives want to know that their new facilities will operate well even when conditions are not optimal.
What if owners and operators could test drive a facility virtually before committing capital to a project? What if they could game-test various options, technologies and updates before spending a dime on them? What if they could use a platform with designers that lets them see the way different approaches would affect their operations and their productivity?
Institutional and commercial organizations are confronted with multifaceted systems where numerous variables interact, whether they are optimizing processes, refining logistics or strategizing capital allocations for advanced infrastructures. In a competitive facilities marketplace, informed and data-driven decision-making can make a difference.
DES is process-based modeling software that simulates the way facility systems behave over time by tracking events, including arrivals, departures, delays and decisions. It allows designers to model complex interactions among people, automation, inventory, vehicles and buildings and then observe the results.
Unlike static models such as spreadsheets and fixed calculations, which assume predictable flows and stable conditions, DES captures the interdependencies, variability, randomness and conflicts that arise when systems interact.
DES models the operation of a system as a sequence of events. Each event occurs at a specific instant and marks a change in the system’s state. Between consecutive events, nothing changes in the system, allowing the simulation to jump directly to the next event.
DES allows designers and architects to simulate long time spans quickly and enables rapid what-if testing: If implemented, what would more machines, fewer docking stations, different layouts or different schedules do? It can model unexpected events and randomness so designers can prepare for the bad days, as well as ideal conditions.
Like any digital model, the better the input, the better the output. DES is at its best when using a detailed model from high-quality data. The software also can share results as data, and it can show DES outputs as visuals, animation and dashboards that project teams and building owners and managers can understand.
DES software complements design with useful intelligence that helps forecast outcomes. It is a decision-support tool, not just an engineering exercise. On new facility designs, DES adds the most value during pre-design and early design phases, where the concept of operations from the simulation drives the form and layout of the facility.
In pre-design, it can help test and assess assumptions about capacity, throughput, staffing and adjacencies. It can be used in early design phases to compare layout options and operational strategies before designs are locked in. Designers can use it on existing buildings to evaluate approaches to retrofitting and modernization by modeling existing conditions to establish a baseline, then test future-state upgrades.
Designers then can integrate DES into ongoing design efforts when a question or risk emerges, and they can proactively include it as a core component of the project that continually links future operations to current decisions as the project progresses. They also can apply it to existing buildings, testing changes in operations or supporting decisions around facility modifications.
Miguel Villarreal is an industrial engineer in training with Stantec, an engineering, architecture and environmental consulting firm, and works on a range of industrial and infrastructure projects.
