SIMLOX – Application Areas

SIMLOX is used by clients around the world in different industries and for different systems – from helicopters, armored vehicles and stealth corvettes to subway trains, aircraft engines and wind turbines.

Simply put, SIMLOX allows detailed simulation and analysis of the performance of technical systems, and how it is affected by different design or configuration alternatives, different support solutions or different utilization profiles. For instance, you can examine how availability, resource utilization and system utilization varies over time for a given solution in different possible scenarios. Bottlenecks and weaknesses can be identified and eliminated, and the support solution efficiency can be maximized.

Here is a description of some of the most common areas of application:

Conceptual design and requirements specification

SIMLOX offers powerful decision support already in early development and procurement phases, by e.g. translating operational needs into reliability and maintenance requirements. Even though such early analyses often have to make do with simplified, rough models of systems, maintenance solutions and operations, SIMLOX provides clear decisions support regarding for example  preliminary system design, the appropriate number of systems, support concepts, and requirement levels for availability, service level, system failure rates and lead times.

Dimensioning logistic support solutions and their resources

Using SIMLOX, you can simulate and compare the efficiency of alternative logistic support solutions and resource allocations in order to select the best one. It is a perfect aid in examining how much personnel, maintenance equipment, test equipment and other critical resources are needed, and how to allocate them.

During a simulation, the utilization of the systems generate events like failures and preventive maintenance actions, which in turn create a need for spare parts, maintenance personnel and other resources. For any given solution, you may analyze resource utilization, shortages, waiting time, reasons for downtime etc., which makes it possible to find and correct possible bottlenecks and weak links in the supply chain.

SIMLOX is also ideal for designing and evaluating support concepts. For example design and evaluation of of outsourced maintenance and performance based logistics (PBL) agreements, and what are appropriate contract terms, target levels, incentive models and risks.

Analysis of performance, capacity, and endurance

In real life, it is often not enough to know that your solution is likely to achieve a certain average level of system availability. The needs are usually more complex, varies over time and may differ for different assignments. Some tasks may require a certain combination of systems while it is different for others. A higher than average level of availability may be required in some situations or locations. Access to personnel, resources and transportation will vary over time, and sustainability may need to be evaluated. SIMLOX is the optimal tool for simulating and successfully managing even highly complicated scenarios.

Validating OPUS10 results

OPUS10 and SIMLOX share the same input data model, meaning that a scenario that has been modelled in OPUS10 can be opened and used in SIMLOX, and vice versa. In SIMLOX, you add time dependent variables such as operations profile, access to resources and transportation schedules. Then you can validate how well the optimal OPUS10 solution would be able to handle the dynamics of planned operation scenarios, peak loads and other factors that vary over time.

Consequence, sensitivity, and risk analysis

Usually there is more than one potential scenario to examine – with multiple options to compare and with potential changes and modifications to evaluate. With SIMLOX you can simulate the consequences a potential change may have on availability, sustainability and resource usage over time. You can also perform a sensitivity analysis to determine the robustness of the solution. For instance, evaluate the impact of potential inaccuracy or variation in lead times, failure rates or operations, or to predict the effect of parameters that change over time. SIMLOX results includes averages and percentile results gathered over all replications, as well as specific results for each and every replication of a simulated scenario. These replication results provides a reliable statistical basis for e.g. analyses of risk levels.