Why is Simulation Automation important for Democratization?

This public resource center contains information related to a movement gaining momentum throughout the simulation world – the Democratization of Simulation. Why is the Automation of Simulation Processes important to achieving democratization? Here are some benefits that the automation can bring:

• Capture your simulation best practices in an executable form (not just in documents that collect dust on engineers’ shelves!)
• Enforce these simulation best practices across the (global) organization
• Achieve consistency and accuracy in simulations results,  regardless of who performs them
• Significantly increase the efficiency and consistency of setting up simulation models (>90% efficiency gains have been demonstrated, while increasing accuracy)
• Provide non-experts with the power of simulation
• With the right safeguards built into these Templates, non-experts can safely run complex simulations

It is the ability for non-experts to safely run complex simulations that will achieve the Democratization of Simulation. Simulation Templates and the Vertical Applications (Simulation Apps or SimApps) that drive them, if well-designed and safely usable by the broader product development team, have been shown to democratize the use of simulation, and could result in a 5- to 10-fold increase in the number of users of this complex technology over the next 5 years.

Engineers have attempted to automate their simulations for decades. So why is this technique not used more often, especially given the potentially huge benefits? There are many reasons for this – you can learn more about various approaches to simulation automation and their pros and cons, by exploring this Topic Area.