Overall positive experience and would definitely consider its use again in the future for other projects. It might have all the tools you can have in the world, the basics they have would definitely cover your needs!

There were many features in Simul8 that we could use that did a multitude of different functions. Simul8 Customer Rep was a big help and managed to find the tools we needed process a large amount of raw data into a simulated result that we were looking and aiming for! Their blog/technical corner was a godsend!

There was an steep initial learning curve(just like using any new tool) but it became second nature after trial and errors; Graphical presentation is more barebone but the main info more than enough for stakeholders.

I have a positive experience with Simul8. My final thoughts are:-If you are an engineer in a corporation and want to simulate discrete processes I absolutely recommend using simul8 over any other product in the market-If you are a freelancer or a simulation firm working for clients, this may not be the best choice for you. Either go for Anylogic, Simio, or Flexsim since they give you 3D capabilities

I have used Arena, Anylogic, and Simio prior to moving to simul8. I believe simul8 is the best option for 90% of users if you want to simulate discrete event processes. The main advantages of simul8 are:1) Extremely easy and intuitive2) Online trainings are helpful and set you up for success. You don't really need to google for majority of your needs3) Very affordable compare to other software that are usually +$20k per user. Simul8 costs only $5k / user Most importantly, based on my past experience you don't need a 3d simulation in your projects to communicate with stakeholders since they don't care about how beautiful your simulation is. Usually they don't even care how it looks!They only want results and recommendations. They know their processes very well and simulation is just a tool to help them make better decisions. So save your many and don't purchase an expensive software because they provide 3d visuals. Simul8 is the only tool you need if you are about to do discrete event simulation.

Simul8 has weakness in two areas:1) Charts are very old school. They remind you of Window 98. They are good enough for yourself, but if you want to have them in your presentation I recommend exporting the data and using excel.2) All features are somewhere in properties and tabs. You need take your time to learn where they are and this takes time if you are simulating complex processes

I work in Healthcase and there are many opportunities to use this software. It's a much better package than some of the others we have reviewed.

Powerful, flexible and visually appealing to our audience.

This software has significant resolution issues when used on higher resolution laptops. Menu's are cut off and in some cases, are completely inaccessable. Also, getting a current update for the software usually means filing a ticket with the help desk.

We have been able to model several different clinical scenarios in our facility: post-acute care units, outpatient clinic patient flows, and vaccination clinics. We have also been able to optimize schedules to best meet demand by using the OptQuest interface. Building these processes in Simul8 and testing different configurations has saved us many weeks of PDSA trial-and-error testing in the real unit, allowing us to move much more quickly to ideal improvements. This has made our patient experience more pleasant and allowed our staff to focus more on patient care delivery.

Building process flows, decision points, distributions, and timings is intuitive. Data visualization tools allow you to see an analyze input and output variables and make reasoned conclusions. Integration with OptQuest can find ideal solutions, saving a lot of trial and error guesswork.

Some of the more advanced features require specific coding syntax that takes time to learn. However, once you get the syntax down, it's powerful. It just takes a little time to get over the learning curve.

An additional note on the consultant we worked with, not only is he thoroughly competent and knowledgeable about the Simul8 software features and functionalities, he was quite fun to work with and a great conversationalist. Simul8 clearly recruits great talent, both on a personal and professional level. Overall - Simul8 has been great to do business with and well worth the investment!

The software is very user friendly and the Simul8 consulting team is one of a kind. Our team had the majority of the model set up and ready configure within the first 2-3 weeks. We ran some test to see if the model was working properly before engaging with the internal consulting team, and we were able to do so with minimal effort - the software is quite intuitive. The configuration of the model did take some time, as our process is quite complex, but the consultant we worked with was a great resource and helped us get our model running accounting for all of our process specifics. An additional note on the consultant we worked with, not only is he thoroughly competent and knowledgeable about the Simul8 software features and functionalities, he was quite fun to work with and a great conversationalist. Simul8 clearly recruits great talent, both on a personal and professional level. Overall - Simul8 has been great to do business with and well worth the investment!

There are no cons about the software that we wish to report at this time.

Overall experience has been great. I have shared this tool with many other sites in Plexus as well as other non-competitive companies as a great asset.

The best part about Simul8 is how easy it is to pick up. I have easily trained many people how to become powerful users in a short time period to where they can create customer level simulations.

There are very few minor flaws in the software that are very industry specific. None that are worth mentioning due to insignificance.

Simul8 provides extensive tools to create simulations and meets our needs about visual representation of the data.

Simul8 is probably the the most comprehensive yet easiest to explore simulation creation program in the market. User interface is highly optimized to enable the user reflect the paper version of the model to the visual graph.

Simul8 has great 2D visualization tools however it fails when it comes to 3D visualization requirements.

My experience with Simul8 has been excellent. I was introduced to the software by my PhD supervisor. My PhD was in distributed computing and a research project focussed on distributed simulation. Simul8 provided me with multiple licenses for the Researcher edition of their software and technical support. This helped me better understand the technical aspects of the software, which was necessary for the intended purpose of distributed execution of models. My students have also continued to receive such exceptional support. Several of our received papers have used Simul8!

Simul8 is a versatile discrete-event simulation (DES) software. It has a programming language called Visual Logic (VL). For learning and teaching and the implementation of a wide range of DES projects, the Simul8 visual interface, which supports drag and drop, is sufficient to develop fairly complex models. With VL you can do a lot more! As an educator, I continue using the software to introduce simulation to new cohorts of MSc students in Operations Management and Business Analytics. The students love it! On the research side, the MRes and PhD students I supervised have used Simul8 to develop proof-of-concept models for their Modelling and Simulation research and also full-fledged models to support decision-making. The customer support that we have received over the years is exemplary! This goes to the extent that the Simul8 representatives you meet at conferences are happy to go through the model and provide advice.

From the education and teaching perspective, Simul8 is a perfect solution and students will love it! On the research side, if you were to develop integration with other models and modelling paradigms, it would require assistance from Simul8 technical support. With open-source software, integrating libraries and code offers many opportunities, especially for those who know coding. However, with Simul8, some additional integration work to achieve similar objectives may be needed. The software continues to evolve and this may be possible in the near future.

Simul8 remains my goto software of choice when I wish to model a process or system due to its ease of use. I have used agent based and system dynamics previously. Simul8 remains the one that allows me to get a working model up and running quickly and produce insights

I have used Simul8 for over 10 years. It continues to evolve with new features. However, the ease fo use and intuitive interface make it straightforward to build models quickly, from simple to complex. The ability to link to MS Excel, or R, etc is helpful when undertaking in depth analysis of the results

More personal preference, I don't tend to use Simul8 for visualisation of results. Instead I will send the data to MS Excel, and more recently R, for further analysis and visualisation

We provide operational optimisation consulting and contracting to mainly engineering and operational department, developing and design new manufacturing facilities. Simul8 allows us to validating, optimising and communicating design plans.

The software has a fairly linear learning curve so you can make simple models early and can progressively develop your skills to make more and more complex models. They also have great customer service with real technical expertise so you are never stuck on a problem for long.

The skin and icon packs could do with a makeover and the animation functions overhauled.

I am making heavy use to the VL capability. Most of my Activities have an attached VL routine. I am simulating Robots and Operators in pick aisles using WMS simulated pick lists. Testing Optimization algorithms for efficient Robot travel, Operator travel, and Robot "swarming" to meet Operators at a pick face.

Very flexible, fast, user friendly, and intuitive.

A little buggy. Crashes several times a week. Memory overflow seems to be the biggest cause. Also, multi Activity changes can cause crashes.

It has been a very useful software in the subject of simulation and Models, especially in the units of simulation of discrete models and in the units of study of tail systems, and events

Easy to use software that allows you to create simulations with precision, flexibility and speed. It allows simulation of events and also allows the creation of scenarios similar to reality, minimizing the risks associated with the administration of processes and projects. in addition, the creation of the simulation is done in the most simple and intuitive way possible, by the use of an explicit interface and the basic but efficient method of "drag-drop" to define the process. The user can run animated simulations very quickly without writing any line of code. And Simul 8 Professional plus all the features of the standard allow Customize the results, graphics and reports to show the KPIs (key performance indicators) that matter. Easily compare scenarios to make informed decisions. Realistic graphics Convert 2D models to 3D simulations with a simple click. Use photos and graphics known by your customers, or download from the large SIMUL8 image library, Optimize: save time and avoid errors using Optquest: it will show you the different scenarios and offer you the optimal solution. Share simulations "Viewer" allows you to share your simulations with clients or associates who do not have the full SIMUL8 license. Even more powerful with "Visual Logic" allows you to add complexities and nuances to your simulation in a way that reflects your real life system and processes. Other interfaces can be connected including Microsoft Excel, VBA, VB, and C ++.

Actually, as such, I do not have any disadvantage or feature that is not my taste, I think a very good software

Overall very good .... especially for simulation which hasd a rap of beeing complicated and hard to understand.. I can get a class of 30 people from a zero knowledge base, to build, test and run a basic simulation in under 40 minutes. that is fast Student experience is almost always very favourable ... some even find it slightly addictive!

Simplicity - visual nature and very Visio like in design and appearance makes it a natural fit with process analysis which for us starts with a Viso Flowchart

Use of Inter-arival time at work entry point.. I always find this trips up most people at first .. couldn't we just put another factor such as arrival rate . Secondly adding or deleting lines in results manager is a pain.. I am starting to export to excel more and more

I used SIMUL8 mainly in the healthcare sector. I may have done in the last 5 years approximately ten projects, big and small. I also use SIMUL8 with my students to teach operations management. SIMUL8 is powerful because it is fast but also because it is intuitive. This makes the results of a simulation easy to explain to customers that are not familiar with simulation.

The pros: The software is intuitive and easy-to-use. It has all the features to simulate complex organizations. I have been using it regularly since 2014. SIMUL8 is constantly being improved and users are involved in setting priorities for new developments. The SIMUL8 team offers excellent support. They have engineers experienced in all types of industries. In the field for which I mainly work (health care), I have always found all the support I needed for my projects. I have tested other simulation software and can confirm that SIMUL8 is powerful, well designed and robust. Its cost (license and maintenance) is very competitive compared to other simulation software.

3D animation is not the strength of SIMUL8, but the 3D animation features offered by SIMUL8 are more than enough to test, debug and present the simulation results to customers. 3D animation is not the most important feature of a simulation program. Simulation speed and presentation of results are essential and SIMUL8 is fast and provides results that are easy to manage and interpret.

Initially, the product wasn't easy to use, as the variety of features made it hard to remember what each feature could do. However, as I gained in familiarity, the software become really easy to use and navigate around. The varied features allowed discrete event simulation modelling to be done with ease, and include significant levels of detail. The ability to record/ store results in simul8, at a very granular level, and then export them to Excel made the analysis of the model thorough and comprehensive.

Lack of available examples of Visual Logic coding online made it hard for me to do my work. I had to use simul8 support, which were very helpful. However, if more information was available online, I think this would benefit the wider community, and release strain on simul8 support.

SIMUL8 customer support and training staff are outstanding! This support is what sets SIMUL8 apart and allows basic users to create models to support business decisions.

This software was extremely intuitive and easy to get up and running fast on your first model. I also highly recommend their in-person training classes. The training staff are approachable and take the time to personally meet you at your skill level to help you understand and complete models.

None for my personal use. I have seen some competitive products 3D floor layouts visuals that look slicker, but I don’t find this beneficial for my application of discrete event modeling. This could be my technical understanding of the software and not the software capability.

I work for a medical device company, and our customers are physicians and hospitals. I have used this software to simulate how cath labs and device follow-up clinics operate, and how they can increase efficiency. I have published results in a peer reviewed medical journal and used output to influence internal strategies. The method (discrete event simulation) and the tool (SIMUL8) form an intuitive and powerful message. The support from the company is top notch. The software downloads, installs and operates easily. I don't often need help, but when I run into problems they immediately point me in the right direction for resolution, often going beyond what I ask for to point out better/more efficient ways of solving the problem than I had considered.

Flexibility - I can simuate most anything I can imagine Ease of use - I tried other simulators and could barely get simple simulations to work, with SIMUL8 I had reasonable simulations going within days of completing the training Power/Efficiency - I have simulated hundreds of thousands of virtual patients in a single simulation on a Windows laptop

The documentation of some of the more esoteric functions can be a little thin. This is easily overcome with a quick message to the support desk where they immediately give a good explanation.

Simul8 has been a great software for providing insight in specific metrics prior to creation of our fab. We will continue to develop the model with our fab and it is exciting to see the results align with reality as we progress forward. This software has allowed us to make data driven decisions at a management level for how to operate the fab effectively.

This software was not designed specifically for our use case, but the expert we worked with at Simul8 was able to develop a model that would meet the needs we have for modeling our fab.

Granularity of chamber modeling and a more robust ability to model chambers. This is not the specific design of the software, however.

I used this product in depth to help consulting clients see and understand their process dynamics. I found this product excellent for that purpose. I found I was able to use video recordings of current and future state simulations to convince people to go forward with particular process improvement plans. I struggled a bit with modeling the process at the right level of detail, but that was a learning curve issue of mine. I would definitely buy this product again for this purpose.

Easy to set up models quickly. Capable of modeling detailed nuances if you want it. Cloud-based functionality available.

There's a learning curve. (But it's worth it.) Hard to record videos of a simulation run. (I used a third-party program.) Hard to know what level of detail to use.

Excellent software to develop production planning & scheduling solutions..

Very easy to build any discrete process and writing logics is easy. Very less license cost and supports com interface..

Not possible build the simulaion in3D. No OPC interface.

The interface is simple and intuitive but carries a range of powerful features like Machine Learning and real time data integrations. I really benefit from the flexibility of having desktop and online access to the software. The support team are responsive and always there to help you with any difficulties and there is an engaged user community which makes the software easy to learn

I would like to see even more Simul8 academy modules added in the future as they really assisted me in building my skills with the software!

Very positive.

The people behind SIMUL8 want to help and get you to achieve what you want from SIMUL8.

It is quite expensive for an SME to purchase, maintain and learn.

We have been using Simul8 at our organization for about 3 years. The software, in its simplest form, is easy enough for a novice user to pick up and create a quick simulation, but it also provides a variety of features to make your simulation as complex as you need it to be. I have found Simul8's customer support to be top-notch, responding within hours. They have helped with both technical questions, as well as more conceptual questions. The company is always looking for ways to improve their software and provide regular updates to enhance the functionality.

Excellent.

Simul8 is easy to use, easy to train on, and very useful to visualize and communicate. We use it to expand the system thinking approach to our manufacturing engineers.

The interface is a bit outdated (like windows) and would benefit from an uplift from a UX/UI perspective.

I have utilized SIMUL8 for over 18 years on a wide array of industries from manufacturing to call centers, to minerals processing facilities and across a wide array of problems from continuous improvement, new plant design, line balancing etc. It is an easy to use package, which is incredibly affordable, both practical for the first time user and for experts. I personally would like to see improvements on the transportation side of things, but overall an excellent product. The support team is extremely helpful and responsive.

Ease of use but practically useful for the expert user. The debugging tools are excellent and I am also a fan of their speed analyzer, something I had seen in few other simulation products.

Improvements to transportation and logistics.