{"id":1391,"date":"2023-10-22T13:42:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T11:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/?page_id=1391"},"modified":"2025-06-30T15:30:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T13:30:14","slug":"what-is-flow-simulation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/learn-more\/what-is-flow-simulation\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Flow Simulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">Flow simulation, or Discrete Event Simulation (DES), is a powerful technique used to analyze the flow within a system. This flow could represent various scenarios such as a manufacturing process in a factory, logistics within a warehouse, or even the movement of people in a hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Flow simulation serves multiple purposes. It\u2019s often used to calculate or evaluate specific parameters, but it\u2019s also effective for gaining insights into a system or for project guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);letter-spacing:0.2em;line-height:1.5;text-transform:uppercase\">CALCULATIONS IN DYNAMIC SYSTEMS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">One of the unique aspects of flow simulation is its ability to perform calculations on dynamic systems. For instance, it can answer questions like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What will the throughput\/h be in the new production system?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How many storage spaces are required for each variant?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How many nurses are needed per shift?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);letter-spacing:0.2em;line-height:1.5;text-transform:uppercase\">FLOW SIMULATION MODEL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">To perform these calculations, a Flow Simulation model is built. This model is essentially a simplified digital replica of reality. The Flow Simulation model is usually limited to covering only the area needed to answer the current questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);letter-spacing:0.2em;line-height:1.5;text-transform:uppercase\">THE FLOW SIMULATION MODEL USUALLY CONSISTS OF:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Static objects that usually represent&nbsp;some form of equipment or process.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Moving objects that usually symbolize a product, resource, or work order.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Flows that outline how the moving objects can move between the different static objects.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logic that dictates exactly how the moving objects move in different situations or how equipment or resources make decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);letter-spacing:0.2em;line-height:1.5;text-transform:uppercase\">DYNAMIC INPUT DATA AND DISTRIBUTIONS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">Input data from either an existing or future reality is fed into the Flow Simulation model. This input data is often dynamic &#8211; for example a manual cycle time in an assembly station or the time interval between two patients arriving at a hospital. The dynamic input data is not described with constant values but with the help of a distribution (e.g., A normal distribution with an average value and a standard deviation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);letter-spacing:0.2em;line-height:1.5;text-transform:uppercase\">RANDOM REPLICATIONS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">When the simulation model runs, values are randomly generated from the distribution which creates a potential scenario and gives a result for each unique run (often called replication or observation). To get a reliable (sufficiently accurate) value, a replication analysis is done to find out how many replications need to be run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);letter-spacing:0.2em;line-height:1.5;text-transform:uppercase\">STATISTICAL ANSWERS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">The answers from all replications together provide a statistical answer to the question. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>With 95% certainty, the true mean value lies between 10.3 parts\/h and 10.7 parts\/h. So there is a confidence level in the answer (95%) and a confidence interval (10.3 &#8211; 10.7).&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flow simulation, or Discrete Event Simulation (DES), is a powerful technique used to analyze the flow within a system. This flow could represent various scenarios such as a manufacturing process in a factory, logistics within a warehouse, or even the movement of people in a hospital. Flow simulation serves multiple purposes. It\u2019s often used to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1324,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1391","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2267,"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1391\/revisions\/2267"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simulationpartner.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}