Winter Simulation Conference 2011

Winter is here again and so is Wintersim 2011. As the worlds premier international simulation conference, Wintersim 2011 will provide a forum for the world’s leading simulation exhibitors.

As one of the leading providers of operations research and simulation services in North America, Visual8 is proud to be be among the exhibitors for Wintersim 2011. We will be co-hosting with our simulation partners SIMUL8 on Tuesday, December 13th. Come find us in booths 31 and 32 to see the innovative ways we are applying simulation modeling for our clients and discuss how you may implement simulation in your organization.

As the leading simulation conference; Wintersim 2011 will feature an exciting and fully comprehensive program consisting of simulation tutorials, technology demonstrations, OR industry exhibitors, as well as presentations of simulation research and development. This year Wintersim 2011 will also include the Modeling and Analysis for Semiconductor Manufacturing (MASM) simulation conference. As the leading simulation conference for the semiconductor manufacturing industry there is sure to be something to interest every simulation and operations research professional.

Wintersim 2011 Exhibitors

This years winter simulation conference will feature exhibits from the industries most influential researchers and developers:

• Visual8 Corporation
• SIMUL8 Corporation
• SAGE
• SAS
• Applied Materials

Just to name a few, for the full listing view the Wintersim 2011 exhibitors list.

Here at Visual8 we are proud to work closely with the University of Toronto and were very excited to sponsor of the very first Indy Club SIMUL8 simulation competition. Operations research students from the University of Toronto’s Indy Club established a new annual SIMUL8 simulation competition, the first of which was held last Saturday (Nov 26th) at the school of industrial engineering and operations research.

More than 30 University of Toronto operations research students took part in the SIMUL8 simulation competition in the hope of taking home one of two cash prizes, as well as an opportunity to show off some ninja like simulation skills.

As a leading operations research company and experts in the application on SIMUL8 simulation software, Visual8 modeling experts were asked to design a set of simulation challenges for University of Toronto operations research students to complete. After three hours of intense development and “Simul8ting”, Visual8 reviewed the results and selected the two champions of the very first University of Toronto Indy Club SIMUL8 Simulation Competition. Although there could only be two cash prize winners, it’s safe to say that all 30 operations research students who partook in the Indy Club SIMUL8 simulation competition walked away with a greater understanding of how SIMUL8 simulation software can be applied by industries in today’s competitive global market.

Thanks go out to:

• Alberto Picard-Ami, Kazem Kutob and Felipe Richards from the Indy Club for initiating and organizing the entire affair
• Kieran Concannon from Visual8 for supporting and sponsoring the Competition
• Matthew Concannon from Visual8 for polishing/presenting the case, judging the competition and selecting the winners
• Sarina Turner and Brendan Eagen, the MIE360 TAs, for getting the students hooked on simulation in the first place
• Mahsa Shateri, also an MIE360 TA, for checking the case was fair and appropriate for a 3-hr competition

Key INFORMS exhibitor and presentation

With only a few weeks left until INFORMS 2011 healthcare event in Montreal. As one of the main exhibitors and presenters, we here at Visual8 are busy putting the final touches to our simulation in healthcare key presentation. While we plan to have plenty of informative healthcare simulation at our booth this year at INFORMS Healthcare 2011. We would like to provide you with some healthcare simulation information just to tide you over until INFORMS healthcare 2011 begins.

Please take the time to watch our little simulation in healthcare video and take a moment to browse our healthcare simulation solutions for more detail on how simulation software is assisting healthcare providers across the globe optimize resources, better integrate services, and save money.

Left unchecked, heath care spending will consume 100% of our provincial program spending budget within 10 to 15 years.

- CFO Nova Scotia Dept of Health

Kieran Concannon, CEO of Visual8, to demonstrate Scenario Generator – Monday June 13, 12:30pm

Visual8 and the Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering invite you to attend a series of healthcare optimization seminars at the University of Toronto.

As the population gets older, and technology is more expensive, the cost of health and social care is going up and new techniques are needed to understand the most effective and affordable interventions to meet the health and social care needs of the population.

Healthcare Simulation techniques model health and social care systems to enable planners, clinicians, analysts and managers to understand the most efficient and effective way of planning a service, taking into account variability and changes in demand and informing evidence-based decision-making.

Scenario Generator is the first and only simulation software tool for strategic planning that enables design and simulation of care pathways within whole health and social care systems. This supports strategic decision-making and the planning, commissioning and design of new models of care.

Scenario Generator has been developed through a public-private partnership between SIMUL8 Corporation, the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and a number of NHS and local government partners in the UK.

Scenario Generator is designed to:

• Replicate the existing service configuration and care pathways in a health and social care system
• Enable scenarios to be developed that reflect changes in population, prevalence, service configuration and capacity, and models of care
• Simulate scenarios to examine the impact of those changes on flow, capacity, end-to-end transaction times (including delays and waits) and cost across the whole system
• Indicate where changes to one pathway might have impacts elsewhere in the whole system

An initiative of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, the Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering (CRHE) is a response to the immediate and compelling desire for efficiency and quality improvements in the Canadian health care system. CRHE research is focused on the application of Industrial/Systems Engineering techniques in relation to demand and capacity modeling and resource allocation issues in the health care industry. Its goals include creating quantitative decision support tools to help policy makers and industry leaders make better informed decisions.

Visual8 and CRHE have successfully partnered together on several health care simulation projects. As a leader in the use of computer modeling and simulation, Visual8’s valuable support has contributed directly to CRHE’s success. Sample projects include:

Perioperative DSS Patient Flow Analysis

This simulation models the operating rooms of a hospital, as well as all of the processes and procedures that support the OR. It can be used as a tactical tool to evaluate OR procedures in hospitals across Ontario in support of the provincial and national wait time initiatives. Based on the simulation results, perioperative managers can optimize their strategic decisions to minimize the negative impact of such measures on the entire perioperative process.

Read more about Visual8′s Perioperative Patient Flow Analysis project

Healthcare Initiative Learning Interface

This tool allows the user to examine the impact of a set of widely acknowledged yet often misunderstood hospital efficiency initiatives. These include segmenting capacity in the ED, managing wait-lists, and matching resource capacity to demand. The results of the simulation help underline the impact that these initiatives can have on wait times.

Read more about Visual8′s healthcare initiative learning interface project

Visual8 is pleased to be an exhibitor at the upcoming INFORMS Healthcare 2011, June 20-22 in Montreal, Canada. Stop by our booth to see a live demonstration of Scenario Generator as well as a number of other Healthcare Decision Support Systems.

About INFORMS

INFORMS (The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) is a society formed of professionals in the fields of operations research, business analytics and other management sciences. Serving as a focal point for operations research employees and academics INFORMS assists in the communication of ideas between professionals and researchers alike.

INFORMS Healthcare Conference 2011

The INFORMS Healthcare conference provides attendees with an invaluable opportunity to learn from and network with fellow operations research and healthcare professionals. As active members in the healthcare simulation community Visual8 will be attending INFORMS 2011 providing visitors with an opportunity to discuss Visual8 Healthcare Simulation Projects and Decision Support Solutions with members of the Visual8 consulting team.

Simulation Modeling with SIMUL8, by K.Concannon, M.Elder, K.Hindle, J.Tremble, and S.Tse

Download Free SIMUL8 Textbook

As the leading SIMUL8 experts in North America, Visual8 corporation has decided to celebrate the launch of it’s new website by providing a FREE copy of the indispensable SIMUL8 textbook “Simulation Modeling with SIMUL8″.

Written by Visual8 founder and CEO, this indispensable guide to simulation as a decision-making tool was written by members of Visual8′s staff, expert users of SIMUL8 with a broad background of consulting and training experience; and Mark Elder, the founder and president of SIMUL8.

Overview

Whether the reader is an engineer, manager, analyst, or student, simulation users and developers alike will find value in the book. It provides a practical introduction to the power and utility of simulation technology. Simulation Modeling with SIMUL8 is useful for learning about the theory behind simulation, its uses within various industries, and a guide to SIMUL8.

Simulation

The Simulation Section provides an overview of computer simulation modeling and some of the issues that relate to it in general, without citing a specific software package.

Business Applications

In the Business Applications Section, numerous case examples show how simulation can be applied in a variety of ways to address a diverse set of business issues from traditional manufacturing to business processes in the service industry.

SIMUL8 Reference

The SIMUL8 Reference Section shows how to create the simulation models using SIMUL8 software along with the features within the package that enable the developer to produce powerful decision-making tools.

Competition Format

Teams of 2 – 4 students from the same university work on a simulation problem that can be solved using SIMUL8. The SIMUL8 simulation software will be provided free to the teams of this competition along with a user manual. Up to two teams will be accepted from each university.

Teams will have eight weeks to develop their solution. Entries are judged on several factors (see below) and five finalist teams are selected to compete at the CORS Annual Conference in Toronto, ON, June 14th to 17th 2009.

Eligibility

The candidate must be registered as a full-time student at a recognized Educational institution at the undergraduate, Masters, or Ph.D. level during the 2008/2009 academic year.

To Apply – Deadline February 8th 2008

Please e-mail all applications to cors_comp@visual8.com by February 13th 2009. Include the following information:

Case Study Details and Student Guide

The following documents contain the case study and the student guide book that has been created to help you develop your models. Instructions regarding the download of student versions of the SIMUL8 software package will be sent to all registered team leaders.

Competition Format

Teams of 2 – 4 students from the same university work on a simulation problem that can be solved using SIMUL8. The SIMUL8 simulation software will be provided free to the teams of this competition along with a user manual. Up to two teams will be accepted from each university.

Teams will have eight weeks to develop their solution (due April 4th, 2008). Entries are judged on several factors (see below) and five finalist teams are selected to compete at the CORS Annual Conference in Quebec City, QC, May 12th to 14th 2008, http://w1.cirrelt.umontreal.ca/scrojopt2008/en/. Each finalist team will receive a free conference registration.

Eligibility

The candidate must be registered as a full-time student at a recognized Educational institution at the undergraduate, Masters, or Ph.D. level during the 2007/2008 academic year.

To Apply – Deadline February 8th 2008

Please e-mail all applications to cors_comp@visual8.com by February 8th 2008. Include the following information:

Case Study Details and Student Guide

The following documents contain the case study and the student guide book that has been created to help you develop your models. Instructions regarding the download of student versions of the SIMUL8 software package will be sent to all registered team leaders.