Building Enterprise Simulation with AnyLogic Software

Enterprise Simulation, an integral part of a Digital Enterprise, is a set of deployed (and possibly interconnected) digital twins used at the operational level by multiple stakeholders across the organization. It is an enterprise-wide application with a web interface deployed on servers or a corporate cloud and deeply integrated with operational workflows.

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To improve your company’s performance and efficiency, you’ve tried simulation and even built a simulation-based digital twin of your business. For some, this might be enough.

But what if you have numerous business units, such as factories or fulfillment centers, scattered across a country? And what if you want them all to be digital twins that initialize themselves on real-time data from real systems and can explore future scenarios?

And most importantly...what if you want them all connected into one application for operations management?

Traditional simulations usually stay at the strategic or tactical level and rarely work as operational Decision Support Systems. These “old-school” models are mostly used for planning and are only used to run some tests and make reports for management.

Digital twins, simulation-based models of real processes, are used more in day-to-day operations. They continuously help the organization monitor its operations, analyze them, and make forecasts. Combined, they form Enterprise Simulation.

Enterprise Simulation for next-level digital transformation

As an integral part of the digital transformation process, and eventually a Digital Enterprise, Enterprise Simulation is a set of deployed (and probably interconnected) simulation-based digital twins. It is designed to be used at the operational level and is accessible to numerous stakeholders across the organization.

Such simulation-based digital twins are triggered at specific times and initialized based on real-time data from a physical system. After the initialization, you can run experiments with them to explore future scenarios and then use the results to support your business decisions in the real world.

Digital twins within the Enterprise Simulation app may represent many (possibly heterogeneous) highly detailed simulation models of geographically distributed business units. They, however, share a common business application.

Business applications for Enterprise Simulation:

  • Branches of a fast-food chain
  • Warehouse network of a retailer
  • Fulfillment centers of an e-commerce business
  • Data centers of a tech company

Why create Enterprise Simulation?

  • 01

    Monitor, analyze, and optimize operations in real time.

  • 02

    Improve efficiency, reduce costs, and boost performance.

  • 03

    Explore future scenarios to mitigate financial & operational risks.

  • 04

    Test the effect of proposed changes in a risk-free environment.

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Why use the AnyLogic ecosystem for end-to-end Enterprise Simulation?


We’ve strategically developed and architected the AnyLogic ecosystem for Enterprise Simulation so that you have all the tools to save you time and effort. With AnyLogic simulation modeling software, you can build models of your business, then seamlessly deploy them to AnyLogic Cloud and integrate them into operational workflows.

  • Simulate any business at any level of detail

    Operational models are typically complex, low-abstraction models with numerous detailed components. Having the freedom to use all three modeling methods within the modular object-oriented environment increases your chances of success in handling complexity and creating digital twins with “just enough” details in structure and behavior to handle the problem.
  • Easily scale your models with reusable components

    The ability to create sharable libraries of reusable custom components is vital in Enterprise Simulation, where hundreds of simulation models with significant similarities are frequently the case. You need a team of just a few advanced modelers that will create the foundational elements with core logic. Then, other modelers can tune them to replicate the operations of particular business units.
  • Stream knowledge about the system into digital twins

    All components of an AnyLogic model are fully covered with API and contain “extension points” to access external APIs, databases, files, libraries, optimization solutions, and heuristics from anywhere in the model. This coverage enables sound integration of digital twins with streams of knowledge about the system.
  • Integrate with operational workflows

    AnyLogic Cloud supports API in four languages for embedding simulations into operational workflows. Use cases range from parameterizing digital twins, running experiments, streaming outputs (in text, Excel, JSON, and other forms), and integrating the simulation frontend directly into corporate BI interfaces. The latter is possible because AnyLogic models have a browser-based interactive frontend with 2D and 3D animation capable of running remotely from the server where the model is being executed (corporate branding is available!).
  • Make forecasts and optimize with AI in the loop

    AnyLogic pioneered interoperability of simulation and AI, such as embedding trained machine learning models into simulations. This simulation-AI integration is a crucial factor in representing hybrid systems of the future, where AI plays a significant role in predicting system behavior.

Complete control over your data

With AnyLogic Private Cloud, which the Enterprise Simulation application will be based on, you can control where the simulation data is stored and who has access to it. AnyLogic Private Cloud is an on-premises software that can be installed on your company’s server or on your preferred platform – Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, or MS Azure.