Simio

What do you like best?

The extensive probability distributions and the ease with which to import images for introducing creativity into a simulation. Further, the amount of documentation behind Simio is extensive. Tutorials and "how-to" videos are easy to find and the ever-increasing adoption rate of Simio in the academic and commercial realms means that their library is ever-growing. An interesting feature of Simio is the ability to assign "intelligence" to entities/nodes. When modeling a socio-technical system (such as trying to manage customer flow at self-checkout lines or modeling passenger throughout from an airport gate), this feature greatly enhances the outputs.

What do you dislike?

Bugs and lag in importing images at times. If there was a major con that I can think of, it would be the inability of the software to sufficiently scale for complex and rather large simulations/models. The software is best utilized for quick, efficient simulations of small to medium projects. For something like a life cycle assessment of environmental systems, the network can become cumbersome and in turn slow down the execution of the model. Unless you have a touch-screen laptop (and even then, finger cramps can set in), the software is very "point and click" intensive. Further, the software could be said to lack the ability to produce "professional looking" outputs/charts/graphs/etc. These however could easily be remedied by exporting results to Microsoft Excel, Tableau, or another graphics program.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Ensure that you consult the tutorial before use. Further, I'd recommend exploring additional tools for graphics generation.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Benefits seen in identifying interaction hot spots between nodes.