How Has WITNESS and Simulation Methodology Changed My Life

Rebeca Elizondo Andrade, a Costa Rica-based simulation solutions consultant shares her thoughts on why she decided to choose WITNESS for her business.

I’m an Industrial Engineer, and I recently quit my job as a Logistics Manager for a large Central American package and container firm to start my own business as a Simulation Consultant.

At University, I learnt to simulate with two other popular simulation packages, but having embarked on this new adventure in my life, I decided I needed the best software in order to give the best value to my potential clients.

Before I bought WITNESS, I did some research and I found a lot of things in common between the different simulation software packages available - until I found a study from the Faculty of Computer Information at the Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences that compares 56 commercial simulation packages from different points of views: the modeler, the user of the simulation package, the programmer, and the application.

This study explains not only the trends that simulation packages are pursuing, but also addresses the issues denoting technology prevails. I realized that WITNESS is classified within 25% simulation packages that use 3D animation, within 26% that use spreadsheets as reporting tools and within just 7% that used both discrete and continuous approaches for time handling of simulation. But for me, the key elements that helped me take this decision were: support, modeling flexibility and graphical interface.

Now that I’ve been using it, and presenting it in my business, I’ve grown to appreciate the Power with Ease feature that WITNESS software uses. Its dynamic and robust process simulation allows you to represent the real world with all its variables: breakdowns, set ups, cost, sustainability, conditions, types, relations, shifts, fluids, recipes, routes, transportation systems, rates, cycles, etc.

This flexibility and visibility in the model has been very important in my business, because what the companies are looking for is to see the real world as it is in the computer, which ends up being the purpose of simulation. All this, and I haven´t even mentioned anything about the animation part yet! WITNESS allows you animate at the same time that you are modeling, something that other simulation packages don’t.

I could continue talking about my experience using WITNESS and how it has helped me grow and expand as a successful company, but I believe this gives you an idea about what is happening now in my professional life.

To contact Rebeca Elizondo Andrade or to find out more about her consultancy based in Costa-Rica, RBC Solutions follow @RBCSimulations on Twitter or visit http://www.rbcsimulations.com/ (Spanish language.)