New platform provides SME access to simulation technologies

The EU-funded CLOUDSME project has made it easier for SMEs looking to apply simulation technologies in order to achieve operational efficiencies.
New platform provides SME access to simulation technologies © Shutterstock
While simulation software is now widely used in manufacturing and engineering to analyse chemical processes, manufacturing systems, logistics and supply chains, take-up of simulation software by SMEs has until now been low. This is mostly due to high barriers of entry such as hardware prices, licensing costs and technical expertise. In this respect, European SMEs can find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Completed in March 2016, the CLOUDSME project has addressed this challenge by developing a cloud-based platform. Here, SMEs have easy access to recently developed process simulation apps applicable across a broad range of sectors and targeted specifically at smaller businesses. The platform also creates a significant market opportunity for apps developers, who have often found it difficult to reach SMEs.

The project platform’s provides examples how companies are already using CLOUDSME technology to achieve operational efficiencies in their respective sectors, and enables SMEs to explore and test the first available tools. New applications are constantly being developed and uploaded onto the site. The CLOUDSME platform also enables companies to build customised cloud applications.

One interesting application uploaded onto the platform involved a small UK brewer, an eager early adopter of innovative sustainable technologies. This company helped to develop a cloud-based process optimisation simulation tool, which has attracted great interest among Europe’s craft brewing community.

The tool, developed by an independent supplier of simulation software and services, is designed to help brewers achieve a better understanding of their brewing processes and as a consequence enable them to brew better beer. By leveraging the power of a cloud platform like CLOUDSME, anybody who has internet access can acquire the tool.

Another experimental scenario involved linking up a patented insole design simulation programme – used to tailor sports footwear and shoes for people with foot problems –with a cloud-based version. A portal was established through which scans could be uploaded to the cloud-based software service, which then validated the scanned image to produce the tailored insole design.

Simulation software is typically based on numerical simulation or event simulation, and usually consists of a visual modelling tool, a simulation tool, an experimentation manager to support statistically correct experimentation and a results generator to bring together key experimentation findings. Companies use simulation software because it can significantly reduce costs through identifying more efficient development, production, procurement, logistics or financial processes.

The CLOUDSME project consortium involved experienced partners – including 12 SMEs – ranging from cloud hardware and platform providers to simulation software providers, end users and technology integrators. The project built upon existing and proven technologies, thus enabling the project to deliver implementable results quickly.

The platform, which will continue to run, will help ensure that manufacturing and engineering SMEs – the backbone of the EU’s economy – have access to simulation tools that could lead to operational efficiencies and increased competitiveness. The platform will also provide new business opportunities not only to end-user SMEs but also to simulation software and cloud service providers.

Πηγή: http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125079_en.html?isPermaLink=true