As each new year begins, we all wonder what will happen, what will change, what will stay the same, and what crises will we face? This year was no different and here at AnyLogic we faced the same questions, and rather than shy away from them, we faced them head on.
In this challenging year, we again grew and developed – AnyLogic and AnyLogic Cloud new releases, webinars, blog posts, case studies, a growing online community, new media, an online conference, and more.
So, why don’t we explore some of these in more detail as we break down our 2022.
AnyLogic and AnyLogic Cloud releases
Let’s start off with a run-down of new releases and developments.
AnyLogic releases 8.7.8-8.7.12 brought back-to-back rack placement, the ability to export to file for models in the cloud, programmatically create a GIS network, adding reversible conveyors, and new built-in Help. Before AnyLogic Help could only be accessed from our website, but now it is available directly from the software. There were also some minor updates to the built-in AnyLogic libraries.
In AnyLogic 8.8, the API was shifted to Java 11. This release also included improvements for Material Handling, Process Modeling, and Rail Libraries.
The final AnyLogic release of the year – 8.8.1 added the ability for Storage to now have FIFO and LIFO rack types. This is a big step forward and allows the modeling of the four most popular racking methods. Also, there were some minor storage improvements such as a preliminary reservation of a rack cell and the ability to change a load/unload aisle location using the reverse loading direction option.
Take a look at the AnyLogic timeline to see how we have progressed over the years.
The latest Cloud release – 2.3.1 brought many upgrades, including UI/UX changes such as clickable links in the model description and the ability to share on social media. You’ll also find functionality updates such as the ability for Cloud API to support file as input and file as output. There is also improved search functionality. And the last notable change is an adjustable password policy which an admin may appreciate.
New content for the website – blog posts and case studies
We have added a lot of content to our site in the form of case studies and blog posts. You’ll find 38 new case studies just from this year, from various industries and companies. Let’s check out a select few:
- We have three case studies from DHL about warehouse operations. Take a look at this first one and you’ll find some links to the other two.
- One of the world’s leading steel manufacturers, Tata Steel, illustrated how to optimize processes at one if its lime plants.
- BlueKei solutions, an Indian consulting company, was able to use simulation to show how many drones were required for spraying a field.
- There is a very interesting case study on automatic generation of simulation models developed by AIG. It looks at how it is possible to simplify model making through repetition.
- There are also a number of new case studies focused on the COVID-19 outbreak, such as this one from Saudi Arabia.
As you can see, a wide variety of themes and ideas are represented here, and you’ll find more on our case studies page where you can explore all the case studies from this year as well as previous years.
Our blog posts this year have been varied and from many different writers, including a series of technical blog posts from our support team. We have had release blog posts, blog posts about electric vehicles, energy optimization, an operational simulation, and an extremely relevant one on risk management to mention just a few. These are just a small sample of what you can find. So take a look, explore, and discover something interesting you may have missed during the year.
Webinars and training courses
Training courses and webinars are an important part of the AnyLogic philosophy as we see education as the key to development and progress.
The first webinar of the year was on AnyLogic Private Cloud: Enabling Enterprise Scale Simulation Deployment, and you can read more about this in our blog post.
Later on in the year, there was a two-part series on AnyLogic’s Material Handling Library – Essential Techniques and Functionalities. These two videos provide some very fascinating ideas and methods that you can use to jump start your learning and usage of the MHL. Watch the first part and then continue on to part two.
And in the final webinar of the year, viewers got to discover all about Custom Libraries in AnyLogic – Enabling Model Building at Scale for Enterprise Simulation. Another great learning experience and one that you can read more about in this recent blog post.
In addition, 40 different training events were given, by our various partners, throughout the year across different time zones and in various languages.
Conference
This year’s conference again took place online and lasted for almost 24 hours. Many companies took advantage of this opportunity to showcase their recent work, some of which was finished and some which was still in progress, but all were informative and gave the viewers something to think about. Speaking of viewers, there were more than 1,000 of them.
You can read more about the conference and discover what exactly went on in more detail. You can also check out the conference page on our site where you’ll find the presentations to watch as well as all the available PDF’s.
Community engagement
As always, we are continuously engaging with the AnyLogic community using our pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. As such, growth continued on all of these platforms.
This year we opened up two new channels. The first is Medium and here you can read some of our newest material. What’s interesting is that on this platform, you have the option to have the article read out to you. So, sit back and listen to some great content. The second is a Telegram channel, where blog posts are delivered directly to you as they are published – subscribe and you’ll never miss a blog post again.
Our monthly newsletter continues to be popular and not only provides information on some of the newest and most popular blog posts, but also on future events, and the ever-popular model of the month. So don’t forget to subscribe.
That’s all for now
So, that brings us to the end of yet another year. A year that was distinctive in a lot of ways. A year that brought many difficulties and challenges, some expected and some unexpected. But in every cloud, there is a silver lining so, let’s look forward to learning from this year and making the next year better for everyone.
