Danish institutes for higher education show a growing interest in material flow simulation for production, operations and logistics management. Last year six technical educational institutes in Denmark have invested in the Enterprise Dynamics Educational Suite to bring their students up to date with state of the art commerical simulation software. Most of these institutes not only apply Enterprise Dynamics during their classes but also take the software outside of the classroom in real-life projects.

Plug and play
Enterprise Dynamics is user-friendly and easy to learn. This makes it possible to let students focus at the problem rather than the software. Instead of clicking buttons, students spend their time analyzing the problem and finding solutions to it by means of what-if simulations. In this way the logistic principles explained on the black board come alive and students begin to understand the effects of changes in a dynamic system. A large portion of simulation models in Enterprise Dynamics can be constructed using drag-and-drop. The Educational Suite, a balanced mix of software and teaching materials, also includes student software tutorials and ready-to-use cases which allow teachers to start-up their classes in no time.

“In an operation analysis course we use Enterprise Dynamics in 2/3 of the available time and during this time the students get a clear picture of the logistic principles and the effect of changes.” Associate professor Henrik Vindt, IOT

Learning by doing

Curricula at Danish universities include a large number of engineering disciplines such as statistics, queuing theory, economics, supply chain management and operations management. Sometimes it’s hard for students to understand the coherence between all these disciplines or how they relate to each other in the business reality. Using simulation it’s not all formulas, numbers and graphs. Enterprise Dynamics offers realistic 3D animation, which quickly grasps thestudents’ attention. Teachers have noticed more motivation among students working with simulation. Furthermore it is a well known fact that students who actually apply the theory taught in the classroom have a much better understanding of it.

“The students find simulation very relevant and each semester we have students and graduate projects that include simulation.” Associate professor Henrik Vindt, IOT

IntegrateUser Group

Most Danish educational institutes using Enterprise Dynamics also take simulation outside of the classroom. Backed up by the professional support of Enterprise Dynamics business partner Markman Prosystem, students complete logistics projects in the “real world”. Also Integrate DK offers guest lectures for the educational institutes where they demonstrate some of the latest simulation projects carried out for the Danish industry. To spread simulation knowledge and experience, Integrate DK has started an expert group that includes teachers with experiences in simulation. The group gets together a couple of times per year to discuss the latest trends in simulation and methods to convey these to students.