How Simulation Impacts Revolutionizing Industries?

Simulation technology has come on leaps and bounds in recent decades, making the science fiction dreams of the past become a reality. But while we’re not yet living in virtual reality (although the Metaverse may be an early entry), simulation technology is helping us with our day-to-day lives.

From guiding business decisions through strategic planning to revolutionising education and the health industry, simulation allows us to make mistakes without any real-world consequences.

Without the fear of failure, simulation technology is allowing many industries to progress in leaps and bounds. Let’s take a closer look at the role simulation has played and can still play in revolutionising the world’s industries.

Develop operational tools for business

It’s not just technical skills where simulation is helping industries prosper. Simulation supports IT and allows business leaders and economists to imitate the reality of the markets they operate in and run risk-free experiments. In this way, businesses can learn from the consequences of their actions. 

Companies can use business simulation tools for innovation and development, shaping strategies, improving market comprehension and honing their financial skills. With business simulations capable of replicating and emulating real-world factors and challenges that companies face, leadership teams can enjoy a big-picture view of their operations.

Companies can develop a more agile mindset by running projections and creating strategies for market events using their simulation tools. This helps make businesses create robust risk management strategies in difficult times while offering the opportunity for growth predictions at all times.

Track learning in education

Traditional teaching methods have stood people in good stead for decades but there are always ways we can improve the education delivered to our children, students and trainees. Simulation tools help teachers to better demonstrate abstract concepts, helping students to visualise complex relationships between different system parts and their influence on performance.

But more than simply helping students to comprehend technical information better, simulation tools can also help educators track the learning progress of their classes. Simulation tools can provide student progress tracking and offer the students themselves targeted skills development choices to plug their knowledge gaps.

In the long term, the use of simulation in education yields cost-effective results but its initial set-up and the subsequent knowledge required can be a barrier to some learning institutions. However, accurate simulations provide instant feedback, offer more comprehensive learning and training and help students learn immediately from their mistakes.

Guide elite athletes

The sports industry generates billions of dollars worldwide each year and many young athletes strive to become a star in their chosen discipline. And simulation has a role to play to bring out the best in sports stars around the globe.

For example, professional golfers can gain course insights for major competitions from the comfort of their own homes with a golf simulator. Simulators allow golfers to know how far they hit their shots, and the way the course will react when they approach from certain directions, meaning that when it comes to competition time they are completely ready.

Likewise, Formula One drivers are restricted in how much time they are allowed to drive their cars outside of race events to maintain a level playing field. However, a simulator allows a racing driver as many hours in their perfectly replicated virtual cockpit to master 1:1-scale tracks and discover their markers for braking and turning.

Enhance first aid training

The need for simulation training for first aid is essential as placing someone in a medical emergency is obviously unsafe for them. In recent decades we have seen the rise and popularisation of the medical manikin, purpose-built to train nurses and doctors in specific health emergencies.

From learning how to administer CPR to emergency rescue situations, manikins have been a core element for training medical professionals for years and while they will remain useful for practical learning, virtual reality is becoming more prominent.

Today doctors and nurses can learn from 3D anatomy applications or virtual simulated patients through augmented and virtual reality. This allows medical trainees to undertake more complicated practical procedures and gain more detailed experience that stands them in good stead when performing them in real life.

Stay safe with pilot-training simulators 

Aviation is an industry that has become synonymous with simulation and safety. Other than surgery, there can be few professions that come with the risks of a commercial airline pilot. And with hundreds of people relying on you to keep them safe, it’s easy to see why pilots require such rigorous training programmes. Not only can they help teach pilots the practical skills they need to take off, land and keep a plane in the air but they can also help train for emergencies.

Whether that’s an engine blown, or two, a damaged wing or a substantial drop in cabin pressure, pilots are tested across all scenarios to ensure they have experience in the event they occur during a real flight. Pilots drill emergency and procedure training in hyper-realism, giving them hands-on experience in replica cockpits to ensure there are no surprises when they are in the air.

There is also a budgetary reason why flight simulators are used by airlines and it allows them to avoid the costs of running their planes in the skies for training. This could mean a loss of revenue as a plane is taken out of service or it may be saving on the ever-increasing cost of fuel.

Replace animal testing

Animal testing is one of the most controversial research methods scientists and pharmaceutical companies use because of the complete lack of choice test subjects have in their being tested. As indicated by research which shows that, where there is no alternative, 30% of people believe that animal testing for ingredients used in medication is not acceptable, while 47% believe it is.

But, simulation technology may just offer that alternative that can change the face of the pharmaceutical industry.

In fact, simulation models tested in 2018 were proven to be more accurate than their animal testing alternatives for adverse drug effects. Not only can this greater accuracy help reduce, or idealistically remove, the need for animal testing but it can also help usher in improved drug safety and reduce the risk for patients during clinical trials.