Simulation in Production and Logistics at the TU Darmstadt
The use of modern simulation methods has become indispensable in the planning and operation of production and logistics systems. The areas of application range from the validation of new factory or logistics concepts to virtual commissioning and digital twins.
The TU Darmstadt takes into account this great and still growing importance of simulation technology in the education of industrial engineers and business informatics specialists. In a cooperation of the departments of Corporate Management and Logistics of Prof. Dr. Ralf Elbert and Production and Supply Chain Management of Prof. Dr. Christoph Glock with the simulation specialist SimPlan AG from Hanau, the students are taught the necessary theoretical and practical basics. “The offer meets with great interest among the students,” says Prof. Glock, “the 60 places offered in the first year were quickly taken. This is certainly helped by the fact that the course teaches the use of two simulation tools widely used in industry and at universities: Plant Simulation from Siemens and AnyLogic from the Russian-American company of the same name.”
Specifically, the offer to students consists of a lecture, a practical exercise with the AnyLogic simulator and a seminar with the Plant Simulation simulator. “Students who combine these three components,” says Dr. Sven Spieckermann, who supervises the lecture and seminar as an external lecturer, “know the scientific fundamentals and are at the same time excellently qualified to start a career in the promising field of digitization.”
“The depth and breadth of knowledge transfer and the mix of theory and practice make the focus on simulation in production and logistics formed in Darmstadt a special feature in the German university landscape,” emphasizes Prof. Elbert. “We are very pleased to be able to offer our students such a program in cooperation with one of the leading German companies in this field.”