Democratization of Engineering Simulation

(​downloads are NAFEMS Member Only)

The focus of this ASSESS Initiative theme is to advocate for and enable a significant expansion of the use of Engineering Simulation by all users in a reliable way, for whom access to the power of Engineering Simulation would be beneficial. This is aimed at broader accessibility and use of Engineering Simulation, and includes education, promotion of successes, identification of challenges, facilitation of partnerships, and providing access to resources.

Engineering Simulation needs to be made available to and used by a significantly wider audience of product & process developers in a reliable way that does not require them to be experts in specific simulation applications.

Democratization of Engineering Simulation comes in many forms of implementation. While there are many common characteristics, issues and opportunities across them all, there are also critical differences that need to be identified and elucidated, to enable a path to achievable solutions.

The first aspect of any form of implementation of Democratization of Engineering Simulation is whether or not it is driven by customers or providers of Engineering Simulation. The second aspect in any form of implementation of Democratization of Engineering Simulation is the type of customer that this form of implementation is intended to be used by (Large Enterprise, Small-Medium Business (SMB), Industry Consortium, mixture of customer types). The third aspect in any form of implementation of Democratization of Engineering Simulation is the “level” of democratization desired.

1. Product/Project-level democratization
   Democratization within a company, at a project level.
2. Product Development Process-level democratization
   Democratization within a company, at a product level; crosses various departments involved in the development of a product; could be distributed globally.
3. Corporate Enterprise-level democratization
   Democratization as a standard practice across an entire enterprise; the company has standardized simulation practices, wishes to enforce them globally, and has committed to putting simulation in the hands of everyone who needs it globally.
4. Industry-level democratization
   Democratization across a particular industry; solution providers create applications that are targeted towards the particular needs of an industry and its products and promote democratization; these applications become widely used across the industry.

The ASSESS Initiative will explore the different forms of Engineering Simulation democratization to provide understanding and guidance for all of those looking to expand (or begin) usage of Engineering Simulation tools.

The ASSESS Initiative is working to measure both the size of the Engineering Simulation market in provider revenue and usage. The ASSESS Initiative is working with Cambashi and intrinSIM for provider revenue and is investigating ways to measure and monitor usage.