FAQs
Sometimes a delivery of products does not arrive at a facility when it should, and sometimes my simulation results are not the same as other people working on the same case study – is this a bug in the software?
Delivery vehicles occasionally miss deliveries. The frequency of missed deliveries depends on the frequency of deliveries and the time it takes for a vehicle to travel its delivery route. More frequent deliveries made by vehicles traveling on longer routes result in higher rates of missed deliveries(just like in the real world). Because of missed deliveries it is necessary to have “safety stock” inventory at facilities (just like in the real world) to keep them going when this occurs. And sometimes there will even be two deliveries made when only one was expected, so you need to have a bit of extra storage space available at facilities to handle unexpected deliveries. To improve scheduling of vehicles on routes see a full explanation in “Delivery Schedules Do Not Always Work Perfectly”.
You will also notice your simulation results do not always match exactly with results of others working on the same case study. This is because of small differences in where you place a facility or how you define routes or vehicles or times between departures. The more adjustments and changes you make to your supply chain model (even very small ones), the more your results will differ from others who do similar but not exactly identical things in their models. Learn more about this in "The Butterfly Effect".
Which Browsers are Compatible with SCM Globe?
Chrome, Firefox and Safari. And it DOES NOT run under Microsoft Internet Explorer or Edge. If Microsoft is your regular browser, Chrome and Firefox co-exist well with Microsoft. You can use Chrome or Firefox when working with SCM Globe, and return to the Microsoft browser for other tasks.You can download a free copy of Chrome or Firefox by going to the websites of those browser makers.
- Chrome - https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/
- Firefox - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/
Firefox has security features that can cause confusion. One of those features is triggered when you download simulation results from SCM Globe to your PC. In the Firefox browser when you click on the "Export Results to Excel" button it will cause Firefox to open a dialog box. The dialog box will ask "What should Firefox do with this file?" There are two options: 1) Open with; or 2) Save File. Select "Save File". The simulation data will then download as a data file to your PC. The file will be something called an "octet-stream" instead of a .csv file. Unlike a .csv file, you cannot open this file by just clicking on it. You must open it from within your spreadsheet application. So open your spreadsheet application (MS Excel, Apple Numbers, Google Sheets, etc.) and use the spreadsheet to open the simulation data file that you just downloaded. It will open correctly inside your spreadsheet application.
We have several reports of entity icons not displaying when running simulations under Firefox. At SCM Globe, we are able to run simulations without a problem using the latest version of Firefox (Version 52.0.1). However, there may be security settings in Firefox that could prevent entity icons from being loaded and displayed. We are using the default settings that come when we download and install the newest version of Firefox and everything works fine. But Firefox browser settings on your computer may be set differently depending on your company security policies, etc. Ask your IT support person about this. We appreciate any information you can share with us on this topic.