In March 2009, LLamasoft released “Visual Modeler”, the first of its kind technology to be used in strategic supply chain analysis and modeling. This new technology will shave days and even weeks off of a supply chain network modeling project, and enable people to spend more time analyzing solution scenarios as opposed to spending their time editing model data.

Visual Modeler is exactly what the name sounds like—a visual means to view supply chain network structures, edit data, and even create entire models. Visual Modeler is designed to feel familiar to people who have used flow charting software applications such as Visio or ABC Flowcharter.

While map views have been common within network design applications for years, they have never been able to help users intuitively add, change, or create model data. Visual Modeler, which is embedded directly into Version 5.1 of Supply Chain GuruTM, enables users to make drag and drop changes to their network design, or even design an entire supply chain simply by importing an ERP transaction file and “drawing” the network connections and behaviors on a virtual canvas.

Visual Modeler is essentially a view into the supply chain model database. It is directly linked to the data tables used in Supply Chain GuruTM and all parameters of the model can be viewed, added, modified, or deleted on the interactive canvas. The system ensures referential integrity by automatically updating any model change throughout the entire database.