As the Elf & Reindeer crew readies for another holiday season, we're taking a look back at what went well and what could have gone better with last year's launch of Santa 4.0.
You’ll recall that Santa had to deploy a Remote Reindeer Workforce (RRW) to deliver gifts to children across the globe in record time, without having to leave their home offices.
Santa's team attributes the mission's success in large part to the simulation and analysis software used in designing and manufacturing the workforce.
The RRW beat their drop-shipping accuracy targets and achieved a reduction in total Child Wake-up Events, to the relief of parents everywhere.
One tight situation stands out as an unforeseen obstacle and area for improvement: Not all chimneys are swept as clean as one might hope.
In fact, one particular chimney – we won't say where so as not to embarrass the homeowners – was in such disrepair and had such an accumulation of creosote that the gifts became lodged partway down. The ensuing emergency operation required that valuable resources be diverted from primary distribution duties to rescue assistance.
To avoid a repeat of this unfortunate situation, the RRW fleet will implement three solutions:
The particle dispersion analysis available in Simcenter 3D will help the team evaluate the thermal properties of soot to provide homeowners with valuable safety guidance and information on preventing creosote buildup.
The new line of Santa's Helper Sensors will be placed strategically in chimneys for cloud-based collection of telemetry data using MindSphere. The Elf Eyes app, built with Mendix, will help Santa's Elves monitor the data in real-time.
Elf Engineers will use Maya HTT's Anomaly Detection app along with advanced AI algorithms to clean and analyze the sensor data and generate predictions for next year. As a safety measure, RRWs will issue discrete predictive maintenance alerts advising homeowners of the need for chimney sweeping.
As an extra precaution measure, a backup emergency response team has been readied for rapid deployment and the electric battery packs have been equipped with adaptors that can connect to standard charging stations around the globe. New additive manufacturing techniques helped accelerate the design and production of these additional RRW units at a reduced cost.
With this plan, Santa and his crew feel confident that this year’s RRW will lead another successful gift distribution operation to the delight of parents and children everywhere!
