Review of InterDynamics, decision support and simulation software vendor

By Léon Levinas-Ménard

Last updated: November, 2025

InterDynamics is a Brisbane-based software and consulting company founded in 1992 that focuses on two tightly related domains: discrete-event simulation for operational decision support, and fatigue risk management based on biomathematical models. Its flagship technology is Planimate, a Windows-based simulation development environment used to build bespoke planning and scheduling tools, including pit-to-port supply chain models for mining and logistics operations. On top of this simulation capability, InterDynamics has developed FAID and its successor FAID Quantum, a fatigue assessment product suite that implements validated biomathematical models to estimate fatigue exposure from work–rest schedules across safety-critical sectors such as rail, aviation, mining and policing. The company delivers solutions primarily as projects: consulting engagements that combine domain analysis, custom model building in Planimate, and deployment of targeted tools (e.g. integrated planning models or FRMS dashboards), with FAID Quantum offered both as installable software and as a web app at faidquantum.com. There is limited public information about modern cloud-native or large-scale ML infrastructure behind these products; what can be seen points to a mature but relatively traditional stack centred on Windows applications, .NET wrappers and proprietary mathematical models, rather than on contemporary probabilistic forecasting, large-scale optimization or end-to-end automated decision pipelines.

InterDynamics overview

InterDynamics Pty Ltd is an Australian private company registered in 1992, headquartered in Brisbane (QLD 4000) and employing on the order of a few dozen staff.¹ It positions itself as an expert in “human fatigue risk and decision support,” combining software and services to help organisations analyse operations and manage work-related fatigue.²³⁴

The company’s activity clusters around two main software lines:

Planimate® – a simulation-based development environment used internally by InterDynamics to deliver “planning and scheduling systems” and also distributed (including a free “LITE” version for education) as a Windows application for building discrete-event models.³⁵¹⁶
FAID® / FAID Quantum® – fatigue assessment tools that use biomathematical models (BMMs) to estimate fatigue exposure from work schedules, increasingly delivered as a web app (FAID Quantum Web) with trial access via faidquantum.com.⁷⁸⁹¹⁰¹¹¹²

In practice, InterDynamics earns revenue from a mix of consulting projects built on Planimate (for example, iron-ore pit-to-port supply chain simulations) and licensing / service contracts around FAID Quantum and related fatigue risk management solutions, sometimes in partnership with insurers such as Zurich.¹³¹⁴¹⁵ The offering is niche but long-standing: FAID-style tools are referenced in regulatory and research documents for fatigue risk management in transport and aviation, and have been in operational use since at least the late 1990s.⁹¹⁶⁶

From a technology point of view, InterDynamics appears strongly rooted in classical discrete-event simulation and deterministic biomathematical modelling, with relatively modest public evidence of large-scale machine learning or modern cloud architectures. FAID Quantum’s use of validated biomathematical models for fatigue is technically serious but closer to applied mathematical modelling than to contemporary data-driven AI. The Planimate ecosystem is technically mature in its niche but remains a Windows-centric simulation stack, with a .NET wrapper (PL.Net) for embedding the simulation engine into other applications.¹⁷¹⁸

InterDynamics vs Lokad

InterDynamics and Lokad both address operational and supply-chain-adjacent questions, but they do so with fundamentally different paradigms.

Scope of problems. InterDynamics focuses on scenario-driven decision support and fatigue risk management. Planimate models are typically built for specific operations (e.g. a mine-to-port logistics chain, a terminal, or a depot) to test capacity, scheduling and “what-if” options.¹³⁶ FAID Quantum addresses regulatory and safety questions around human fatigue, especially in transport and emergency services.⁷⁸¹⁶ Lokad, by contrast, targets end-to-end quantitative supply chain optimization: demand forecasting, inventory and network planning, production scheduling, and sometimes pricing, all expressed as financially-scored decisions over large SKU×location datasets.
Modelling philosophy. InterDynamics works in a simulation-first manner: consultants analyse a client’s operation, then build a bespoke discrete-event model in Planimate, which the client can use to compare scenarios and see how KPIs respond.³⁵¹³ The model captures process logic and constraints but typically does not produce algorithmically optimized order quantities or replenishment policies; a human analyst still interprets outputs and decides. Lokad starts from probabilistic forecasting of demand and lead times and directly optimizes decisions (orders, allocations, schedules) via stochastic optimization, aiming to maximise expected profit or minimise cost. Instead of manually exploring scenarios, Lokad’s system automatically searches the decision space under uncertainty.
Technology stack and delivery. InterDynamics’ visible stack centres on Windows-based Planimate runtimes, sometimes embedded via a .NET interface, plus a modern web front-end for FAID Quantum Web.¹⁷¹⁰¹⁸ Deployments appear project-based and often on-prem or single-tenant, with web components for specific products such as FAID Quantum. Lokad delivers a multi-tenant SaaS platform hosted on Azure, built around its own domain-specific language (Envision) and a distributed execution engine; clients get a programmable environment where all data, forecasting and optimization logic lives in versioned code.
Automation level. InterDynamics tools support analysis and policy design: FAID Quantum scores rosters and helps define fatigue thresholds; Planimate models allow planners to explore capacity and configuration changes.⁷⁸¹³ But public material does not show InterDynamics routinely generating fully automated daily replenishment or pricing decisions across hundreds of thousands of SKUs. Lokad’s promise is precisely that sort of high-throughput automated decision pipeline, where probabilistic forecasts and stochastic optimization run daily (or more often) on the full transaction history and output prioritized action lists for planners.
Use of AI / ML. InterDynamics’ FAID Quantum is grounded in biomathematical models of fatigue (including its own BMM and an implementation of the Three-Process Model of Alertness) calibrated on sleep and work-schedule data; this is sophisticated applied modelling but not machine learning in the modern sense.⁷⁹¹⁹ There is no public evidence of deep learning, reinforcement learning, or differentiable optimization embedded in Planimate or FAID Quantum. Lokad explicitly builds on probabilistic forecasting, machine learning and differentiable programming for supply chain, using ML models as part of a continuous learning loop that optimizes downstream economic outcomes (see the Lokad brief above).

In short, InterDynamics is best understood as a specialist simulation and fatigue-risk modelling shop: it builds detailed models that humans use to reason about operations and safety. Lokad is a predictive optimization platform for supply chain, whose deliverable is not a simulation model but an automatically updated stream of economically-scored decisions. A company seeking interactive pit-to-port visualisation or a regulator-aligned fatigue scoring tool might find InterDynamics more directly aligned with its needs; a company seeking to overhaul replenishment, network inventory and pricing using large-scale probabilistic optimization would find Lokad’s architecture and focus far closer to that objective.

Company history and corporate profile

InterDynamics Pty Ltd is registered as an Australian proprietary limited company (ACN 057 037 635), incorporated on 4 August 1992 and registered for GST since 2000.¹²⁰ Public business registries and directories consistently list it as a small-to-medium private company headquartered in Brisbane, with an “established 1992” date and an estimated staff size of 21–50.¹¹³

The company’s own material describes its original mission as “visualising the way organisations work” using simulation, built around the in-house Planimate platform first created in 1989.²¹²² Over time, InterDynamics expanded beyond general simulation to develop fatigue risk management solutions, particularly FAID and later FAID Quantum, in collaboration with academic fatigue researchers. FAID tools are cited by Transport Canada as among the most commonly used “fatigue audit” models for transport scheduling, developed jointly by the Centre for Sleep Research at the University of South Australia and InterDynamics.¹⁶

Funding and ownership details are not disclosed, but third-party company intelligence platforms (e.g. Tracxn, D&B) describe InterDynamics as a privately held, bootstrapped developer of fatigue risk management and decision support systems, founded by Doug Seeley.¹⁵¹⁶ No venture capital rounds or acquisitions involving InterDynamics are visible in public databases; it appears to have grown organically within its niche.

Product portfolio

Decision support and simulation (Planimate)

Planimate is the core technology underlying InterDynamics’ decision support practice. The Planimate Knowledge Base describes it as a “simulation based development environment” produced and used by InterDynamics for delivering planning and scheduling systems.³ Separate guidance and blog content frame Planimate explicitly as discrete-event simulation software for modelling and analysing complex systems in manufacturing, logistics, transport and supply chains.²⁵²³

Key characteristics from public material:

Planimate is a Windows-native application, with a lightweight “Planimate LITE” version that runs on any recent Windows PC and is free for educational and non-commercial use.¹⁷¹
It is positioned not as a shrink-wrapped off-the-shelf app, but as a development environment for building custom simulation models, GUIs and reports. InterDynamics uses it to deliver tailored decision support tools to clients (e.g. capacity planners, integrated logistics models), while third parties (universities, other practitioners) can also build their own models.³¹⁷⁶
A case study on InterDynamics’ site describes an Integrated Planning Tool simulating a full iron-ore supply chain “pit to port,” including mine processing, rail loading, a full rail network, port stockyard operations and ship loading, designed to support both long- and short-term capacity planning and scheduling.¹³ This illustrates the typical application: detailed, process-level modelling of a specific value chain.

On the engineering side, InterDynamics maintains a GitHub organisation with a PL.Net repository: a .NET wrapper for the “new Planimate DLL interface” that enables embedding and controlling Planimate simulations from .NET applications.¹⁸ This suggests the Planimate engine is exposed as a Windows DLL, with .NET interop used to connect it to custom front-ends or other systems.

From the available sources, Planimate does not present itself as a modern cloud-native, horizontally scalable analytics engine. It remains a classic discrete-event simulation environment running on a Windows host, with extensions (like PL.Net) to integrate into other software. This is not a criticism—discrete-event simulation tools are often desktop-centric—but it does mean Planimate is conceptually quite different from SaaS analytics platforms that centralize data and compute across many clients.

Fatigue risk management (FAID and FAID Quantum)

The second major product line is FAID / FAID Quantum, InterDynamics’ fatigue assessment tools. The FAID suite is marketed as a set of products that allow organisations to manage and audit work-related fatigue in a systematic way as part of their safety management systems.¹²²⁴

Key points from InterDynamics’ own datasheets and guides:

FAID software and its underlying biomathematical model (BMM) have been “an industry standard” for fatigue exposure prediction since their introduction in the late 1990s.⁹¹⁸
FAID Quantum, launched in 2016, is promoted as a “quantum leap forward” with a new biomathematical model and a more powerful alertness prediction capability.⁹¹⁸
FAID Quantum uses two biomathematical models to estimate fatigue exposure for an “average” individual based on hours of work: the original FAID BMM and an implementation of the Three-Process Model of Alertness, a well-known scientific model of sleep and alertness.⁷⁹¹⁹²⁴
It supports proactive, reactive and predictive fatigue management in line with ICAO requirements, by allowing users to analyse planned rosters, investigate incidents, and track the impact of changes to work schedules over time.⁷⁸¹¹
FAID Quantum is used across sectors including “rail, aviation, mining, policing, emergency services, health, construction, energy and more,” according to product pages and datasheets.⁷¹¹¹²

The technical mechanism is clearly described: FAID Quantum takes work–rest schedule data, applies one-step or two-step biomathematical fatigue models to estimate sleep–wake histories and subsequent fatigue levels, and then produces indices (e.g. FAID scores, predicted alertness measures) that can be used to judge whether a roster is within defined fatigue tolerance thresholds.⁷⁹¹⁹ Independent scientific and regulatory documents confirm that FAID/FAID Quantum implements these models and is used operationally, for example in studies of police officers’ sleep and fatigue exposure¹⁹ and in Transport Canada’s documentation on fatigue audit tools for aviation scheduling.¹⁶⁶

FAID Quantum is available in several forms:

A desktop / traditional software product with detailed user guide and integration into broader fatigue risk management programmes.⁹²²
A FAID Quantum Web App, accessible via faidquantum.com from any internet-connected device, with a modernized UI and limited free trials (e.g. one person’s roster for up to seven days).¹⁰¹⁹

The FAID suite is often delivered as part of a wider Fatigue Risk Management Solution (FRMS), where InterDynamics provides consulting, training and tools to implement fatigue policies. Zurich’s Australian and New Zealand sites, for example, describe a Fatigue Risk Management System developed in partnership with InterDynamics, and other risk-engineering documents refer to FAID-based tools branded as FaidSafe within Zurich’s risk programmes.¹⁵⁴²⁵

From a strict technical standpoint, FAID Quantum is not machine learning: it is an implementation of established biomathematical models with deterministic computations given input schedules (plus optional actual sleep data). However, the models themselves are non-trivial and have a strong research pedigree, making FAID Quantum a credible, scientifically grounded tool within its domain.

Technology stack and architecture

Public information about InterDynamics’ underlying technology stack is limited, but a plausible picture emerges:

Planimate runtime. Planimate is a proprietary simulation engine and development environment running on Windows. The existence of Planimate LITE (a lightweight version that runs on “any recent Windows PC” without a licence for educational use) underscores the desktop orientation.¹⁷
Embedding and integration. The PL.Net repository exposes Planimate via a DLL interface to .NET languages, suggesting that enterprise deployments often involve a custom .NET front-end or integration layer wrapping the simulation core.¹⁸ There is no evidence of a general REST API or containerized microservice architecture.
FAID Quantum Web. FAID Quantum Web App is delivered via faidquantum.com, with PDF guides describing it as a web app accessible via smartphones, tablets or computers, and account/group structures for managing assessments.⁸¹⁰¹² Technically, this implies at least a basic web stack (likely a standard application server plus relational database), but details of hosting, multi-tenancy or scaling are not disclosed.
Data storage. For Planimate-based decision support projects, data appears to be loaded into model-specific structures (e.g. via CSVs or custom interfaces) rather than into a shared, client-wide data lake. Documentation focuses on model behaviour, not on generic data-engineering patterns. FAID Quantum relies on roster data tables; its guides emphasise fields like start/end times, time zones, and optional sleep-wake series.⁹²²

Crucially, there is no public description of a cloud-native, multi-tenant analytic backend comparable to what one sees from modern SaaS vendors in forecasting and optimization. The tools are technically adequate for their purposes—Planimate for simulation, FAID Quantum for BMM calculations—but they are not presented as large-scale distributed systems that automatically scan all of a client’s historical data daily.

For organisations evaluating InterDynamics for supply-chain-related work, this means:

InterDynamics will likely build a dedicated Planimate model for a specific process (e.g. a mine-to-port chain), often operated locally or within a limited server environment.¹³
FAID Quantum Web introduces some SaaS elements, but oriented around fatigue scoring workflows rather than around generic analytics or optimization.

There is no sign that InterDynamics has invested heavily in open-source ML frameworks, big-data stacks, or proprietary large-scale optimization engines beyond those embedded in Planimate and the fatigue models.

Deployment model and consulting approach

InterDynamics’ business model is noticeably consulting-heavy:

For decision support, the company markets “software development services for professionals and organisations requiring simulation or data visualisation solutions,” highlighting its experience in building simulation models to investigate alternative strategies, equipment acquisitions or resource allocation options.²⁶
The iron-ore case study mentions creating an Integrated Planning Tool as a “simulation model of the full iron-ore supply chain” to assist the planning group with capacity planning and scheduling, implying a bespoke model built and maintained as part of a consulting engagement.¹³
For fatigue risk management, InterDynamics offers not only FAID Quantum licences but also FRMS consulting, training and implementation services.¹⁴¹¹²

Guides for FAID Quantum Web describe a workflow where organisations create accounts, groups and assessments, enter work schedules and then analyse them using predefined biomathematical models.⁸¹² The web app appears more “productized” than Planimate, but still oriented towards expert users who understand fatigue risk and regulations.

Compared to pure SaaS analytics products, this model implies:

Longer, project-style roll-outs, especially for simulation-based decision support. The client and InterDynamics jointly define objectives, data requirements and KPIs; InterDynamics builds and iterates the model; and the client uses it for scenario analysis.
Limited out-of-the-box coverage of supply chain decisions such as daily replenishment, safety-stock setting or automated pricing. These could be approximated by simulation, but there is no generic “supply chain optimization module” documented publicly.

For organisations seeking a visual, process-centric model of their operation and a way to test policies before implementing them, this approach can be valuable. For those seeking fully automated, large-scale optimization, the reliance on bespoke simulation and consulting may be a mismatch.

AI, ML and optimization claims

InterDynamics’ marketing is relatively restrained in its use of “AI” buzzwords. The technically relevant claims are the following:

FAID Quantum is based on validated biomathematical models of fatigue, including an implementation of the Three-Process Model of Alertness alongside InterDynamics’ proprietary FAID model.⁷⁹¹⁹²⁴
These models have been evaluated in peer-reviewed research and by regulators; for example, FAID/FAID Quantum is referenced in Transport Canada’s documentation and CDC-hosted research as a specific implementation of such models.¹⁶¹⁹⁷

A CDC technical report on the generalizability of a biomathematical model of fatigue explicitly notes that “Fatigue Audit InterDyne (FAID) Quantum is analytical software that includes a sleep estimator and one implementation of the Three-Process Model of Alertness,” confirming that FAID Quantum uses established scientific models rather than opaque heuristics.⁷¹⁹

However, there is no evidence of data-driven machine learning in FAID Quantum’s core algorithms. The model parameters may have been calibrated using research data, but in production the software behaves as a deterministic calculator given an input roster (and optional sleep data). This is materially different from ML systems that continuously retrain on operational data.

For Planimate, public material emphasizes discrete-event simulation rather than AI: the engine tracks entities, queues and resources through a network of processes, executing events as time advances. Optimization, where present, is handled via scenario exploration (what-if analysis) or potentially via custom logic coded into models. There is no mention of:

gradient-based optimization,
Monte Carlo–driven stochastic optimization of policies, or
large-scale ML models that learn from historical outcomes.

In short, InterDynamics’ “intelligence” lies in expert-built models and scientifically grounded mathematical formulations, not in generic AI or ML pipelines. This should reassure safety regulators but also sets clear expectations: the tools will not automatically discover better replenishment or routing policies from data; they will compute what the model designer has specified.

Client base and market presence

InterDynamics’ website and third-party sources provide only a partial view of its customer base, but several indicators exist:

The FAID suite is described as “internationally recognised” and applied in sectors such as rail, aviation, mining, policing, emergency services and healthcare.⁷¹¹¹²
Transport Canada’s fatigue risk management materials note that FAID has been used operationally by Australian carriers and agencies such as Qantas, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, among others, for scheduling purposes.¹⁶⁶
Zurich’s Australian and New Zealand risk-engineering sites describe a Fatigue Risk Management System developed in partnership with InterDynamics, indicating commercial relationships with large insurers and their corporate clients.¹⁵⁴²⁵
Case studies on InterDynamics’ site show simulation projects in mining, including an iron-ore pit-to-port supply chain model, implying work with major resource companies, though specific names are not always disclosed.¹³

Outside InterDynamics’ own material, listings in software directories (e.g. Slashdot, AppsRunTheWorld) categorize FAID Quantum as fatigue management software used by multiple organisations, but detailed customer lists are typically behind paywalls or incomplete.¹⁵¹⁸

On balance, the evidence points to meaningful but niche commercial adoption:

In fatigue risk management, InterDynamics is one of a small set of vendors whose tools are explicitly referenced by regulators and academic fatigue researchers, especially in aviation and rail.
In simulation-based decision support, InterDynamics appears to have a modest but persistent presence, particularly in Australian mining and logistics, where bespoke Planimate models have been used for planning capacity and evaluating investments.

This is qualitatively different from the global, hundreds-of-clients scale seen in mainstream APS or ERP vendors. InterDynamics looks like a specialist boutique provider with a strong footprint in its chosen domains rather than a broad enterprise software vendor.

Commercial maturity assessment

Considering the available evidence:

Age and continuity. InterDynamics has operated since 1992, which is a long tenure in this space. Registries show continuous registration and GST status for over two decades.¹²⁰
Team size. Directories indicating 21–50 staff place it in the small-to-medium category.¹³ This is consistent with a consultancy-plus-product business rather than a large software house.
Funding / ownership. No visible VC rounds or M&A events; company intelligence platforms describe it as an acquired company in the sense of being tracked, but not acquired by another corporation. InterDynamics appears founder-owned and organically grown.¹⁵¹⁶¹¹
Product maturity. Planimate has been in development since the late 1980s, and FAID-type tools since the late 1990s, with FAID Quantum representing a 2016 refresh incorporating newer biomathematical science.⁵⁹²² This gives both product families a long runway of refinement.

Putting this together, InterDynamics is commercially mature in its narrow niches (fatigue risk management and bespoke simulation), but does not operate as a modern, high-scale SaaS platform vendor. It lacks the scale, product breadth and public roadmap one would expect from a company aiming to be a comprehensive supply chain planning suite. For organisations seeking highly specific simulation or fatigue-risk tools, InterDynamics is a credible, stable option; for those seeking broad, heavily automated supply chain optimization across large networks, it should be considered a boutique specialist rather than a full-stack solution provider.

Conclusion

InterDynamics provides two technically serious but tightly scoped capabilities:

A long-standing discrete-event simulation platform (Planimate) used to build custom decision support systems for operations such as pit-to-port mining chains, logistics networks and other process-intensive environments.
A scientifically grounded fatigue risk management product suite (FAID / FAID Quantum) implementing validated biomathematical models to help organisations design, audit and improve work schedules in safety-critical contexts.

The company’s strengths lie in domain-specific modelling expertise and alignment with regulatory and research practice in fatigue risk management. Its tools have been adopted by transport operators, insurers and miners, and have persisted in use for decades—evidence of practical value and stability.

From the perspective of state-of-the-art supply chain technology, the picture is more nuanced:

InterDynamics uses classical discrete-event simulation and deterministic mathematical models, not large-scale machine learning or probabilistic optimization.
Its deployments are project-centric, with bespoke models built per client, rather than a general, multi-tenant analytics engine that can be configured to many supply chains with minimal code changes.
FAID Quantum’s biomathematical foundation is modern and well-validated, but it serves a narrow function (fatigue scoring) rather than general inventory, network or pricing optimization.

For a supply chain organisation, InterDynamics is best viewed as a specialist partner for two kinds of work:

Building visual, discrete-event simulation models of specific operations to understand bottlenecks, capacity and scenario impacts.
Implementing a regulator-aligned fatigue risk management system using FAID Quantum and associated consulting.

It is not a direct substitute for platforms like Lokad that aim to automate large volumes of daily supply chain decisions via probabilistic forecasting and stochastic optimization, nor does it present evidence of comparable AI/ML infrastructure. As long as expectations are set accordingly, InterDynamics can be a valuable component in a broader ecosystem, particularly where human fatigue and detailed process simulation are central concerns.