Beer game - Demonstration and performance evaluation of supply chains
Publication Name: Proceedings of the European Conference on Games Based Learning
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Volume: 2
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: 732-741
Description:
Professionals need special skills in supply chain management to perform all the required tasks - organising material and information flow, product development, forecasting, customer services and relations, warehousing, decision making and performance measurement. The scientific literature and empirical studies show consistently that in addition to this complex frame of operations the bullwhip effect is presence in every case. This expensive phenomena is hard to detect and measure, and able to cause serious problems in the chains. We consider the game based learning is an effective way to gain experiences rather than acquire only the theoretical background. The beer game as supply chain simulation is widely accepted in the demonstration of system dynamics and investigations of bullwhip effect. Considering the advantages and drawbacks of the numerous versions of the game we created android software for the trainings. The paper based training is hard to follow, in the boardgame the participants can't satisfy the basic rule of not sharing any information and the online version won't make the common/group learning possible. Our training use the beer game simulation connected with the Balanced Scorecard measurement system helps the participants to develop skills in recognition of the bullwhip effect, being familiar with the triggers and impacts, have tools for mitigation and the skill of choosing or designing solutions in the specific cases. The participants can study the theories, evaluate several inventory and order strategies and they also get instant feedback on the impact of their decisions.
Open Access: Yes
DOI: DOI not available