A Simulation Game for Service-Oriented Supply Chain Management:

Does Information Sharing Help Managers with Service Capacity Decisions?

 

Edward G. Anderson Jr. and Douglas J. Morrice

University of Texas Department of Management, Austin TX 78712

University of Texas Department of MSIS, Austin TX 78712

 

This paper appeared in the Spring 2000 (vol. 9, no. 1) issue of Production and Operations Management

 

ABSTRACT

For many years the well-known Beer Game has been used effectively to teach complex concepts about finished goods inventory management in a supply chain. Unfortunately, for service-oriented industries that cannot hold finished goods inventory, the Beer Game exercise is of limited value. In this paper, we propose a simulation game designed to teach service-oriented supply chain management principles. The object of the game is to manage backlog at each stage of the chain by altering capacities. The game can be used to demonstrate behavior such as the "bullwhip effect," the impact of local changes such as reduced capacity adjustment time, and the impact of information sharing. Using a computer simulation model of the game, we demonstrate various teaching strategies and analyze a sample of typical student results.