The Dice Game

When our group first started planning our strategy to win the second Littlefield simulation game, it was evident that the goal of the game was to maximize profits. We were competing against 18 other teams, but we knew with correct system capacity management and correct inventory management we could be the number one team. Even though we made correct decisions overall, we ended up in second place again with a cash balance of $2,660,393 and remaining inventory of 52 kits. Although we were a little disappointed again, we were very satisfied with what we have learned and the important operations management concepts we used such as capacity management and lead-time and inventory management throughout both of the Littlefield simulation games.

Alex comes up with the consensus that the “Goal” of his business and many others is to increase net profit while simultaneously increasing return on investment and their cash flow at the plant. This basically means to make money. These three measurements can be achieved by looking closer into his second set of measurements. Alex specifically must find a way to increase throughput while at the same time decreasing it inventory and operational expenses. All three of these measurements must be cautiously monitored since they all rely on each other to be obtained in balance. Factors that cause throughput, inventory, and operational expenses to become unbalanced are excess manpower and balance capacity of the demand of resources in the market.

It is stressed in the Goal that there is a massive difference between throughput and efficiency. The novel makes the case that having an efficient operation does not equate to profitability. What does equate to profitability is to increase the throughput of any given operations system. Jonah tells Alex, “Throughput, is the rate in which the system generates money through sales.” (Goldratt, E.M. (2014), The Goal, pg. 60). Jonah goes on to explain to Alex that inventory is all the money that was invested in purchasing things that the system intends to sell. (Id). Furthermore, operational expenses are those costs that are required to turn inventory into throughput. (Id, at pg. 61). The definitions of these three measurements are not standard definitions for an MBA student. It is an interesting perspective on how to view operations.

During the game, I realized that wide gaps in orders of every role in the supply chain such as factory, distributor and retailer create inventory management challenges. For example, distributor records 0units between week1-week 4 compared to retailer within the same period. The retailer records 3units, 5units, 2units and 2units between weeks 1- week 4. The same applies to factory with 0units from weeks 2-4. Addressing inventory management problems requires developing an average unit level to avoid disappointing customers when demand

Alex comes up with the consensus that the “Goal” of his business and many others is to increase net profit while simultaneously increasing return on investment and their cash flow at the plant. This basically means to make money. These three measurements can be achieved by looking closer into his second set of measurements. Alex specifically must find a way to increase throughput while at the same time decreasing it inventory and operational expenses. All three of these measurements must be cautiously monitored since they all rely on each other to be obtained in balance. Factors that cause throughput, inventory, and operational expenses to become unbalanced are excess manpower and balance capacity of the demand of resources in the market.

This submission analyzes the results of the supply-chain simulation completed. This analysis will comprise several noted points encountered in the simulation. Each discussion point will include a discussion of the correlation of the author’s actions with the simulation results, comparative success results, and alternate actions to produce better results. Further analysis will be applied to the author’s actions with relation to just-in-time

Chase, R. B., & Jacobs, F. R. (2011). Operations and Supply Chain Management, 13e. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

A Customized Textbook, Supply Chain Management SCHM2301, ISBN9781308037400 Copies are on reserve in the library

When reaching out to Jonah, Rogo is to some extent perplexed of why the plant is not performing as expected, he is instructed to define the true goal of the firm. After contemplation, Rogo managed, with help of one of his accountants, to expand the ultimate goal “to make money” into essentially three categories: “to increase net profit, while simultaneously increasing return of investment, while simultaneously increasing cash flow”. The measures, as outlined by Jonah, of this overarching goal were; Throughput, Inventory and Operational Expense. Throughput refers to the rate at which the system generates cash from sales, Inventory is defined as the total money invested in purchasing things intended to sell, whereas Operational Expense is the cost associated with turning inventory into throughput. These measurements as defined in the Goal differ in

The company can achieve the requisite productivity levels to meet sales projections since it has a very efficient inventory management system and ordering system. However, problems may arise due to unpredictable external issues (i.e. lowered demand, declining economy, etc.).

Chase, R., & Jacobs, F. R. (2011). Operations and Supply Chain Management (13th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Russell, R. S., & Taylor,B. Operations and Supply Chain Management,8th Edition. Wiley, 2013-12-02. VitalBook file.

Russell, R. S., & Taylor III, B. W. (2014). Operations and Supply Chain Management, 8th edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The multifunctional nature of Operations Management requires a high level of process- and system-based synchronization across many different departments and divisions to be successful. The structural organization of the US Army is heavily dependent on Operations Management for missions to be accomplished, and long-term strategic visions to be attained (VanVactor, 2007). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how the five areas of accounting, industrial engineering, management, management science and statistics, in conjunction with critical path analysis and linear programming, are used extensively throughout the US Army's supply chain operations.

Supply change management (SCM) is active in many organizations today. The purpose of SCM is to maximize the company value in order maintain a competitive advantage in the market place. As an Operational Managers (OM) it is essential to oversee the supply chain within an organization. The OM responsibility is to manage the supply chain flow, and to ensure the supply chain has a quality design in order to reduce cost and drive efficiency. (Reid & Sanders, 2010) An organization supply chain includes activities such as product development, sourcing, productions, logistics, material, and other information systems needed to coordinate the movement of goods from suppliers to manufactures, and to final customers.