The Games And Its Effect On The World

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.

Our team’s major goal when completing this simulation was to ensure we scored as many points as possible not only individually but collectively. The enticement to get every member to the summit was alluring; however as a team we decided it was better to stop and contemplate each stage in order to maximise points. As the simulation was a highly structured task this made the concept of an individual leading and managing the team ultimately redundant. Each group member contributed towards being team leader as the group worked cooperatively and cohesively throughout. This issue corresponds to the theory of leadership and in particular substitutes for leadership. A team working as one making informed

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

This week’s key learning areas have been eye opening and worthwhile. Our game simulation has taught me how to manage the human resources (HR), capacity planning, receiving, production, and shipping departments. One key element that caught my attention was bottleneck issues. Although reputation and meeting goals is important, I must pay attention to the machines that are causing bottleneck issues; performing a cost/benefit analysis can fulfill this. It is necessary to manage mistakes made in strategy during the game, which can resolve issues down the road to have a successful business plan. There were three questions posed in our case study: What are the highest three unit profits?; What are the lowest percentage mark-up items?; and How would you use this in determining your business plan? These key areas will be discussed throughout the journal to express my understanding of the experience.

The customers, wholesalers and retailers may order in large quantities with the expectation that they will receive a greater allocation of products that are in short supply. The impact on the supply chain is significant as the forecasted demand is greatly, and unrealistically, increased with these inflated orders. Eventually orders disappear and cancellations pour in, making it impossible for the manufacturer to determine the real demand for its products

This part of the simulation deals with the effective team management features of situation and process.

Along with capacity, we also made it a focus to limit the amount of overtime and second shift workers. This kept our costs down and our profit margin wider. We paid attention to our inventory on hand and made sure to not schedule more production than was needed. Towards the later rounds, we really seemed to grasp the idea of the game, which can be seen in our large increase in profitability. In the Finance portion, we borrowed money in the first five weeks to pay off our current debt. As the game got into the later rounds we began paying off our current and long term debt because our profits were increasing at a higher rate. Overall, we believe that our group had a decent understanding of the concepts as we finished with high market share and profits.

The simulation posed a unique challenge one to me. It was neither purely an intellectual challenge nor entirely an exercise in teamwork, as with what I was accustomed to in high school. Instead, it tested my abilities under pressure and my ability to think on my feet. In our team’s planning sessions, we planned for the unpredictability of the simulation by acting out

The errors were made during the simulation including prioritising the personal goals over the team goals and the groupthink, that can be avoided in the future by taking several measures. I would put the team goals in the first place instead of the individual goals. The decision needs to be made based on whether it achieves an improving progress or a better result in completing the overall group tasks. Setting several subunit objectives will be helpful to reach the ultimate goal since the sub objects will specify the particular issue for each section or stage and it creates systematic manner to approach the final goal. Furthermore, after finishing each sub goals, the feeling of success would support to work further till the end. In addition, the groupthink may occur as the consequence of group dynamics and unfamiliar relationship among team members. Accordingly, the team need to encourage each member to present their ideas individually at first, after that, combining the thoughts and critically analysing them. Moreover, the team members ought to improve the cohesion by strengthen communication, which would be beneficial to enhance the quality of goals

As this is our first time working together as a team, it is no doubt that we require some time to build up the team chemistry in order to work better together. However, there is one thing that speed up this process. In this project, we all share a common goal and vision, which is to score high mark in the simulation exercise. This indirectly becomes a direction for us to head to as a team at the same time, enhancing our team dynamic along the way.

Performance of our group in simulation was well. It is about the price of the console, subsidizes of game titles and the percentage of royalty needs to changed keeping in mind other criteria to see the variations while entering different values. All the members in the team participated actively and coordination among the team members was excellent which led to the successful completion of this assignment and they come to know how to take decisions in the real world simulation. In this game we achieved the profit of 4.6B and ranked in top among entire class.

-To operate this business model, the store managers should have the access to accurate and updated sales and inventory data for them to decide what to order and what not to order. In addition, they should know the availability of the products they would like to order eg. by having access to the inventory level of other stores.

SCM Globe is a supply chain game designed to teach concepts in supply chain design, demand forecasting, resource allocation, and production planning by the use of illustrating how different supply chain designs produce different operating results and explore how to manage those results. The game is performed in a real-time setting that allows for helping to create a supply chain that meet customer demands for products with the lowest operating costs and lowest inventory levels. The simulation gives students an opportunity to design and manage the supply chain of stores that sell Crunch Candy and Just Born Candy. During the simulation experience, students create products, facilities, vehicles and routes while

The highest priority was building effective and successful team environments along with communication techniques. Excellent communication skills are essential in virtual teams, which is why this should always be a crucial area of personal development for team members (Manktelow, J., 2012). The second instrument in understanding the Capsim simulation strategy was having knowledge of the market growth rate and the key four customer expectations

The Marketplace simulation incorporates these challenges by providing student with real-world business problems and roles. Team members are challenged to make decisions and used critical thinking in order to solve this problems virtually. While The Marketplace gives the team the tolls necessary to have effective communication, ultimately each team members contributes to the overall success of the team, just like in a real business situation.