CHALLENGES OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMIC THINKING DEVELOPMENT
Beer Game
- 2 - 3 hours
- 4+ participants
A simulation about optimizing processes in a company – a classic in training games.
It concentrates on the flow of orders and goods between the brewery, distributor, wholesaler and retailer. With limited information and communication, participants get caught in a trap: as more rounds go by, the chain destabilizes, a panic effect appears. Everyone believes that the other links are responsible or the destabilization.
Based on the metaphor of managing a supply chain of beer crates, the game perversely shows how the lack of communication, cooperation and information flow affects the efficiency of an organization. The gameplay raises awareness of the importance of all these elements to the smooth functioning of a company.
The game emphasizes the consequences of the decisions: how those made within one link can destabilize the entire chain.
Applications:
- Systemic thinking,
- Common goal,
- Breaking through silos,
- Coordination of supply chain activities,
- Communication in change management,
- Showing the big picture,
- Process optimalization,
- Realizing the interdependence of processes in the various departments,
- Team and inter-team collaboration,
- Training programs for managers and specialists,
- Talent development programs,
- Integration and training meetings.
Benefits for the organization
- Understanding the fundamental challenges of supply chain management (in particular, the mechanism of formation and effects of the so-called bullwhip effect)
- Developing systems thinking, seeing connections between activities in different areas, looking at the environment as a system of interconnected vessels.
- Understanding the role of communication, cooperation and information flow in the supply chain.
