Supply Chain and Channel Management

This business simulation game will give your students in-depth exposure into the challenges involved in making supply chains work. The business simulation focuses on the development and management of business-to-business relationships between student teams who become either suppliers or distributors within an international business setting. Your students will learn to execute a supply chain strategy and deal with the complexities and conflicts of supply chain management. They will need to balance selfishness and short-term gain with the potential for greater reward resulting from building long-term business relationships. They will learn to negotiate, cooperate, and coordinate to achieve desired ends while focusing on win-win solutions.

Target courses

Advanced supply chain (logistics) and channels courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level.

Time frame

6 decision rounds, with each round taking 3 to 3 1/2 hours per student.

Grading

Balanced scorecard that measures profitability, customer satisfaction, market share in the targeted market segments, human resource management, asset management, manufacturing productivity, financial risk, preparedness for the future and wealth.

Content

Reseller teams:

Fundamentals of Marketing -You can choose from two levels of complexity for the marketing decision content.
Supply Chain Strategy
Purchasing and Negotiations
Sales and Distribution
Relationship Development
Fundamentals of HR Management
Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting

Supplier teams:

Manufacturing
Quality Control
Supply Chain Strategy
Sales and Negotiations
Relationship Development
Fundamentals of HR Management
Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting

Storyline

Your students are provided with the seed capital to start up a new company. They will become either suppliers or resellers in the microcomputer industry. As a reseller, they must find suppliers who can produce the goods they wish to sell to the end user market. Suppliers must approach resellers to become their sources of supply. Your students will experience the complicated process of building relationships and putting channels in place. The business simulation provides a full set of supply-chain options, allowing students to make investments to speed up and better coordinate the exchanges between business partners. Achieving high level of supply-chain coordination will require extensive negotiations and trust between the involved parties.

As the exercise unfolds, the suppliers will make tactical decisions such as choosing a plant location, building a factory and scheduling production to supply products for one or more resellers. They will strive to optimize their production process, increase contract fulfillment and improve quality and reliability of the products they produce. Resellers will select a product portfolio and advertising budget, open up distribution channels and experiment with marketing campaigns to stimulate demand. The quality of the supply chain relationship between the student teams will be the critical element determining each team's performance in the game.