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Article Excerpt
Abstract
Researchers at Delft University and the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland have developed the "Global Supply Chain Game" (GSCG). A specific instance of the game is called the "Distributor Game," centered on globalization and the real-time supply chain. The GSCG differs from many existing business learning games in that, as opposed to being turn-based and locked in on demonstrating a single phenomenon (i.e., the bullwhip effect), it simulates a real-world experience by operating on a continuous clock with ongoing events and responses to individual decisions. The decision-making processes of the distributors in the game are controlled by human players. To confront the human players with a complex and dynamic environment, suppliers, markets, and competing distribution centers are represented by computer-controlled actors. The Distributor Game has been tested at the Robert H. Smith School of Business in seven courses since January 2005. The beta-tests include four MBA classes, two Executive MBA classes, and a single undergraduate class. Each class has been consistent in its approval of the game as a tool in simulating the complexities of a global supply chain and facilitating learning about how to successfully manage this environment.
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In today's global environment, companies recognize the strategic importance of well-managed supply chains. Clearly, companies such as Dell, Wal-Mart, Zara, and Li & Fung have built their overall corporate strategy around achieving supply chain superiority over their competitors (Copacino and Anderson). These firms have gained distinct advantages by efficiently managing the complex web of interactions that extend across continents and across enterprises in the process of procuring, assembling, and distributing goods in a global context.
However, achieving supply chain expertise in today's global economy is a complex challenge for corporations. Indeed, excellence in supply chains requires executives who possess a wide range of skills in the following areas: information technology; advanced enterprise software systems; financial planning; relationship building with supply chain partners, wholesalers/distributors and customers; systems design engineering; real-time event monitoring; and business intelligence.
This article examines the use of management simulation games in higher education to prepare supply chain leaders to meet the challenge of a global economy. The article introduces a new tool, i.e., an Internet-mediated, real-time Global Supply Chain game, designed to bridge the gap between existing tools for training supply chain leaders and those tools needed to handle the web of global relationships intrinsic to today's supply chains.
The next section of the article presents more detail on the attributes that supply chain managers will need to achieve excellence in performance. This is followed by a general discussion of some simulation games currently used in business education to develop the needed supply chain skills and the limitations of these games. The real-time Global Supply Chain game is presented as an alternative to existing approaches for the education of supply chain professionals. The article concludes with a discussion of how the Global Supply Chain game can be incorporated into a broader curriculum for the management education of supply chain professionals.
ATTRIBUTES OF SUPPLY CHAIN LEADERSHIP
As complexities have increased in the global economy, so too have the skills required to manage supply chains. While a less complex world required supply chain/logistics executives to focus on manufacturing, procurement, and distribution issues, the global supply chain requires executives to additionally have strong financial and accounting skills, highly developed information technology skills, excellent customer relationship management skills, strategic planning expertise, and overall executive skills. Specifically, the Harvard Business School Executive program in Supply Chain Management (Harvard Business School 2006) believes that supply chain leaders should be able to do the following:
* Leverage supply chain innovations for sustainable competitive advantage;
* Respond to competitive challenges throughout the value chain;
* Build supply chain partnerships that manage all the elements for the benefit of every partner;
* Motivate others by addressing individual and organizational behavior issues that pose barriers to supply chain performance;
* Attend to process details and operational execution, while creating strategic plans; and
* Understand the role of information technology in the supply chain.
The challenge to the supply chain executive is enormous and covers all the critical aspects of overall corporate performance. When a company's supply chain is highly efficient, it can give the company a sustainable competitive advantage. When the supply chain breaks down at a critical moment, the very essence of corporate survival can be put at risk.
Supply chain executives have strategic, tactical, and operational performance responsibility. The challenge is to manage and monitor both the physical flow of goods and services and to ensure coordination with associated information and financial flows. Furthermore, supply chain executives must provide strategic and tactical planning for the overall design and structure of the supply chain.
All aspects of the supply chain are in real time and require constant, 24/7 event management and quick response capability to identify problems and relieve bottlenecks. In fact, there has been a growing movement toward anticipatory supply chain management involving the collection of critical data in real time and processing those data against key performance monitoring measures to alert managers about potential problems/bottlenecks, as opposed to waiting until they occur before action is taken.
The supply chain executive can best be viewed as the "orchestra conductor" (Harvard Business School 2006) who is responsible for bringing together everything at the right place and the right time. The "conductor" must have a global perspective and the ability to work across business environments and cultural differences. Indeed, the web of interactions involved in a global supply chain is manifestly complex. The "conductor" must have acute analytical skills in order to judge the "ripple" effects of each individual decision on the entire supply chain. Hence, a simple decision to source from an additional supplier located on another continent will impact distribution and manufacturing planning as well as the financial flows that will accompany the transactions. Additionally, the information technology challenges of linking transaction level systems with the new supplier have to be addressed. Thus, each decision by the "conductor" requires sophisticated analytics that must be...
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