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This paper aims to introduce, conceptualize and demonstrate a software tool named “Blockchain-Enabled Beer Game” (BEBG) for familiarizing the application of blockchain in inventory management, one of the critical components of supply chain management.

This paper follows a methodology of design-based research and develops a software tool in the form of a role-play simulation game. The proposed game adopts the theme of the traditional beer distribution game to establish a blockchain-enabled scenario for inventory management. A decentralized application (DApp) was prototyped on the Ethereum blockchain to demonstrate the tool.

The proposed software tool is effective in teaching and training the application of blockchain in inventory management. While interacting with BEBG, players witness how each inventory-related transaction gets secured with blockchain. A basic understanding of the fundamentals of blockchain is a prerequisite for using this tool. BEBG is not self-explanatory, and an instructor is essential for assisting the players.

Software tools currently available to familiarize with blockchain technology cannot convey its practical applications. Addressing this gap, BEBG allows the users to experience the application of blockchain in inventory management. Academic institutions, especially business schools, can use this tool to teach the students the practical use of blockchain technology. Industries can adopt BEBG for training the employees. The research community can devise BEBG to infer the impact of blockchain in supply chain management.

Describes how the authors have effectively employed the Beer Distribution Game, a simulation exercise developed at MIT′s Sloan School of Management, to teach systems concepts and systems thinking to managers. Details a description of how the simulation works and how its typical results are provided. In addition, discusses how to process the results and how to illustrate the application of the concepts to management problems. Demonstrates how management behaviours commonly found in complex business systems lead to dysfunctional management practices as well as poor performance and suggests how alternative ways of thinking (i.e. a systems perspective) are necessary to cope with the problems inherent in these complex situations. Suggestions for ways to extend the learning opportunities provided by the simulation are also provided.

The Beer Game is one of the most popular simulations used to introduce students to the challenges of managing supply chains. While the basic simulation serves as a useful introduction to the problems, it does not take the next step of helping students or managers plan to surmount those problems and manage an efficient supply chain. This paper suggests a strategy for taking that next step, helping students move toward solutions of supply chain problems. The strategy builds supply chain teaching modules or an executive development program around modified Beer Game simulations. This paper also provides the tools for accomplishing both an introductory and a more advanced simulation. These simulation‐based programs have proved highly effective and popular in undergraduate, graduate and executive development programs.

Considers the dynamical effect of lateral emergency transhipments within a supply chain. It tests various different strategies for improving customer service via the MIT Beer Game. Four distinct strategies are considered. “Electronic point of sales (EPOS)”, where marketplace information is forwarded to all players throughout the supply chain; “Excel”, where the stock levels in all echelons are controlled by the factory; “Emergency transhipments”, where an express transportation route bypassing an echelon in the supply chain is permitted; “Eliminate”, where an echelon is removed from the supply chain. The Beer Game strategies are also studied via a simulation exercise. Results show that the Excel strategy is flawed, whereas the EPOS strategy has a strong impact on inventory cost, Emergency transhipments has a strong impact on customer service level and Eliminate results in less stock for an improved customer service level. Combinations of the three viable strategies are also tested. This paper concludes that the three strategies can be integrated to significantly improve supply chain performance.

There is no argument that using games (gamification) is an efficient way of learning in higher education. The questions, though, are which gamification approach is most suitable at that level and how to assess its suitability? This paper aims to attempt to partially answer these two questions, in the context of lean thinking education.

The paper offers an assessment criteria to investigate the impact of lean gamification based on the evaluation of motivational, cognitive and social processing during games. In addition, a study is conducted among selected games using these assessment criteria. The study included statistical as well as comparative analysis. The study was based on a sample of undergraduate students learning various lean thinking concepts through physical games over the course of six months.

Results showed different interaction levels between the three evaluation criteria depending on the type and design of the lean game. The reported scores and analysis drew various lessons on how to use gamification in the context of lean teaching, outlined some best practices in lean games design and suggested recommendations in mapping lean games from industrial domain to higher education domain.

The scope of this research was bounded by the sample size of students as well as the selected nine lean thinking games. Larger pool of students as well as other lean thinking games can offer further insights and confirm the outlined ones.

The presented work will help lean thinking educators in higher education to better understand the student dynamics associated with engaging them in this type pf pedagogical approach. It will help guiding lean thinking games’ designer on how to better cater for this segment of lean thinking learners. Finally, it will aid in promoting lean gamification as an effective learning tool.

The social impact is achieved through enhancing lean thinking education to a wide number of students. This will positively impact the society through the application of the effective lean tools at different stages, levels and places in these students’ life experiences.

This study offers one of the very few applications in gamification assessment in the context of lean thinking. Furthermore, it integrates the social processing criterion for the first time with the classical two other criteria (motivation and cognitive) used in games education assessment. Finally, it offers new insights for lean thinking game designers for higher education learners.

The number of business analytics classes and programs has been rapidly increasing over the past 20 years. However, while we are educating students with the knowledge of advanced analytical techniques and tools, we are not providing them with sound problem-solving skills. In an effort to improve student problem-solving skills by increasing their understanding and increasing their engagement, in this chapter we will describe, discuss the implementation of, and discuss the results of employing an experiential learning (EL) exercise in an analytics course.

This study attempts to determine the relative contribution of each of the causes of the bullwhip effect and to identify which causes of the bullwhip effect have relatively significant impacts on the variability of orders in supply chains.

Computer simulation models are developed. A fractional factorial design is used in collecting data from the simulation models. Statistical analyses are conducted to address the research objectives.

When all of the nine possible causes of the bullwhip effect are present in the simulation models, the following six factors are statistically significant: demand forecast updating, order batching, material delays, information delays, purchasing delays and level of echelons. Among these six factors, demand forecast updating, level of echelons, and price variations are the three most significant ones.

Simulation models for the beer distribution game are developed to represent supply chains. Different supply chain structures can be constructed to examine the causes of the bullwhip effect.

In order to mitigate the bullwhip effect, supply chain managers need to share actual demand information and coordinate production and distribution activities with their partners.

This study measures the relative contribution of each of the causes of the bullwhip effect and provides evidence that transparent and accurate information flow and supply chain coordination could be a key to reduce the amplification of demand in supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to test the effectiveness of fuzzy time series (FTS) forecasting system in a supply chain experiencing disruptions and also to examine the changes in performance as the authors move across different tiers.

A discrete event simulation based on the popular beer game model is used for these tests. A popular ordering management system is used to emulate the behavior of the system when the game is played with human players.

FTS is tested against some other well-known forecasting systems and it proves to be the best of the lot. It is also shown that it is better to go for higher order FTS for higher tiers, to match auto regressive integrated moving average.

This study fills an important research gap by proving that FTS forecasting system is the best for a supply chain during disruption scenarios. This is important because the forecasting performance deteriorates significantly and the effect is more pronounced in the upstream tiers because of bullwhip effect.

Having a system which works best in all scenarios and also across the tiers in a chain simplifies things for the practitioners. The costs related to acquiring and training comes down significantly.

This study contributes by suggesting a forecasting system which works best for all the tiers and also for every scenario tested and simultaneously significantly improves on the previous studies available in this area.

This paper examines industry responses in Australasia and Europe to the growing practice of ambush marketing, to establish whether the measures that have been put in place to deter the practice have indeed prevented the 'ambush' effect, whereby audiences associate non-sponsoring organisations with particular sporting events. Although some of these measures may be more effective than others in blocking ambush attempts, they also come with potentially negative consequences for event sponsors.

The success of a supply chain is highly reliant on effective inventory and ordering decisions. This paper systematically reviews and analyzes the literature on inventory ordering decisions conducted using behavioral experiments to inform the state-of-the-art.

This paper presents the first systematic review of this literature. We systematically identify a body of 101 papers from an initial pool of over 12,000.

Extant literature and industry observations posit that decision makers often deviate from optimal ordering behavior prescribed by the quantitative models. Such deviations are often accompanied by excessive inventory costs and/or lost sales. Understanding how humans make inventory decisions is paramount to minimize the associated consequences. To address this, the field of behavioral operations management has produced a rich body of research on inventory decision-making using behavioral experiments. Our analysis identifies primary research clusters, summarizes key learnings and highlights opportunities for future research in this critical decision-making area.

The findings will have a significant impact on future research on behavioral inventory ordering decisions while informing practitioners to reach better ordering decisions.

Previous systematic reviews have explored behavioral operations broadly or its subdisciplines such as judgmental forecasting. This paper presents a systematic review that specifically investigates the state-of-the-art of inventory ordering decisions using behavioral experiments.