...Reference: Onoferei, G. & Stephens, S (2014) Simulation games in operations management: the importance of immediate post game analysis. Global Management Journal, 6(1): 61-64. 1. The aim of this paper focuses on 3 types of learning, pre-game, post game and most especially the discovery of post game analysis in context of the MIT Beer Game (Onoferei & Stephens, 2014). The paper explains that it is essential for research to be conducted reflecting on experiential learning practices utilised to enhance student interaction and understanding of supply chain with the support of simulation techniques(Case studies, site visits & games) (Onoferei & Stephens, 2014). 2. These activities prove that concepts and models create value when used in relation to real global problems in making decisions and finding solutions (Onoferei & Stephens, 2014).The difficulties were for educators to encourage learners to understand class activities from an organisational point of view. In acknowledging this, the paper contributes to the fact that instructors must help to make sense of thinking practices such as data interpretation and problem solving implications. The Beer Game description used in this paper comprises of the separate functions of the brewers, distributors, wholesalers and retailer. (Onoferei & Stephens, 2014). The outcome is to be able to meet consumer demand by bringing together the supply chain and reducing the total expenditure amongst its functions. This...
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...Beer Game Reflection Paper The beer game stimulation helps us understand the importance of having a strategy when we are making decision in the supply chain aspect of a company and understand in a stimulation the bullwhip effect. In this particular exercise we are assigned to play 1 of 4 roles (Retailer, Wholesaler, Distributor and Factory). In my case I was assigned to play the role of the Wholesaler and the main objective is to distribute beer in the minimize cost possible. At the begging of the game I did not have a strategy I just order the same amount of cases that the retailer requested from me. However, as the week continued to past by and my inventory started to increase I wanted to reduce my inventory and started ordering less cases of beer and at that point was when I didn´t realize that demand started to change and obviously I started to be short and my backlog started to increase. It is funny how you ready that one of the bullwhip effect is not ordering inventory in the attempt to reduce inventory and that was the first thing I did. I started to reduce the amount of cases I was ordering to lower my inventory. This strategy made my backlog to increase as soon as the demand increased. However the game is played so fast that you do not think in all the possibility when you make a decision you just want to reduce cost. In addition the lack of communication between the Retailers, The wholesaler, The Fabric and the Distributor increase your chances of making mistakes...
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...The Root Beer Game is more complicated than The Near Beer Game in general due to several costs combined together. Therefore, there are charges for the inventory $0.50/case every week, and $1/backlog every week. Meaning that the costs will be increasing when levels of inventory and backlog increase, and the best is to eliminate the above two factors in order to meet the minimum cumulative costs. When I first started, the game was really confusing because it required 4 weeks total from ordering the cases until the delivery to the customers. My problem is I thought there was more than one attempt which was hard to meet the purpose of the game. Moreover, I was focusing on the new orders and the inventory level without being attention to the backlogs...
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...The Beer Game How did you manage the decision process throughout the game ? How do you analyse your results? Do you feel you were successful in terms of backorders as well as levels of inventories? We were the retailer of group 12. At first our customers only ordered 4 items every week so we decided to only order 4 for 2 weeks, and then, in order to cut down our stock price, we decided to cut off our orders to 2 and one week to 0. Right after, the customer demand rose from 4 to 8, and we had a lack of product after the second week and therefore had a lot of backorders, which rose our costs. We decided to order a high amount of products to our wholesaler, but because of the leap time of 4 month, our backorder kept rising and so did our costs. Furthermore, by the time our orders were expected, our wholesaler didn’t have enough stock. As a result our costs rose even more. Once we got all our orders delivered, we managed to sell all our stock and to contain our costs. We think that all in all we were quite successful, except for the few weeks when we had plenty of backorders, we managed to sell everything we ordered, and keep our costs as low as possible. Check out the results of the other players in your supply chain. What are your observations? Are there importances differences? If so, how would you explain these differences in a supply chain where players all depend on the very same end-customers? We can see that the actors of the supply chain that spent the more money...
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...Q1.How did you manage the decision process throughout the game? How do you analyze your results? Do you feel you were successful in terms of backorders as well as levels of inventories (0,5 page max)? We can’t increase or decrease the order imminently. According to the demand by retailer and supply by distributor under the shipments state. I think our backorder is too high because we can’t get the enough products from the distributor. For several weeks we don’t have the products to cover the demand from retailer. It leads to a high backorder cost. And for another weeks, we need to pay a huge stock cost because the shipment come together and demand decreased. According to me, I don’t think that we were totally successful as the backorders were collected due to delayed delivery by distributor, but eventually the demand and supply were understood by all the players, therefore we finished our backorders and were also finishing the extra inventory and demanding goods according to demands of retailer. Q2.Check out the results of the other players in your supply chain. What are your observations? Are there importance differences? If so, how would you explain these differences in a supply chain where players all depend on the very same end-customers (0,5 page max)? In the mid weeks i.e. 10 – 20 we observe that due to slow communication of information and the supply issue of backorders started to emerge but it was later controlled as we understood the demand pattern of the...
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...“EL JUEGO DE LA CERVEZA” INTRODUCCION El juego trata de que la persona pueda tomar un rol entre la cadena de abastecimiento, ya sea como fabrica, distribuidor, mayorista, minorista y cliente final. El cliente va llevando el producto atreves de la cadena de suministro con una demanda aleatoria, y entre cada punto hay un lead time “tiempo de entrega”, la idea es que cada elemento trate de minimizar los costos de inventario y de faltantes. El objetivo es satisfacer la demanda de cajas de cerveza por el lado de la distribución de una cadena de suministro de varias etapas con un gasto mínimo en los pedidos pendientes y el inventario. DESARROLLO DEL JUEGO Esta es una simulación creada en el MIT, el juego de la cerveza. En él tienes que tomar el rol de un minorista, un distribuidor, un mayorista o la fábrica. Se muestra cómo funcionan los sistemas de producción/distribución y todos los problemas que puede traer un aumento en la demanda. Los jugadores pueden ver el inventario de cada uno, pero sólo un jugador ve la demanda real del cliente. La comunicación verbal entre los jugadores está en contra de las reglas para los sentimientos de confusión y desilusión son comunes. Los jugadores se ven el uno al otro dentro de su cadena de suministro frenéticamente tratando de averiguar dónde van las cosas mal. La mayoría de los jugadores se sienten frustrados porque no están obteniendo los resultados...
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...For the Root Beer Game Simulation, I played the role of a factory. My responsibility was to receive orders from the distributor and place orders for raw materials. At the beginning, the orders I received from the distributor was pretty stable (50,000 products each week, for the first 5 weeks). I could have used the 150,000 products that I was already carrying, but I decided not to. Instead, I ordered more inventory to plan ahead for increased demand. I did this despite the inventory costs because I knew that customer demand can change erratically. I also knew that this game was a simulation of the Bullwhip Effect. From previous readings and lectures, I knew that when a Bullwhip Effect happens, the demand variation is much more drastic in upstream...
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...Marketing communications has always played a key role in creating an image to attract a target market. Budweiser and Bud Lite are popular brands in the NFL and NASCAR, and true fans will then purchase those specific brands. It becomes their brand of choice. Labatt Blue had sponsorship ties with the NHL and Canadian teams and the CFL and several teams but recently, Molson has taken over the sponsorship of The Toronto Maple Leafs, which Labatt used to have. This was a huge loss for the company as Toronto is the largest city in Canada and generates one-fifth of the gross domestic product of Canada. This being said, The Air Canada Center sells Molson Canadian rather than Labatt at hockey games. There are 18,800 seats at the Air Canada Center, and say at least 16,000 people purchase at least one beer, which costs $8.00, that is $128,000 in sales that Labatt...
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...What is beer? “Beer is produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains; most commonly malted barley and malted wheat. Un-malted maize and rice are widely used adjuncts to lighten the flavour because of their lower cost. The preparation of beer is called brewing. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included.” Beer definition Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world and the third-most drink overall after water and tea. The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume although it may vary between 0.5% (dealcoholized) and 20%. Beer forms part of the culture of beer-drinking nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as a rich pub culture, involving activities like pub crawling and pub games such as billiards. History The history of beer is linked with the one of its components and with the technological advances. The first cultures of cereals, especially the barley and wheat, were discovered in Mesopotamia and dated at around 8000 years before J.-C. Historians think beer was discovered 6000 years before J.-C. The first real proofs of its existence were discovered in the province of Sumer and are back to the 4th millennia before J-C. The term of “beer” we know...
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...Tsingtao Beer, one of the oldest brewery brands in China, can trace its colonial roots back to 1903, when German forces occupied Qingdao (Coastal city located in Shandong province in China). Beer businessmen from Germany and British founded the Tsingtao brewery factory in Qingdao and started to brew in the European way. Since Japan seized China from Germany during the First World War Japanese took the control of Tsingtao from Germans and run the company in effect until 1945. As the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, Tsingtao became state-owned enterprise. It was privatized in 1990s with the formation of Tsingtao Brewery Company Ltd. and then issued H-shares in Hong Kong which were listed on the Stock Exchange in 1993, being the first domestic enterprise listed on an overseas stock exchange. Following this, in the same year Tsingtao issued A-shares in China, which were listed on SSE. Shareholders. When Tsingtao was listed on Hong Kong stock market, Anheuser-Busch, the world biggest brewery, acquired 4.5% of shareholding in order to enter Chinese market and extended its shareholding to 27% in 2002. As the Interbrew, Belgium brewery company, merged Anheuser-Busch in 2008, Japanese Asahi group replaced ABInBev’s position with about 20% of shareholding, which is the 2nd largest majority shareholder after Tsingtao Group. (Please see the appendix 1, “Shareholders”) Performance. At present, Tsingtao Beer occupies leading position in the domestic beer industry...
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...“Beer here! Get your ice-cold beer here!” You probably heard that shouted the last time you were at the ball park. At a ball game, a party, a barbecue, or a fishing trip, people enjoy an ice-cold beer. Throughout the world, people drink 22 billion gallons of beer annually. Americans alone consume 24 gallons of beer per person every year. Few people know how beer is produced, however. The basic brewing process has five steps. The first step is mashing. Cereal grains, usually barley and hops, are mixed with water. The mixture, called “wort,” is heated to about 150 degrees and stirred constantly. When the mixture is allowed to settle, the solids settle and the liquid passes through it. Then comes boiling and hopping. During these steps, dried flowers from the hop vine are added, about three quarters of a pound of hops for every 31 gallons of wort. The hops prevent spoiling and give the beverage flavor. The mixture is boiled for about two hours. Next comes the fermenting stage in the process. The brewer uses yeast to cause fermenting, adding about one pound per 31 gallons of wort. Alcohol and carbon dioxide form during fermentation. The mixture is kept at 38 degrees Fahrenheit and completes fermentation in about a week or two. The final step is called “finishing.” Here, the brewer compresses and stores carbon dioxide from the beer wort. Stored in huge metal vats for three to six weeks, the beer continues to settle and clear. Then the beer is carbonated and passes through a...
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...1. How is the discovery of beer linked to the growth of the first "civilizations"? The discovery of beer led to the growth of the first “civilizations” because it offered a healthy way to hydrate the body and its production came from available food products, such as gruel. To provide this new drink and make it available to others, they began to farm and tend to their lands. It became of great cultural importance to hunter-gathers, which made the substance well known among communities after just a relatively short period of time. Beer was a secure form of liquid that gave beer drinkers many health advantages, which helped shape the minds and bodies of their future generations and aided in the growth of the first establishments. 2. What does...
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... HEINEKEN COMPANY The Heineken beer company was founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken, a Netherlander, in Amsterdam. This Dutch brewing company has wide international presence so far through a global network of distributors and breweries . Heineken owns and manages one of the world’s leading portfolios of beer brands and is one of the world’s leading brewers in terms of sales volume and profitability. Recently, Heineken has been considered as the most successful beer brand and is an icon in the beer industry. In a market where local beer always enjoy much favor, Heineken not only occupies the hearts of Europe, but also popular worldwide, becoming the leading brand of beer, and is considered No.1 imported beer in America. Heineken beer is ubiquitous and this company owns 110 factories in over 60 countries, beer production volume up to 109 million annual hectoliter. There are two main beer products of Heineken: long neck bottle and tactile can. All the Heineken products are made in Holland by the traditional recipe from 1873. Thanks to a special enzyme, called Heineken "A-yeast", has brought Heineken beer a unique characteristic flavor. This is also a main different point of Heineken among other beer brands. Heineken approaches customers by quality factor and Heineken always ensure that their products are processed in the most standard conditions. The slogan of Heineken is “Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”. Although The Heineken brewing...
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... HEINEKEN COMPANY The Heineken beer company was founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken, a Netherlander, in Amsterdam. This Dutch brewing company has wide international presence so far through a global network of distributors and breweries . Heineken owns and manages one of the world’s leading portfolios of beer brands and is one of the world’s leading brewers in terms of sales volume and profitability. Recently, Heineken has been considered as the most successful beer brand and is an icon in the beer industry. In a market where local beer always enjoy much favor, Heineken not only occupies the hearts of Europe, but also popular worldwide, becoming the leading brand of beer, and is considered No.1 imported beer in America. Heineken beer is ubiquitous and this company owns 110 factories in over 60 countries, beer production volume up to 109 million annual hectoliter. There are two main beer products of Heineken: long neck bottle and tactile can. All the Heineken products are made in Holland by the traditional recipe from 1873. Thanks to a special enzyme, called Heineken "A-yeast", has brought Heineken beer a unique characteristic flavor. This is also a main different point of Heineken among other beer brands. Heineken approaches customers by quality factor and Heineken always ensure that their products are processed in the most standard conditions. The slogan of Heineken is “Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”. Although The Heineken brewing...
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...The target audience for The Ultimate shower Beer is college guys and recent college male graduates. Ages 21-25. Preferably guys that are in a fraternity, but they don’t have to be. The target audience for the beer is males because more men like beer. With the rise in social media guys like to show off with snap chat, Twitter, Instagram that they are drinking and living life. On social media, not this particular brand of beer, but showering with a beer was popular. Before they were going out to the bars or what some people call it the “pre, pre game”. Guys like to brag about how much beer they have had. Therefore, saying to one of their buddies, “Oh yeah I had a few beers in the shower” makes them feel cool. Therefore, males in college and recent male graduates who are still stuck in the college party stage are the target audience of the shower beer. Also, most college guys like breaking the norms. Showering evokes the idea of getting ready for something. Similarly, beer is usually the pre-game drink for males, especially college guys. Drinking a beer in the shower is combining utilitarian parts of routines with recreational. The overall message is, why not add recreational fun to a utilitarian part of human nature and be cool doing it....
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