Some countries are now in their second wave of panic buying due to the COVID-19 outbreak. First it was toilet paper (check here how much you own vs would need), then anything from garlic to baking powder to hair dye (really?), now we are back to toilet paper and dry foods. Here’s a rather funny note on that. It’s certainly an easy time to explain the Forrester effect aka bullwhip effect.

There is also the famous “beer game” that has been developed to illustrate the bullwhip effect. It’s great to experience in a playful way how even those who have read up on the effect still struggle when putting it in practice. (I’m a big fan of serious games, I have to admit; shout out here to Pablo Suarez who has introduced me to a few about climate change.)

But the beer game is developed for in-class interaction so how to do it online? There are two options I’ve found:

• The best one for groups of people, i.e. for online “in-class” interaction is Bob Jacob‘s version that can be played by many students simultaneously, and where you can set up your own class. This is the one we’ve played now in SCM; and while we usually play it in computer lab, this time students were anywhere online; you’ll find it at http://oscm-pro.com/beer/ with instructor’s manual, game description and anything you need. Just make sure everyone uses the same browser to begin with and is clear about their team and position in the supply chain.
• Then there is a newer one where you can play solo against an AI. It’s fancy and fun, but more for asynchronous learning, i.e. it serves a different purpose. See https://beergame.opexanalytics.com/#/

Which other games do you use in SCM education? Please share in the comments!

PS Shout-out also to the iTRACK team at TU Delft that developed Plaitra (which was used to illustrate collaboration but also tracking and tracing technology in disasters, and even for data collection on the topic, see Lukosch and Comes, 2019), and to Ari Mäntyvaara and all the students in our project course with whom we’ve developed FRC’s logistics game.

Lukosch H & Comes T (2019), “Gaming as a research method in humanitarian logistics”, Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 352-370. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-06-2018-0046