Application of game-based simulation for effective teaching in manufacturing planning and control: the case of inventory management

Inventory management is a core topic of production management for industrial engineering students. However, it can be difficult for these undergraduates to deeply understand the concepts of inventory management through lectures, without ever setting foot in a factory. To have a successful career, good inventory managers will use basic theoretical concepts, but also high-quality data as well as a robust sense of intuition. Unfortunately, the latter only develops through experience and via trial and error learning approach. Indeed, the main issue in inventory management is the uncertainty surrounding the levels of demand for products (i.e. sales forecasts) or parts required to keep machines operating (i.e. mean time between failures). The concepts of risks of stockout or additional costs caused by overstock are usually easily understood by students. However, without the tangible experience of observing the impacts of their decisions on stock levels and profits, it can be challenging for the student to truly consolidate their learning. This article proposes a simulation-based game for effective teaching of inventory management and planning. In this approach, students take on the role of inventory managers with the following responsibilities: analyzing the demand for their products, estimating future demand, planning raw material requirements, choosing suppliers and placing orders with them. The game uses a simple case study of a manufacturer with two distinct products from a few primary sub-assemblies. The game comprises a fictional one-year simulation with 12 periods. At each simulation period, students can choose to order their sub-assemblies from five suppliers with varying delivery times. To add some complexity, some of them can also offer quantity discounts. While several teams play the game simultaneously in parallel, their objective is to maximize their profits by minimizing total cost to identify a winning team at the end of the game. Analytical methods and tools are integrated into the game to guide students as they learn the key concepts. This type of problem-based active learning facilitates the teaching of key inventory management concepts such as planning and control. The teachers could customize the game to provide the opportunity of developing a sense of intuition by living a real experience in a virtual environment for the engineering students. A preliminary version of this approach has already been used in an undergraduate course of production management and the results are encouraging. In particular, the students mentioned that being able to make decisions and actively apply what they learned from the course in a real situation was a different, learning experience. Finally, the pedagogical impacts of the game can be summarized in the six following aspects:1. Giving undergraduate students the experience of an active learning environment; 2. Helping them apply their lessons learned in a real and complex situation through problem-based learning;3. Preparing students for their future careers while practicing their decision-making skills;4. Creating more motivation for engagement and participation in the interactive learning process; 5. Providing long-lasting learning via a trial-and-error learning experience;6. Giving students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the industrial and business contexts