Download LINKS Simulation Scheduling Request

LINKS Sign-Up Form:
LINKS Supply Chain Management
Fundamentals Simulation
This LINKS Sign-Up Form provides essential information to permit LINKS Simulations staff to
manage LINKS on your behalf.
This LINKS Sign-Up Form is for one industry or for multiple industries with identical game-run
schedules. Use separate LINKS Sign-Up Forms for industries with different game-run schedules.
LINKS Simulations Variant
Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation
Instructor’s Name
Instructor’s College/University
Instructor’s Phone Number(s)
Instructor’s E-Mail Address
Course Number/Title/Section
Number of Firms (between 2 and 8)
For multiple industries with identical game-run schedules, identify the number of firms for each industry in
the “Number of Firms” line above. For example, “Two Industries: A (4 firms) and B (5 firms).”
Payment Method
If students are paying for LINKS with personal credit cards via the “Pay For LINKS” link on the LINKS
website, Payment Method is “Students Pay With Personal Credit Cards.” If the instructor’s institution is
paying for LINKS via institutional invoice attached to an e-mail message sent to the instructor (for forwarding
to the relevant within-institution person), Payment Method is “Institutional Invoice.”
LINKS staff execute scheduled game runs daily at 900am, 100pm, 500pm, and 900pm U.S.
Eastern Time. Please choose one of these four times for each round in your LINKS event.
If other game run times are desired (e.g., with multiple game runs per day or in
corporate/ExecEd events with LINKS), please contact us ([email protected])
well ahead of time to ensure that our staff can meet your specific game run scheduling needs.
LINKS Schedule
Date
Time
(your local time)
Special Instructions and
Instructor-Optional Switches
Initialization (and
advancement to M#3 and
passcode e-mailing to you
and your students)
M#4
M#5
M#6
M#7
M#8
M#9
M#10
M#11
M#12
[round 1]
[round 2]
[round 3]
[round 4]
[round 5]
[round 6]
[round 7]
[round 8]
[round 9]
In academic degree-granting programs, the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals
Simulation costs $38 per student for a six-round event (after initialization and advancement to
month #3, the normal starting position when students assume managerial control of their LINKS
firm). Extra rounds beyond six cost an additional $4 per student per extra round.
Here’s a sample LINKS schedule for a LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals
Simulation event. For information about other instructor-optional switches, access the LINKS
sign-up webpage (http://www.LINKS-simulations.com/sign-up.php) or the “Customizing LINKS”
link on the LINKS Simulations website. To discuss the design of your LINKS event and the use
of instructor-optional switches, please contact Randy Chapman ([email protected]).
LINKS Schedule
Initialization (and
Time
Date
(your local
time)
February 22
Anytime
advancement to M#3 and
passcode e-mailing to you
and your students)
M#4
[round 1]
March 1
13:00
M#5
[round 2]
March 8
13:00
M#6
M#7
[round 3]
[round 4]
March 15
March 29
13:00
17:00
M#8
[round 5]
April 5
17:00
M#9
M#10
M#11
M#12
[round 6]
[round 7]
[round 8]
[round 9]
April 12
21:00
Special Instructions and InstructorOptional Switches
Deactivate distribution, transportation,
and generate demand initially.
Activate distribution and transportation
for M#5 inputs.
Activate generate demand for M#6
inputs.
Deactivate air transportation for subassembly procurements and shipments
to DCs for M#7 and beyond inputs.
Increase raw materials costs by 25% to
take effect in M#8.
Last LINKS round is a double-run.
Notes: This sample schedule shows regular weekly decision inputs on the same week days.
Such “regularity” is not a requirement, but it’s a typical scheduling pattern in academic degreegranting programs to help LINKS students in their time management and work-life scheduling.
Please send the completed “LINKS
Sign-Up Form” as an e-mail
attachment to LINKS Simulations
([email protected]).
Please communicate any necessary
scheduling changes after your LINKS event
begins via e-mail to LINKS Simulations
([email protected]).
About the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation
The key challenge in the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation is
profitable and efficient management of the whole supply chain in the face of dynamic
competition.
Since product development and service are not part of the LINKS Supply Chain Management
Fundamentals Simulation, there are more limited opportunities to influence demand than in the
LINKS Supply Chain Management Simulation. Thus, there is less sales volatility in the LINKS
Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation compared to the LINKS Supply Chain
Management Simulation. And, it follows that the greater emphasis is on supply chain cost
management rather than on supply chain cost vs. customer service trade-offs.
Starting Conditions
 Two products actively marketed in two channels (“retail” and “direct”) in three regions.
 As of M#3, average per-firm profitability is approximately $2,400,000 on revenues of about
$27,000,000.
 Average per-firm M#3 demand (i.e., sales volume in units):
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Hyperware
Metaware

12,500
11,000
10,000
4,500
19,000
10,000
Status of product configurations (estimated product quality perceptions, a perceptual rating
scale which ranges from 0% to 100%):
Initial
Configuration
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Product 1 (Hyperware)
Product 2 (Metaware)
H55211
M66322
5%
15%
15%
26%
10%
18%
Some Initial Firm Decisions (For M#4 and Beyond)
 Since the firms have been on “auto-pilot” for the initial three months, forecasts must be
updated immediately, presumably with reference to the sales history provided in the
Forecasting Accuracy Report (included near the end of each firm’s standard financial and
operating reports).
 With updated forecasts, inventory levels throughout a firm’s supply chain must be examined
carefully. Firms have been on “auto-pilot” for three months and over- or under-inventory
situations might exist.
 No research studies are provided with the initial M#3 results, so initial firm decisions must
include consideration of which research studies would be useful in the future. This
point/recommendation must be made quite forcefully by the LINKS instructor, to get the
students’ attention in the “blitz” of the overwhelming initial activity set in LINKS as students
assume managerial control of their firms.
Recommended Instructor-Optional Switches1
The LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation is targeted at a “modest”
usage application (five or six rounds) in an academic degree-granting program or in an
executive education seminar.
Advanced Options
1. Change costs in material ways (e.g., increase raw materials Alpha and Beta costs by 25%).
2. In the latter stages of a LINKS event (with at least two rounds remaining in the game run
schedule), deactivate air transportation for plant-to-DC finished goods shipments and/or
SAC procurements (“security considerations require surface transportation”). With surface
transportation, resultant delays are possible and more salient. And, there is increased
student attention to these transportation/procurement decisions and the associated
appropriateness of inventory buffer stocks throughout the supply chain.
3. Include a one-time demand surge (say, a 100% increase for one month followed by a 50%
increase for a second month in both channels of one region). Such a demand surge might
be based on seasonal buying patterns (e.g., the Christmas gift-giving season) or a general
one-time demand increase (e.g., government spending might be increasing substantially in
two successive months). The potential magnitude of such a demand surge (perhaps
expressed as ranges, such as 85%-115% for the “100%” demand surge) would be
described ahead of time to the students. However, even though it’s knows to the students
ahead of time, the demand surge will still be a challenge for the firms to manage profitably.
Downsizing the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation
It’s possible to downsize the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation. This
might be appropriate in LINKS events scheduled for five rounds and/or in an undergraduate
introductory supply chain management or operations management course where a “very
modest” simulation emphasis is desired. Downsizing options for the LINKS Supply Chain
Management Fundamentals Simulation include:
1. Automating Epsilon sub-assembly component decisions, so that the LINKS software
controls Epsilon procurement management and students aren’t required to make Epsilon
sub-assembly component decisions. Gamma and Delta sub-assembly management
decisions would still be required.
2. Deactivating generate demand decisions throughout the event, so that these decisions
aren’t required. Deactivating generate demand decisions makes LINKS a pure supply-side
simulation exercise with no competitive demand drivers in effect (since all demand-side
decisions would be constant/unchanged across all competitors). This would reduce demand
volatility, making forecasting less stressful and supply chain management generally easier
for students.
With either or both of these downsizing options, the event schedule might include two rounds
with distribution and transportation decisions deactivated so that the primary initial decision
emphasis would be on procurement, manufacturing, and forecasting. Then, distribution and
transportation might be activated for the final three rounds of a five-round event so that
distribution network design would be a “new” challenge in the latter portion of the LINKS event.
use of instructor-optional switches in LINKS events is not “automatic.” Instructors must explicitly
request the use of specific instructor-optional switches, either in the original scheduling document
provided by the instructor prior to initialization of a LINKS industry via e-mail communication to Randy
Chapman ([email protected]) during a LINKS event.
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