Beer Game
21th Bled eConference eCollaboration: Overcoming Boundaries Through Multi-Channel Interaction June 15 - 18, 2008; Bled, Slovenia
The Beergame in business-to-business eCommerce courses – a teaching report
Kai Riemer The University of Münster, Germany wikari@wi.uni-muenster.de Abstract In this teaching report I demonstrate the use of the so-called beer distribution game in teaching business-to-business eCommerce courses. The beergame is a role-play supply chain simulation game that lets students experience typical coordination problems of (traditional) supply chains without information sharing and collaboration. With this paper I want to show how the beergame can be used to provide students with a more profound understanding of the reasons why eCommerce technologies are used in contemporary supply chains; I also want to share my experiences and beergame materials with other information systems scholars in the field. To this end, I will introduce the beergame, demonstrate its use in a classroom setting, and show how I embed the game in a typical B2B eCommerce syllabus. Keywords: Teaching, eCommerce, Beergame, Supply Chain, Bullwhip effect
1 Introduction
This is not a research paper. Rather, it is a teaching report in which I describe the use of the so called beer distribution game (or beergame) – a logistics and supply chain simulation game – in teaching business-to-business eCommerce. The aim of the paper is twofold: First, I want to demonstrate how the beergame can be used to provide students with a more profound understanding of the reasons why eCommerce technologies are used in contemporary supply chains to exchange information and to facilitate collaboration. Second, I want to share both my experiences and my materials for using the beergame in eCommerce courses with the IS community, i.e. those scholars that teach (business-to-business) eCommerce or supply chain management courses. The beergame is a role-play simulation game in which students enact a
The Beergame in business-to-business eCommerce courses – a teaching report
Kai Riemer The University of Münster, Germany wikari@wi.uni-muenster.de Abstract In this teaching report I demonstrate the use of the so-called beer distribution game in teaching business-to-business eCommerce courses. The beergame is a role-play supply chain simulation game that lets students experience typical coordination problems of (traditional) supply chains without information sharing and collaboration. With this paper I want to show how the beergame can be used to provide students with a more profound understanding of the reasons why eCommerce technologies are used in contemporary supply chains; I also want to share my experiences and beergame materials with other information systems scholars in the field. To this end, I will introduce the beergame, demonstrate its use in a classroom setting, and show how I embed the game in a typical B2B eCommerce syllabus. Keywords: Teaching, eCommerce, Beergame, Supply Chain, Bullwhip effect
1 Introduction
This is not a research paper. Rather, it is a teaching report in which I describe the use of the so called beer distribution game (or beergame) – a logistics and supply chain simulation game – in teaching business-to-business eCommerce. The aim of the paper is twofold: First, I want to demonstrate how the beergame can be used to provide students with a more profound understanding of the reasons why eCommerce technologies are used in contemporary supply chains to exchange information and to facilitate collaboration. Second, I want to share both my experiences and my materials for using the beergame in eCommerce courses with the IS community, i.e. those scholars that teach (business-to-business) eCommerce or supply chain management courses. The beergame is a role-play simulation game in which students enact a