The building blocks of supply chain management

Supply chain management is one of the most complex business disciplines, comprising activities and interactions within and between many of the traditional functional areas of a firm and their channel partners. No longer can a company place its entire focus on its own operations because long-term success is becoming increasingly dependent on actions and decisions of upstream and downstream firms in the supply chain. Organizations that effectively collaborate with their supply chain partners position themselves for success in 21st-century markets. In order to prepare our students to make decisions in this complex environment, educators in operations research and management science must introduce students to the important interactions which are essential to effective supply chain management. We have developed a classroom supply chain simulation incorporating Lego™ bricks to highlight the flow of materials, products, and information through the channel. Students assume the responsibilities of various supply chain functions and must work together to provide finished products according to a production schedule and a rush customer order. The exercise was designed for an undergraduate introductory course in supply chain management, transportation and logistics, or management science in a business or industrial engineering school. It reinforces lectures and discussions about the different functional areas of the supply chain and serves to energize students about the remainder of their curriculum in the field. The follow-up assignments included with the simulation allow students to execute the major steps of the production planning process within the familiar context of the company used in the simulation exercise.