The Ordering Challenge: An Online Game to Introduce Independent Demand Inventory Concepts

Students are put in the role of a manager who watches inventory levels decrease and must order at the right time and in the right quantity to minimize costs. This interactive game requires the students to race against time and has levels of increasing difficulty. It introduces the students to the concepts of holding cost, ordering cost, backlog cost, the sawtooth curve, reorder point, order quantity, ABC categorization, and continuous review systems. The game is simple and is available free online. An accompanying assignment is designed to guide the student's reflection process while playing the game.