NEW
Supplychaingame
The MIT Beer Game – reimagined
The new version of our Beer Game: up to five tiers of a supply chain place orders based on
limited information and experience how fluctuations build up (bullwhip effect). The product
and the tiers can be given their own names – so you can play with beer just as well as with
bicycles, pharmaceuticals or spare parts.
Play alone against computer opponents or as a team. For large groups, many parallel
games can be set up at once. With a new layout and detailed help, in German and English.
Go to Supplychaingame
NEW
Bikebusinessgame
Business simulation: bicycle factory
You run a manufacturing company: purchase parts, plan assembly with lines and shifts,
develop product features, set prices and marketing, and secure financing – with seasonality, economic
cycles and competition.
Every transaction is booked according to the German industrial chart of accounts: balance
sheet, income statement and cash flow can be traced down to each individual entry – ideal from first
semester to advanced students. Play alone against computer opponents or
in groups against real teams.
Go to Bikebusinessgame
NEW
Beerbusinessgame
Business simulation: beverage wholesale
You run a wholesale business trading three types of beer – from the budget house brand to
craft beer. Quarter by quarter, you decide on purchasing, prices, advertising and
sustainable delivery, competing with other companies for the same customers.
After each quarter, the balance sheet and income statement show what your decisions have achieved.
Play in groups – or solo against computer opponents.
Go to Beerbusinessgame
PREVIOUS VERSION
Beer Game
The MIT Beer Game – our previous version
The classic of supply chain education: four tiers of a supply chain each order based only on what they
can see – and experience first-hand how orders amplify towards the factory (bullwhip effect).
Play in and with teams – or alone, in which case the other tiers of the
supply chain are simulated.
Our version also makes the critical ratio tangible and teachable: the ratio of shortage
costs to holding costs that also determines the optimal service level in the newsvendor
model.
Critical ratio = cu ÷ (cu + co),
where cu = cost per unit too few (shortage), co = cost per unit too many (overstock)
This is our previous version. Its successor is the Supplychaingame
with a new layout and additional features.
Go to Beer Game
ACCESS ON REQUEST
Beer Inventory Game
Planning and evaluating distribution networks
One brewery, three types of beer and three sales markets – to the south,
to the west and north of the brewery. You decide whether to set up cross-docking warehouses
for individual beer types or to supply customers directly from the brewery – and see what
this means for transport, storage and total costs.
The game is currently being revised and is password-protected; access is available on request.
Go to Beer Inventory Game
JUST FOR FUN
NIMM
The matchstick game from the pub
A game for a quick break: matches lie in several rows. Players take turns removing as many as they like
from one row. Whoever leaves the opponent exactly one match wins.
It looks like luck, but it is mathematics: the computer knows the trick. If you see through it, you can
win. The game comes with a short story that reveals it between the lines.
Play NIMM
