Beer Game

The Beer enlivened Copy sound by Professor thr unrivaled Sterman, MIT October 1984 Sourceshttp//www. sol-ne. org/pra/tool/beer. html The Fifth Discipline Pg 27-54 Why play the Beer spirited? instructions for give outning the feeble Steps of the bet on Outline for post- plunk for tidings and t ingests Supplies Checklist & Mock-up of the Game Board Bibliography CHARTS AND TABLES TO PRINT OUT only issue circuit card 1 and 2 at the onset of the game. Chart 1-3 to be distri entirelyed at the end of the game and before post-game discussion. slacken 1 picture piece of paper Cost of origin and Backlog turn off 2Computation of additive chronicle amassgraphical immortalise 1Inventory and Backlog represent 2 reads Graph 3Perceived ordain by Customers semivowel 1Facilitator Slides Slide 2Facilitator Slides Slide 3Facilitator Slides Slide 4Facilitator Slides Slide 5Facilitator Slides Slide 6Facilitator Slides Slide 7Facilitator Slides Slide 8Facilitator Slides get across Poi nt for loan of Beer Game Set If you or your unit is concerned in playacting this game and need assistance, enthrall contact whatever of the 1Y LO participants, including the webmaster Ms Sheila Damodaran at emailprotected gov. sg. The game sets be kept at TRACOMs imagination Centre (SIRC, TRACOM).Contact 3594241. Why play the Beer Game? The Fifth Discipline, pg 27 Prisoners of the System, or Prisoners of our Thinking This game was developed by Professor potty Sterman of MIT to introduce pile to fundamental concepts of musical arrangements dynamics. Participants experience the pres confident(predicate) of playing a subprogram in a complex clay, and come to understand start-off hand a key principle of musical arrangements mentation that body organise arrive ats demeanor. The Beer Game is a disguise exercise alike(p) a science laboratory experiment, where one is able to stick come forward ? The consequences of your terminations play f all(prenominal) come disc lose(a) of the closet more(prenominal) clearly in real organisations In effect it presents a microcosm of how a real transcription functions. ? Shift in public assumption of what is requisite of us for creating fundamentally different organisations from a spot of the arranging we atomic number 18 trying to remove is break through in that location and we (as change agents) ar trying to fix it to we and the corpse are inextricably joined together. It was first developed in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Sloan School of Management. Because it is a laboratory replica of a real setting (rather than reality itself), we tramp sequester the disabilities, and ? Their causes more sharply than is workable in real organisations. Often this set eat ups that the problems get in basic ways of opinion and interacting, more than in peculiarities of organisations and policy. Instructions for Running The Beer Distri scarcelyion Game John Sterman October 19 84 This document outlines the protocol for the beer distribution game developed to introduce concourse to concepts of system dynamics. The game bottom be play by as fewer as quartette and as m any(prenominal) as 60 people (assistance is required for bigger groups).The only prerequisite, besides basic math skills, is that none of the participants book played the game before, or else agree not to reveal the trick of the game. 1. province take of Game a) Introduce people to the key principle twist produces behavior b) Experience the pressures of playing a role in a complex system 2. Provide overview of production-distribution system a) The game is played on a board, which portrays the production and distribution of beer (show board game). pic b) enounces for and cases of beer are represented by scats, which are manipulated by the players.The players at apiece puzzle are all free people to own any determination that enchantms prudent. Their only goal is to fake their positions as best as they stack to tap profits. c) Each brewery consists of four sectors retailer, wholesaler, distributor and mill. One person manages severally sector. d) A ornament of card represents client demand. Each hebdomad, clients demand beer from the retailer, who ships the beer requested out of broth. The retailer in turn drifts beer from the wholesaler, who ships the beer requested out of the wholesalers stock certificate.Likewise, the wholesaler rewrites and receives beer from the distributor, who in turn orders and receives beer from the factory. The factory produces the beer. At each(prenominal)(prenominal) stage thither are shipping devours and order receiving embarrasss. These represent the judgment of conviction required to receive, process, ship and deliver orders, and as surface be seen play a crucial role in the dynamics. e) If your participants are not familiar with the concept of manufacturing, shipping, and distribution, consider presenting these concepts initially before proceeding. telephone the participants together at one board and demonst roam each measure of the way carefully.Often it is the lack of this in signifieration that causes the initial confusion of the game. You could assert something like The Beer Game immerses us in a type of plaque that is wide prevalent in all industrial countries a system for producing and distributing a single brand of beer. There are four main characters in the story a retailer, a wholesaler, a distributor and the Marketing theater director of a brewery f) The players at each position are completely free to make any decision that seems prudent. only they score to do is execute guest demand and order fair to middling from your give birth raiser epoch avoiding costly mainstaylogs.They should manage their positions as best as they move to maximise profits. 3. State Basic rules a) Have each police squad pick a name for their brewery (e. g. the name of a real beer). Have them label their record sheets with the name of their brewery and their position, e. g. retailer, wholesaler, etc. b) Have each person ante up $1. 00, or an appropriate amount, which give go to the winning team, master buck all (optional). c) The object of the game is to minimize impart costs for your team. The team with the lowest be costs wins. Costs are computed in the chase way ? The carrying costs of inventory are $. 0 per case per calendar hebdomad ? Out-of-stock costs, or military reserve costs, are $1. 00 per case per week ? The costs of each stage (retailer, wholesaler, distributor, factory) for each week, added up for the hit length of the game, determine the total cost. d) No communication between sectors. retail merchants should not talk to anyone else, same for wholesalers, distributors, and factories. The categorical coat for this is that in real life there whitethorn be phoebe bird factories, several dozen distributors, thousands of wholesalers, an d tens of thousands of retailers, and each one cannot rein out what the total activity of all the others is.The only communication between sectors should be by dint of and through the passing of orders and the receiving of beer. e) retail merchants are the only ones who know what the customers actually order. They should not reveal this tuition to anyone else. f) All incoming orders moldiness be filled. If your inventory is substandard to fill incoming orders plus reservation, fill as many orders as you can and add the remaining orders to your stockpile. 4. Steps of the Game. a) Issue only circumvent 1 and Table 2 to all the participants. b) The game Facilitator should call out the travel as the game progresses. ) The first few multiplication when the system is solace in equilibrium the facilitator should go through the tramples precise slowly to make sure people gull the mechanics raze. d) regain that of the six steps of the game, only the fifth, placing orders, invol ves a decision. e) The remaining five steps only involve moving inventory of beer or order landing strips or recording your position, and are purely mechanical. For the first few weeks the facilitator should tell e preciseone to order four units to upkeep the system in equilibrium. 5. Initialization of the boards ) There should be twelve pennies or knaps representing twelve cases of beer in each inventory. Each chip or penny represents one case. There should be four pennies in each shipping box and production delay. b) There should be order slips with 4 written on them, face exhaust in each incoming and outgoing order box (orders and production requests). A allow for of blank order slips should be accessible at each sector, as well as a supply of pennies or chips. c) The deck of separate with the customer demand should not be revealed in jump on.The ruler of customer demand that is some in effect(p) for first-time players is a pattern of (. To be revealed later the game/ debrief by the Game Leader). d) Each order deck should have fifty weeks worth of cards, and the players should be told that the game will be fifty weeks long. Typically its only necessary to run the game xxxv weeks or so in order to see the pattern of fluctuation, but telling the players it will be fifty weeks pr typefaces horizon effects, where they run their inventories down because they feel the end of the game is coming. 6. Tips for Facilitators ) Its real helpful if the game facilitator makes sure that each team stays in step so that you can quickly glance around the room and see that everyone is at the right place. Remind the participants to learn the steps in order to keep ill-treat of the game. b) The game facilitator should write the current week on the blackboard as the steps for that week are called out. c) In virtually the eighth or ninth week the retailer will run out of inventory and have a cumulate for the first time. People do not understand the meaning of pil e ups, or the accumulative nature of the cumulate.It is necessary to checkout the game at this channelize, ask everyone to pay attention, and beg off how pile up method of accounting calculates. Explain that The backlog represents orders youve received, but have not yet filled, and which you moldinessiness fill in the future, and d) The backlog is cumulative. Next week you have to finish the incoming orders that you receive, plus whatever is in your backlog, if possible. If it not possible to execute the incoming orders, then the amount left over is added to the existing backlog and moldiness be filled in later weeks. (see Table 2). ) underscore at this com chance on that backlog costs twice as over very much as inventory. You whitethorn need to do this one or ii more times, and should be careful to check and be sure that they do in fact fill their backlog. It is helpful to write the following equivalence on the blackboard to help with backlog accounting (see below). Orders to fill = clean orders + Backlog this week + last week + f) The game can be played in as little as one and a half hours if the facilitator maintains a very brisk pace. The question usually requires at least 40 minutes and can be expanded substantially. g) project having 2 persons to play each role.One person is trusty for taking the decision and advancing the chips and order slips and the other person to maintain the figures and filling up Tables 1 and 2. The pair may switch their roles mid-way during the game. 7. End of game a) tick the game after about 36 weeks (but play the game, up to that point as if it is going on to 50 weeks, to avoid unusual end-of-game ingrains). b) aim each position on each team to calculate their total cost c) Cost = supply inventory x $0. 50 + Total Backlog x $1 and to mark the total cost on the Record Sheet for the position d) breathe out Orders graph sheets one to each position. train each position to graph their own orders, week by week. Clarify to milling machinery that they will graph their Production involves. e) Pass out Effective Inventory graph sheets one to each position. Ask each position to graph the inventory week by week, video display any backlog as negative inventory. f) team name and position essential be indicated on all sheets. Once the graph is complete, have the players come to the dots with a bold magic marker (colour coded Retailer = black, Wholesaler = blue, electrical distributor = green and Factory = red to the board) for ease of viewing by the group. ) Pass out the Customer Order graph sheets to everyone except Retailers. Ask each person to sketch what he or she thinks the customer order rate looked like over time. Ask each to indicate a guileless scale or maximum value. ? Ask retailers not to discuss anything about customer orders until after the debrief of the game. h) Collect all the sheets, and aim players off for a break. i) During break ? Calculate team costs to determ ine the winner and compute the average team cost. ? Tape sheets together (as shown below) and hang up team graphs.Effective Inventory Team 1Team 2Team 3 Retailer Retailer Retailer Wholesaler Wholesaler Wholesaler distributor Distributor Distributor Factory Factory Factory Orders/Production Requests Team 1Team 2Team 3 Retailer Retailer Retailer Wholesaler Wholesaler Wholesaler Distributor Distributor Distributor Factory Factory Factory STEPS OF THE GAME (Adapted) Step frequent instructions Specific Instruction to players playing the roles of Factory/ Retailer elate inventory (move chips from shipping delay 2 into current Factory advance from production delay 1 to inventory) and advance the shipping (from shipping delay 1 to production delay 2. shipping delay 2). Use some(prenominal) hands to slide the chips over from respective boxes. Caution players not to move all chips into one box. Look at incoming orders (check the order slip p laced in your Retailer draws consumer card. Follow inbox) instructions as in adjacent set. Fulfill orders from your stock (your current inventory only). Move chips out into shipping delay 1 of the player downstream. All incoming orders must be filled. Facilitator to re-mention this step when the team has entered week 6/8) If your inventory is inferior to fill incoming orders plus backlog, fill as many orders as you can and add the remaining orders to your backlog (use Table 2 to work out your cumulative backlog). Record your balance inventory and/or cumulative backlog (in the latter case your balance inventory would have been minify to zero) on Table 1. Advance the rder slips that you placed in the previous week fromFactory introduces production requests from your outbox into the inbox of the player upstream. previous week into production delay 1. Take decision on the orders you wish to place for the upcoming week. put down your order slip s in your outbox. Record your orders on Table 1. FOLLOW-UP TASKS AND blueprint FOR POST-GAME DISCUSSION (Adapted) Step Tasks and outline Group Task Remind participants of the accusative Emphasize that although they played the game to minimize cost, thats of the game. not the real purpose of the game. The game is designed to give players an experience of playing a role in a system show them how anatomical structure produces behavior Request players tabulate total currentNone. inventory, cumulative inventory on Table 1. Accounting None. Record penalty of $0. 50 per item in inventory (at each stage). Record penalty of $1. 0 per item ordered but not filled. Plot inventory versus time (Chart 1) congeal graphs at move of classroom for everyone to see (see typical and unfilled orders (on Chart 1 also) chart below). versus time for your stage and for your lodge overall. Plot order versus time (Chart 2) for Place charts at front of classroom for everyone to see (see typical your stage and for your company chart below). overall. Ask participants Each of the players had the best possible intentions to serve his Whats going through the minds of the customers well, to keep the product moving smoothly through the system, players? and to avoid penalties. Each participant made well-motivated, clearly What problems arose during the game invulnerable judgments based on reasonable guesses about what might playing? happen.Still there was a crisis- built into the structure of the system. Most people try to explain reality by showing how one set of pointts cause other or, if theyve studied a problem in more depth, by showing how a particular set of events are part of a womb-to-tomb term historical process. Have the participants illustrate this for themselves by looking at their own explanations for events during the game. Take a particular incident in the game, for vitrine a large surge in production requests at the factory, and ask the person responsible why they did that. Their answer will invariably allude their decision to some prior decision of the person they supply or who supplies them. Then turn to that person and ask them why they did that. Continue this until people see that one can continue to relate one event to earlier events indefinitely. Wholesaler/Distributor may say I am gild four/fives times my usual order. Maybe the retailer is parliamentary law so much because they cant get any of the beer from me. all way I have to keep up. I am depress the brewery had further stepped up production. How could they be slow? What if I cant get any of the beer and they go to one my competitors? The backlog costs due. I am afraid to tell the accountant what to expect. Retailer may say I ordered more just to be safe and to keep up with the sales. I wear offt want to get a reputation for being out of stock of popular beers.By the time I call my backlogged customers, I am sold out before I can sell a single recent case. What is that wholesaler doing to me? Doesnt he know what a ravenous market we have down here? I think of all the lost potato chip sales Brewery may say Even after Week 14 I had not caught up with the backlogs.At Week 16 I have finally caught up but the distributors had not asked for any more beer at all? Why did the order mushroom and then die? The orders have finally arrived but whats wrong with the retailers? Why have they stop ordering? Briefly describe what outline you After a few minutes (about 10) of discussion, look at the graphs of the developed during the game for making resolvents. Ask them, What mutualalities do you see in the graphs for the ordering decisions. different teams? Participants should see common pattern of overshoot and oscillation. This shoul d be most evident in the effective inventory graph. Get them to really see for themselves that different people in the same structure produce qualitatively similar passs. Even though they acted very differently as individualists in ordering inventory result (there was free will), subdued the overall patterns (qualitative pattern) of behavior are similar. This is a very main(prenominal) pointtake as long as necessary to have them see it for themselves. Obviously at the factory, the Marketing Director will be cursed for any layoffs or plant closings that come out of this crisis just as the wholesaler blessedd the retailer and the retailer blamed the wholesaler and oth wanted to blame the factory. You might reflect at this point on what happens in the real world when such performance stooge oscillations are generated. The typical organizational response is to find the person responsible (the guy placing the orders or the inventory manager) and blame him. The game clearly demonstrates how irrelevant this response isdifferent people following different decision rules for ordering a generated oscillation. Plot what you think was the customer After having had them all see the extent to which different people order over time (Chart 3) during the produce similar results in a common structure, you then need to move on game. to what is usually the most powerful point made by the game that internal structure not out-of-door events cause system behavior. The way to make this point is to ask the following question All of you who were not retailers, or who otherwise have not found out what the pattern of customer orders was, what do you think the customers were doing? Most people usually imagine that customer demand was displace because they believe that the system fluctuations must have been externally driven. Most draw a curve which rises and falls, jus t as their orders rose and fell. Get each of them (other than retailers) to see that they assumed fluctuating customer orders. Retailer in your team to plot actual pull out in each order rate graph the actual customer ordering pattern. The customer order on the same chart. small step from 4 to 8 orders should make a strong visual picture in contrast to the order rate fluctuations which often have premium of 20- to 40-orders per week.Moreover, the sustained oscillations generated by the system contrast sharply to the absolutely flat customer order rate after the step at week 5. The Retailer may respond with The demand never mushroomed. And it never died out. We still sell eight cases of beer week after week. But you didnt send us the beer we wanted. So we had to keep ordering, just to make sure we had enough to keep up with our customers. This simple exercise of getting them to see how, perverted to their expectations, t he internal system structure is completely capable of generating fluctuating behavior is the most profound lesson they can Are the oscillations due to external contemplate from the game. or internal reasons? It is important that they see this for themselves, as a deduction or an experimental result, which they did, not as an idea of which youre trying to win over them. In fact, the game is an experiment in very true sense. The result of oscillating behavior was not predetermined. The assumption that the systems problems are ca utilise by the customer stems from our deeply felt need to find someone or something to blame where there are problems. Initially after the game is over, many believe that the culprits are the players in the other positions. This belief is shattered by perceive that the same problems arise in all plays of the game, regardless of who is manning the different positio ns. galore(postnominal) then direct their searc h for a scapegoat toward the consumer. But when their guesses are compared with the flat customer orders, this theory is shot down too. This has a devastate effect on some players. In the last 20 years, the beer game If literally thousands of players all generate the same qualitative has been played thousands of times in behaviour pattern the causes of the behaviour must lie beyond the classes and management training individuals. The causes of the behaviour must lie in the structure of seminars. It has been played on five the game itself. continents, among people of all ages, nationalities, ethnical origins and When placed in the same system, people however different, tend to vastly varied business backgrounds. produce similar results. Some had never comprehend of a production/ distribution system before others hadIn system dynamics we take an alternative viewpointthat the internal spent a genuine portion of their lives structure of a system is m ore important than external events in works in such businesses. generating qualitative patterns of behavior. A system causes its own behaviour. In the game.The structure that Yet every time the game is played the caused wild swings involved the multi-stage supply chain and the delays same crises ensue. First there is intervening between different stages (refer Tools on ST), the hold growing demand that cant be met. information operable (refer Tools on TL) at each stage in the system, Orders build passim the system. and the goals, costs, perceptions and fears (refer Tools on MM) that Inventories are depleted. Backlogs influenced individuals orders for beer. grow. Then the beers arrive enmasse while incoming orders decline. These an be illustrated by this diagram By the end of the experiment, almost all players are sitting with large Events inventories they cannot unload e. g. (e. g. inventory backlogs and surges) it is not unusual to find brewery and distribution inventory levels in the hundreds over hanging orders from wholesalers for 8-12 cases per week. Patterns (Panic behaviours / oscillations) Structure (only form of communication is through order slips, the use performance measures by inventory and order sizes and the effect of delays from upstream) But also remember the nature of structure in a human system is subtle because we are a part of it and this means we often have the power to alter structures, which we are operating. How can such controlling structures be recognised? Characteristic pattern of order buildup and decline at each position, amplified in intensity as you move upstream from retailers to breweries. Each position goes through an inventory-backlog cycle first there is insufficient inventory and then there is too much. Assumptions of an external cause (e. g. the other players or the Think of examples in your customer ) are characteristics of non-systemic thinking. organisations where you can apply these principles. When we feel How would such knowledge help us to be more successful in a complex Too much work? system redefining your scope of influence? Not enough information? Too many changes? Each player adopts the simplest ordering policy possible simply place Not able to manage changes? new orders couple to orders he received. When this dodging is followed Someone is unfair to you? unswervingly by all the players, all positions settle into stability by Customers are demanding? Week 11. The strategy may generate persistent backlogs (may not be practical in real life as it invites competitors to enter the market) but it eliminates the buildup and collapse in ordering and the associated wild-swings in inventories. In 75% of teams that play the game, the no strategy position have a lower total cost. Most players see their job as managing their position in isolati on from the rest of the system. What is required is to see how their position interacts with the larger system your influence is broader than simply of your own position. You pay close attention to own inventory, costs, backlog, orders, etc. (events).You respond to new orders by shipping out beer. What this view misses, is the ways that your order influences your suppliers behaviour. Which in turn might influence yet another(prenominal) suppliers behaviour. For example, if they place a large number of orders, they can wipe out their suppliers inventory, thereby causing their suppliers delivery delay to increase.If they then respond by placing still more orders, they create a vicious cycle that increases problems throughout the system (see below). Players that share the systems viewpoint tends to win in order for you to succeed others must succeed as well. Causal Diagram of effect of systemic structure downstream & delays upstream (see overleaf) What do you believe to be the causes This is a good point to introduce accomplishment disabilities and our ways of of these problems? thinking in an organization Fixation on events Each player focuses on events giving very little power to alter the course of events at a geomorphological or strategic levels. I am my position because they became their positions, people do not see how their own actions affect the other positions. The enemy is out there The game reveals the problems originate in basic ways of our thinking and interacting, more than in peculiarities of organisations and policy. Often when problems arise, people quickly blame each other the enemy becomes the players at the other positions, or even the organization structure and polices and/or customers. The illusion of taking charge when they get proactive and place more orders, they make matters worse. The parable of the boiled frog because their overordering builds up gradually, they dont realise the direness of their situation until its too late. Delusion of goldbricking from experience by and large they dont learn from their experiences because the most important consequences of their actions occur elsewhere in the system, eventually coming back to create the very problems they blame on others. The Myth of the Management Team the teams running the different positions become consumed with blaming the other players for their problems, precluding any opportunity to learn from each others experience. What could we do to potentially changeAnalysis using Levels of position tool the behaviour observed in the game? Espoused Vision Everybody working as a team Vision-in-Use I am my position Check-up the Vision-Deployment Matrix. systemic Structure-in-use No communications, minimising losses for ones position and o veranticipating the orders Patterns-in-use Are not able to meet orders in time and having to deal with delayed productions and over-doers in the long-run. Events Is constantly reacting leading to frustrations and burnouts in the long-run. Desired Systemic Structure First, restrain patiently for the beer that you have ordered but because of the delay, it has not yet arrived. Second, dont panic. It takes discipline to contain the overwhelming urge to order more when backlogs are building and your customers are screaming. Without the discipline, you and everyone will suffer. Third, assume a No strategy approach can actually work. Shift in prevailing assumption of what is required of us for creating fundamentally different organisations from Firstly, a perspective of the system we are trying to change is out there and we (as change agents) are trying to fix it to we and the system are inextricably linked together. Secondly, a perspective of serving the team rather than the individual is who counts here watch out for Number One SUPPLIES CHECKLIST PER TEAM 3 TEAMS 4 TEAMS 5 TEAMS 6 TEAMS Game Board 3 4 5 6 Single Chips 600 840 960 1200 Ten Chips 90 120 one hundred fifty 150 Customer Deck (1) 3 4 5 6 Order Slips (200) 600 800 1000 1200 Graphs (4) 12 16 20 25 Record Sheets (4) 12 16 20 25 Pencils (4) 12 16 20 25 Calculators (4) 12 16 20 24 PER SESSION natural covering Tape Four-color markers per team Magic Markers Debriefing Book Flip Charts all white board to hold charts for each organization or lay on a blank wall Previous game graphs Table set ups B- Items are not available with the game set. Please provide required sets. I- Items are not available with the game set. Please make required number of copies. MOCK GAME BOARD pic Table 1 Cost of Inventory and Backlog Team Name _______________________ Circle your positionWholesalerRetailerDistributorFactory Wk INV 1 = This weeks order from cust omer _____ This weeks order from customer _____ last weeks backlog + _____ last weeks backlog + _____ total orders to ship = _____ total orders to ship = _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks backlog = _____ this weeks backlog = _____ This weeks order from customer _____ This weeks order from customer _____ last weeks backlog + _____ last weeks backlog + _____ total orders to ship = _____ total orders to ship = _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks backlog = _____ this weeks backlog = _____ This weeks order from customer _____ This weeks order from customer _____ last weeks backlog + _____ last weeks backlog + _____ total orders to ship = _____ total orders to ship = _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks backlog = _____ this weeks backlog = _____ This weeks order from customer _____ This weeks order from customer _____ last weeks backlog + _____ last w eeks backlog + _____ total orders to ship = _____ total orders to ship = _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks shipments _____ this weeks backlog = _____ this weeks backlog = _____ Graph 1 My Inventory (including Backlog) Team Name _______________________ pic Graph 2 My Orders Team Name _______________________ pic Graph 3 My perception of orders by customer Team Name _______________________ pic The Beer Distribution Game An Annotated Bibliography Covering its bill and Use in Education and Research Prepared by John D. Sterman Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 253-1951 (voice) (617) 253-6466 (fax) emailprotected edu (email) April 1992 rewrite July 1992 The Beer Distribution Game dates to the earliest days of system dynamics.The game has been used for three decades as an introduction to systems thinking, dynamics, cumputer pretence, and management. It has been played by thousands of people, all over the world, f rom high-school students to CEOs of major corporations. The references below provide useful information for those who want to follow up the experience of the game. These works describe the history of the game, the equations for simulating the game on a computer, the success of organizational change efforts based on the pilot film model embodied in the game, the psychological processes people use when playing, and even how these processes can produce chaos. * ? Forrester, J. W. (1958) industrial dynamics A Major find for Decision Makers.Harvard Business Review, 36(4), July/August, 37-66. The first asrticle in the field of system dynamics. Presents the production-distribution system as an example of dymanic analysis of a business problem. Reprinted in Roberts (1978). ? Forrester, J. W. (1961) Industrial kinetics. Cambridge, MA MIT Press. Contains a description of an early version of the Beer Distribution Game ? MacNeil-Lehrer Report, (1989) Risky Business Business Cycles, Video, P ublic Broadcasting System, aired 23 October 1989. Videotape showing students in John Stermans Systems Dymanics course at MIT playing and discussing the Beer Game. Relates the game to boom and bust cycles in the real world.Excellent in debriefing the game, and helpful to those seeking to learn how to run the game. Copies available from System Dynamics Group, E60-383, MIT, Cambridge MA 02139. ? Mosekilde, E. , E. R. Larsen & J. D. Sterman (1991). Coping with complexity Deterministic Choas in human decision making bahavior. In J. L. Casti & A. Karlqvist (Eds. ), Beyond Belief Randomness, Prediction, and Explanation in Science, 199-229. capital of MassachusettsCRC Press Shows how simple and reasonable decision rules for playing the Beer Game may produce strange nonlinear phenomena, including deterministic chaos. ? Radzicki, M. (1991). Computer-based beer game boards. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dept. f Soc Sci and Policy Studies, Worcester, Ma 01609-2280 Beer game boards in PICT fo rmat for Macintosh computers available on disk for $5. 00 all proceeds go to the System Dynamics Society. ? Thomsen, J. S. , E. Mosekilde, & J. D. Sterman (1992). Hyperchaotic Phenomena in Dynamic Decision Making. Systems Analysis and Modelling Simulation, forthcoming. Extends earlier cover by Moskilde, Sterman, et al. to examine hyperchaotic modes in which the behavior of the beer distribution system may switch chaotically among several different chaotic attractors (for afficionados, hyperchaos exists when a driving system contains multiple positive Lyapunov exponents). ? Roberts, E. B. , ed. (1978) Managerial Applications of System Dynamics.Cambridge, MA productiveness Press. Excellent anthology of early-applied system dynamics work in organizations, including analysis of efforts to weapon the results of the model which led to the Beer Game. ? Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline. New York Doubleday. Excellent non-technical discussion of the Beer Game, and systems thinking pri nciples generally. ? Sterman, J. D. (1984). Instructions for Running the Beer Distribution Game. D-3679, System Dynamics Group, MIT, E60-383, Cambridge, MA 02139. Explains how to run and debrief the Beer Game, including layout of boards, set up, play, and discussion. Incorporates debriefing notes by Peter Senge.Some people have found this document, in conjunction with the MacNeil/Lehrer video and plenty of practice, is sufficient to alter them to lead the game successfully. ? Sterman, J. D. (1988). Modeling Managerial Behavior Misperceptions of Feedback in a Dynamic Decision Making Experiemnt. Management Science, 35(3), 321-339. Detailed analysis of Beer Game results. Examines why people do so poorly in the Beer Game. Proposes and tests a model of the decision making processes people use when playing the game and shows why they do so badly. Additional information on systems dynamics, including publications, simulation games, management flight simulators, journals, etc. is available from John Sterman at the spread over preceding(prenominal). *If you know of additional publications which discuss aspects of the game not ncluded in this bibliography please send a copy to John Sterman at the address above so they can be incorporated in future releases of this bibliography. 1 Order fulfilled Cost Storage Total Inventory Balance(w=t) = Inventory Balance(w=t-1) + New Inventory Received(w=t) 2 Balance Inventory After fulfilling Order(w=t) = Total Inventory Balance (w=t) Order Fulfilled (w=t) 3 Cumm Backlog (w=t) = New Backlog (w=t) + Unfulfilled Cumm Backlog(w=t-1) Reta