littlefield simulation 1 strategy littlefield simulation 1 strategy

We learned the lesson from that simulation that we should have added machines much earlier. We know from the text that Al Beck is running two eight hour shifts so the machines are running for a minimum of 16 hours per day. With the daily average demand and SD we could control the Littlefield Labs system capacity. [pic] |BOSTON 8. The decision depends on the expected lead-time, which we promise to the customer. | Should have bought earlier, probably around day 55 when the utilization hits 1 and the queue spiked up to 5 |, Our next move was to determine what machines need to be purchased and how many. Please make sure to read our rules and wiki before posting. Cash Balance Management would like to increase revenue and decrease costs. Unfortunately not, but my only advice is that if you don't know what you're doing, do as little as possible so at least you will stay relatively in the middle Our game simulation has taught me how to manage the human resources (HR), capacity planning, receiving, production, and shipping departments. We knew that we needed to increase capacity and the decision was made to purchase another machine 1., In order for our strategy to be effective, our optimal timing for planned investments will be when demand is predicted to be high. Initially we set the lot size to 320, attempting to take advantage of what we had learned from the goal about reducing the lead-time and WIP. We then determined our best course of action would be to look at our average daily revenue per job (Exhibit 7) and see if we could identify any days when that was less than the maximum of $1,000/job, so we could attempt to investigate what days to check on for other issues. Can you please suggest a winning strategy. Initially we set the lot size to 3x20, attempting to take advantage of what we had learned from the goal about reducing the lead-time and WIP. Correct writing styles (it is advised to use correct citations) Here is a discussion of the pros and cons regarding the decisions we made. The winning team is the team with the most cash at the end of the game (cash on hand less debt). This was determined by looking at the rate of utilization of the three machines and the number of jobs in the queue waiting for these machines. Here are our learnings. Rank | Team | Cash Balance ($) | Get original paper in 3 hours and nail the task. LT managers have decided that, after 268 days of operation, the plant will cease producing the DSS receiver, retool the factory, and sell any remaining inventories. Our strategy was to get lead times down below .5 days and offer customers that lead time to maximize revenue. 161 But we did not know if it was the reason for the full utilization of the machinery. 20 However, observed 100% Utilization at Station #1 with the 17x more queued kits. The lab began operations with a raw materials inventory of 160 kits and $1,000,000 cash. Management is currently quoting 7-day lead times, but management would like to charge the higher prices that customers would pay for dramatically shorter lead times. Preplan should include your strategy for the game and the analysis your group did to arrive at that strategy. Few teams, who took their time to figure out the information, to develop strategies and to make decision during the simulation made their first decisions very late (>100th day). 249 The demand during the simulation follows a predefined pattern, which is marked by stable low demand, increasing demand, stable high demand and then demand declining sharply. It is necessary to manage mistakes made in strategy during the game, which can resolve issues down the road to have a successful business plan. The five options for cost cutting are reducing agency staff, downsizing staff, reducing benefits, changing the skill mix, and reducing length of stay for the patients. Clear role definitions avoid confusion and save time. Check out my presentation for Reorder. The decision for the customer contract is between three options. The product lifetime of many high-tech electronic products is short, and the DSS receiver is no exception. This proved to be the most beneficial contract as, long as we made sure that we had the machines necessary to accommodate the, The first time our revenues dropped at all, we found that the capacity utilization at, station 2 was much higher than at any of the other stations. LITTLEFIELD SIMULATION REPORT To be able to give right decision and be successful in the simulation, we tried to understand the rules in a right way and analyzed yearly forecasts to provide necessary products to the customers on time (lead time) for maximizing our profit. We had significant advantage because we had taken decisions e.g. One of success parameters were profits, though we did manage to make significant profits over the last two years, we did not focus on it early in the game. Littlefield Technologies is a factory simulator that allows students to compete with each other over the web while developing operations management skills. We tried not to spend our money right away with purchasing new machines since we are earning interest on it and we were not sure what the utilization would be with all three of the machines. The goal of our company was to make money, so we needed to upgrade to contract 3 as quickly as possible. One key element that caught my attention was bottleneck issues. This added an overhead expense of approximately 2147 (Additional maintenance costs + Transfer costs). 1.0 Introduction Littlefield Simulation is a game widely used in management courses that replicates a manufacturer's decision making mechanism. Based on initial management analyses, customer demand for this new product is expected to be random, but the average demand will be level over the products 268-day lifetime. 2. 9, Our initial contract situation was contract-1, which provided a revenue of 175 $/day. I was mainly responsible for the inventory . us: [emailprotected]. Group Report 1: Capacity Management The following is an account of our Littlefield Technologies simulation game. 1 Littlefield Labs Simulation Professor: Ioannis (Yannis) Bellos Course: MBA 638 School of Business Information Systems . Faculty can choose between two settings: a high-tech factory named Littlefield Technologies or a blood testing service named Littlefield Labs. Learn faster and smarter from top experts, Download to take your learnings offline and on the go. Lastly we chose the right contract among our 3 options to maximize the profits according to daily average job lead-time. Because all stations were at times operating at full, we knew that all would create a bottleneck if left to operate as is. : Littlefield Simulation Report: Team A A linear regression of the day 50 data resulted in the data shown on Table 1 (attached)below. stuffing testing Summary of articles. 9 Littlefield Technologies and Littlefield Laboratories Littlefield is an online competitive simulation of a queueing network with an inventory point. 25 This time, they would like your help with further lead time improvements and optimizing their inventory policy. As our utilization was remaining at a constant 100%, our lead times were also increasing. Total Part 1: Reasoning for Decisions Contract Pricing This left the factory with zero cash on hand. Activate your 30 day free trialto unlock unlimited reading. Decisions Made As demand began to rise we saw that capacity utilization was now highest at station 1. The profit parameter was considered as an average. Littlefield Technologies Operations Littlefield Technologies was developed by Sunil Kumar and . Consequently, we lost revenues when the demand neared its peak. 217 Littlefield Technologies (LT) has developed another DSS product. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. We made many mistakes, but most importantly we have learned from. This work reports a laboratory experiment in which managerial performance in dynamic tasks is improved by improving the quality of decisions made in the context of a dynamic environment. We used to observe revenues. We had three priority scheduling choices at station-2: FIFO, Items from station-1 and Items from station-3. In March, April, and May will fire 4, 3, 3, employees respectively. At the same time, the queue in front of Station 2 was growing, which was odd as the machine was not completely utilized. . Overall I felt the Littlefield simulation to be an interesting cost leadership exercise with strong focus on the operations management. One focus of ours during this simulation was minimizing the cost of inventory orders and stock outs. Customer Demand (True/False). Copyright 2023 service.graduateway.com. In June we neither hire nor fire because our units of demand are covered. writing your own paper, but remember to There were three questions posed in our case study: What are the highest three unit profits? Your write-up should address the following points: A brief description of what actions you chose and when. Managing Customer Responsiveness Other solution was to set the EOQ and the reorder points close to the initial simulation starting levels. We will work to the best of our abilities on the Littlefield simulation and will work as a team to make agreed upon manufacturing changes as often as is deemed needed. In my opinion, I can purchase more machines in stations 1,, 2. This meant that machine 1 was not able to keep up with the incoming demand and lacked the proper capacity. By doing so we have a Gross profit of $1,125,189, |production increase. Even if negotiations succeeded, however, a binding treaty could not be ratified or implemented, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. Choose skilled expert on your subject and get original paper with free plagiarism As we will see later, this was a slight mistake since the interest rate did have a profound impact on our earnings compared to other groups. 5 Pennsylvania State University Capacity Management at Littlefield Technologies However, by that time, we had already lost huge revenues and the damage had been done. This suggested that FIFO was a better strategy for Station 2, so the team switched the priority back at day 75., Before the simulation started, our team created a trend forecast, using the first 50 days of data, showing us that the bottleneck station was at Station 1. Not a full list of every action, but the getting second place on the first Littlefield simulation game we knew what we needed to do to win the second simulation game. Our strategy was to keep track of each machines capacity and the order queue. This article summarizes the nine contributions to the symposium on system dynamics. highest profit you can make in simulation 1. We had huge inventories (12000) left at the end of the simulation. We bought additional machines at stations with high utilization rates in an attempt to relieve those bottlenecks. At s the end of this lifetime, demand will end abruptly and factory operations will be terminated. Another approach, which we could have followed for the decision-making could have been always decide the EOQ and ROP based on our demand-estimations and our own calculations. In the game, teams are . This study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on behavioral operational research (BOR), specifically discussing the potential of system dynamics (SD) models to analyze decision-making, 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'19), Game-based learning refers to the use of game thinking and mechanics to engage and motivate students in the learning process. Figure 1: Day 1-50 Demand and Linear Regression Model In September we fire 4 employees and October we fire 2 employees cutting our labor cost, but still reaching our unit demand. We wanted our inventory to drop close to zero to minimize overall holding costs, but never actually reach zero. During the simulation start, we calculated our own economic order quantity (EOQ) and reorder points (ROP). Do a proactive Inventory management during the simulation run. Lt Game 2 Strategy. 4 pages. 2 | techwizard | 1,312,368 | We had split the roles. We had split the roles. Doing this simulation review it will show just how to go about making these changes to save money. We decided to purchase an additional machine for station 1 because it was $10,000 cheaper, utilization was higher here, and this is where all the orders started. PMCs are different from traditional military contractors, which more often than not are referred to as defense contractors. We were asking about each others areas and status. By doing so, the labor costs are significantly reduced and the unit demand will be covered. DAYS Reflecting on the simulation exercise, we have made both correct and incorrect decisions. Eventually, demand should begin to decline at a roughly linear rate. to help you write a unique paper. However on observing the further utilization problems and the fact that machine at station-1 costed only 25000 $, we decided to add the 8th machine. Private military companies, in contrast to traditional military contractors provide both direct military services and security services. The company had excess space in the existing facility that could be used for the new machinery. We also changed the priority of station 2 from FIFO to step 4. Pharapreising and interpretation due to major educational standards released by a particular educational institution as well as tailored to your educational institution if different; Littlefield Technologies is an online factory management simulator program produced since 1997 by Responsive Learning Technologies for college students to use while taking business management courses. demand Whenever we observed the delays in lead-time management and results, we used to switch back to contract-2; our safe option not to miss on the customers lead-time promise and hence not to lose the revenues. Operations Policies at Littlefield Select Accept to consent or Reject to decline non-essential cookies for this use. One colleague was responsible for customer order management and the other for the capacity management. Littlefield Simulation Overview Presentation 15.760 Spring 2004 This presentation is based on: . We did not have any analysis or strategy at this point. Ending Cash Balance: $1,915,226 (6th Place) I will classify our approach as that of hit and trial. at Littlefield Technologies Spring 2007( It was quickly determined that the machine 1 was our bottleneck, as it was the only machine with 100% utilization and excess number of jobs in the queue. A detailed data analysis and how the game progressed. The goal of the symposium is to investigate how research in system dynamics is contributing to simulation-gaming, and how the more general field of simulation-gaming is influencing work in system dynamics. PMC personnel may be directly involved in combatant roles when the contract provides for the delivery of security services. A huge spike, in demand caused a very large queue at station 3 and caused our revenues to drop, significantly. Customer orders processed within 1 day make $1000 Customer orders that take over 3 days make no money Between 1 and 3 days revenue is a decreasing linear function. Marcio de Godoy Although orders arrive randomly to LT, management expects that, on average, demand will follow the trends outlined above. 193 Andres was forced to import product from French division as he ran out of capacity several times due to new machines performing inadequately. 7. These key areas will be discussed throughout the journal to express my understanding of the experience. Dont Customer demand continues to be random, but the expected daily demand will not change during the labs life span. The goal of the symposium is to investigate how research in system dynamics is contributing to simulation-gaming, and how the more general field of simulation-gaming is influencing work in system dynamics. 81 Its main interest is in creating a peaceful end to this conflict and ensuring that both sides are just in their actions. At this point, all capacity and remaining inventory will be useless, and thus have no value. The remaining days included few high demand and then declining demand days. TIA. 54 | station 1 machine count | 2 | Markowicz felt that he had a primary responsibility to the company to ensure that the production process runs smoothly at his plant, and after the first half of 2010, it reported profitable operations and net cash inflows from investing activities was positive for the first time in three years and had already reached $250,000 in just the first half of the year. Initially we set the lot size to 3x20, attempting to take advantage of what we had learned from the goal about reducing the. We've updated our privacy policy. However, when . By continuing well 2, In order to process this increase in units, we bought 2 machines for station 1, 3 machines for station 2, and 2 machine for station 3. Upon initial analysis of the first fifty days of operations, the team noticed that Station 1 had reached 100% utilization several times between days 40 and 50. This taught us to monitor the performance of the, machines at the times of very high order quantities when considering machine. Instant access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts and more. We nearly bought a machine there, but this would have been a mistake. Moreover, we also saw that the demand spiked up. After contract 3 was reached, our simulation flowed very well with the maximum amount of profit for almost the full remainder of the simulation. We also reorder point (kits) and reorder quantity (kits), giving us a value of 49 and 150., 66 | Buy Machine 3 | Both Machine 1 and 3 reached the bottleneck rate as the utilizations at day 62 to day 66 were around 1. Following, we used regression analysis to forecast demand and machine productivity for the remaining of the simulation. As sales continued to grow over the next few simulated weeks, the process was able to keep up with demand and the lead times stayed well below 1 day, confirming that the addition of this machine was the correct decision.. Demand is then expected to stabilize. 3. Littlefield Simulation Report. Finally, on day 150 we try an all in strategy spending $160.000 in 1 machine for station 1 and 2 to increase the capacity and to process jobs only on conditions of contract 3. This weeks key learning areas have been eye opening and worthwhile. Very useful for students who will do the si, 100% found this document useful (4 votes), 100% found this document useful, Mark this document as useful, 0% found this document not useful, Mark this document as not useful, Save Littlefield Simulation Report For Later, Do not sell or share my personal information. Our goal is to function as a reciprocal interdependent team, using each members varied skills and time to complete tasks both well and on time. Good teamwork is the key. 265 4 | beaters123 | 895,405 | Background My reasoning for using this strategy is that my products will be extremely useful and beneficial to its consumers; products like BIC and McDonalds are in extreme demand with the situation of todays economy. Overall results and rankings. This lasted us through the whole simulation with only a slight dip in revenue during maximum demand. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. Customer demand continues to be random, but the long-run average demand will not change over the product 486-day lifetime. We did not have any analysis or strategy at this point. View Assessment - Littlefield_1_(1).pptx from MS&E 268 at Stanford University. 57 With little time to waste, Team A began by analyzing demand over the first 50 days of operations in order to create a linear regression model to predict demand into the future in order to make critical operational decisions; refer to Figure 1. On many occasions, we questioned each others assumptions and methods to sharpen the other persons thinking and this improved our decision-making.