Contributions to Conferences

Enhancing the Student`s Learning on Supply Chain Management through the Application of a Business Game

Abstract

Globalisation, shorter product life-cycles, and time to market force companies to cooperate in order to stay competitive. This trend has been seen for decades, and much research has focused on trying to understand the needs and requirements of efficient and effective supply chains. Supply chain management has also been an educational topic throughout several business schools. However, such courses focus mostly on research findings than on actual practice, which leads to an educational gap. Students gain theoretical knowledge, but hardly apply it. An approach that seeks to reduce this gap is the use of business games in education. Games offer students the opportunity to experiment in a safe environment in order to gain knowledge that can be transferred later to the real world. This article reports on the results of a workshop that employed a simulation game for decision making in supply chain management offered to post-graduate students enrolled in a supply chain management course.