A flexible web-based simulation game for production and logistics management courses

This study develops a flexible simulation game environment called SIMPLE (Simulation of Production and Logistics Environment) in order to raise teaching effectiveness and improve classroom teaching in emerging production paradigms. Instructors can tailor SIMPLE by simply setting the appropriate parameters. SIMPLE can thus be adopted at various teaching stages to teach different major business concepts, such as inventory management, capacity management, pricing determination and negotiation, and information-sharing between players. Meanwhile, SIMPLE was employed in two courses to evaluate the degree of students' acceptance of using SIMPLE in classrooms. The results also showed that SIMPLE was generally well received by students. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.