Monday, August 4, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Littlefield Technologies - Round 1
Round 1 of Littlefield Technologies was quite different from round 2. We started the game with no real plan in mind unlike round 2 where we formulated multiple strategies throughout the duration of the game. Starting off we could right away see that an additional machine was required at station 2 to handle the dual processing load from station one and three. We purchased a machine for station 2 as soon as we gained control over the factory. Looking back now I can see that this could have been a risky move had we purchased the machine for the wrong station. Luckily, station 2 seemed to be right choice as the queues at station 2 and 3 began to flush out and the number of jobs completed per day increased. We then proceeded to watch the game over the next couple of days making no big moves except for switching the priority of station two depending on the load at station 2 and 3.
However, despite the addition of the extra machine we seemed to be in a bad spot. A bottleneck started to build up at station 1 and our revenue per day dropped correspondingly. At that point we felt that it might be a little risky to purchase another machine for station 1 in case we could not recover the investment. So we decided to play it safe by continuing to monitor the queues. This did not work well for us. We continued to lag behind the other teams in last place for a couple of days. At this point we were at wits end trying to get out of the rut that we were stuck in. Finally Mark proposed that we go on the offensive and purchase another machine at station 1. The rest of us agreed since we were already in last place and could do no worse.
So we crossed our fingers and purchased another machine for station 1. The change was instantaneous. The bottleneck at station 1 was flushed out and the utilization dropped down. We slowly started to make more money than the other two teams. We continued to keep a very close watch on the factory and even more on the other teams. Mark and I had the game running at work all day long and I would watch the game for an hour each night before bed. All of us were addicted to the game and could not stop obsessing about it. In the end our obsession paid off when we finished in first place. It was extremely rewarding to finish first especially since we went through a frustrating period thinking we were going to finish last.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tools Used
We used an excel sheet to track our progress over the duration of the game. Having all data located in one place in a usable format enabled us to make fairly accurate predictions on demand and inventory consumption. You can find our inventory management tool here.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
LittleField Round 2
The second time through playing the Littlefield game was much more planned and the attention we gave the game much more deliberate. From the very get go we knew that our output was lower than demand.
Stage 1- We knew that the hang up was at both station 1 and station 3. The problem for us was deciding which we would purchase first, an addtional machine at station 1 or station 3. We chose station 3. Looking back I feel like this first move may have been our first mistake. In hindsight I probably would have bought an extra machine at station 1 first for the following reasons, 1) It was $10,000 cheaper, 2) utilization was slightly higher there and 3) it only makes sense because all orders have to start at station 1 so what's the use of increasing capacity at station 3 when we aren't producing enough kits further up the line.
Stage 2- Within a cycle or two of spending lots of money on kits and then making lots of money selling the kits under contract 1 we realized that contract 1 made very little money and that we would have to rely solely on contract 3 if we wanted to start tasking control of the game and maximizing or profitability. With this realization came the strategy to risk running out of inventory for the sake of getting another machine at station 3 so that we could produce a finished product in less than half a day and switch our contract over to contract 3. We set our reorder point on kits to 0 and calculated that we would have just enough to buy another machine at station 3 and just enough inventory left to get back into a rythm of buying more kits and making more money. Stage 2 was very successful and was a huge turning point for making money and making it quickly.
Stage 3- While the first two stages focused on doing what was best for us and making the most money we could in the least amount of time stage 3 was about planning how to keep our lead and our strategy working against the other two teams. One of the easy things to see within the game is when teams buy kits and buy machines. We had a good idea of how many machines and kits the other two teams had throughout the game. Our strategy was to stay within the same working capital as the other two teams so that we all looked like we had a shot of winning the game. But behind the scenes start stashing inventory away in small increments so that the other teams couldn't get a good sense of how we were using our money and that we had $100,000 to $200,000 worth of kits stashed away for a rainy day. The problem we encountered in stage 3 is that all of our numbers were shown to the other groups during class just 4 days into the ten-day game. Our whole strategy here was to keep our reorder point and amount of kits hidden. Soon after our numbers were revealed we saw that the other two teams started increasing the amount of kits they were ordering.
Stage 4- We realized on day 125 out of 390 days that we could plan how and when we would purchase kits for the rest of the entire game and then sit back the entire last week and wait for the results. Stage 4 had our team running hundreds of numbers and equations to find the average amount of kits moved per day, the average amount of money we made on contract 3, how many days we could run before reordering etc..... These numbers gave us a pretty precise schedule for ordering kits, keeping up inventory levels, slowly increasing our inventory levels and allowed us to purchase all the inventory we wold need for the rest fo the netire game by day 275. Satge 4 was probably our most successful stage in the game because we had good and meaningful numbers to work with that helped us to calculate within 3,000 kits exactly how much we would use over 265 days. The order points and order levels were accurate enough that we could set back for the entire last half of the game and still feel confident in a victory.
Stage 1- We knew that the hang up was at both station 1 and station 3. The problem for us was deciding which we would purchase first, an addtional machine at station 1 or station 3. We chose station 3. Looking back I feel like this first move may have been our first mistake. In hindsight I probably would have bought an extra machine at station 1 first for the following reasons, 1) It was $10,000 cheaper, 2) utilization was slightly higher there and 3) it only makes sense because all orders have to start at station 1 so what's the use of increasing capacity at station 3 when we aren't producing enough kits further up the line.
Stage 2- Within a cycle or two of spending lots of money on kits and then making lots of money selling the kits under contract 1 we realized that contract 1 made very little money and that we would have to rely solely on contract 3 if we wanted to start tasking control of the game and maximizing or profitability. With this realization came the strategy to risk running out of inventory for the sake of getting another machine at station 3 so that we could produce a finished product in less than half a day and switch our contract over to contract 3. We set our reorder point on kits to 0 and calculated that we would have just enough to buy another machine at station 3 and just enough inventory left to get back into a rythm of buying more kits and making more money. Stage 2 was very successful and was a huge turning point for making money and making it quickly.
Stage 3- While the first two stages focused on doing what was best for us and making the most money we could in the least amount of time stage 3 was about planning how to keep our lead and our strategy working against the other two teams. One of the easy things to see within the game is when teams buy kits and buy machines. We had a good idea of how many machines and kits the other two teams had throughout the game. Our strategy was to stay within the same working capital as the other two teams so that we all looked like we had a shot of winning the game. But behind the scenes start stashing inventory away in small increments so that the other teams couldn't get a good sense of how we were using our money and that we had $100,000 to $200,000 worth of kits stashed away for a rainy day. The problem we encountered in stage 3 is that all of our numbers were shown to the other groups during class just 4 days into the ten-day game. Our whole strategy here was to keep our reorder point and amount of kits hidden. Soon after our numbers were revealed we saw that the other two teams started increasing the amount of kits they were ordering.
Stage 4- We realized on day 125 out of 390 days that we could plan how and when we would purchase kits for the rest of the entire game and then sit back the entire last week and wait for the results. Stage 4 had our team running hundreds of numbers and equations to find the average amount of kits moved per day, the average amount of money we made on contract 3, how many days we could run before reordering etc..... These numbers gave us a pretty precise schedule for ordering kits, keeping up inventory levels, slowly increasing our inventory levels and allowed us to purchase all the inventory we wold need for the rest fo the netire game by day 275. Satge 4 was probably our most successful stage in the game because we had good and meaningful numbers to work with that helped us to calculate within 3,000 kits exactly how much we would use over 265 days. The order points and order levels were accurate enough that we could set back for the entire last half of the game and still feel confident in a victory.
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