Longtail in Media

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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.