simulations & games

The Beer Game

The Forum seeks to ensure that the principles of supply chain management are easy to understand and applicable to everyday business issues.

To this end, MIT produced the widely used Beer Game in 1960.

Developed initially as a teaching tool, the game has been used all over the world, and at all levels in government, industry and education. Its success is testament to the use of basic yet important principles that it teaches and their value. To a certain extent, they are universal ideas and as such can be used in some form in all areas of business.

The game tests human reactions to certain events or business issues and what our strategy in solving them is. So universal, valuable, and easy to use — perhaps this explains the game’s success!

The Procurement Game

The MIT Procurement Game provides a platform to experiment with procurement auctions. This platform allows players to take the roles of a single buyer and multiple suppliers. Suppliers compete on price and flexibility and the buyer contracts with one or more suppliers to maximize expected profit.

The game allows instructors teaching Operations Management or Supply Chain Management courses to demonstrate the importance of portfolio contracts as well as the impact of a multi–attribute competition among suppliers.