Simulation -- Reflection Write Up

Global Supply Chain Management Simulation

Assignment Guidelines

Observations & Reflections

BEFORE completing the simulation, review this document to see what kind of information you should collect/write down. Consider ‘why’ your decisions worked (or didn’t). The five general topics are listed below, and these can be the ‘headers’ of your paper. Alternatively, you can record audio or video comments for each section (record over this document or use another screencapture package). Note the last section allows for you to paste a screenshot of your best run of the simulation.

Comment on your analysis and decisions regarding the following topics:

1. Phone Options

a. What criteria did you use to select options? What tradeoffs did you consider? What analyses did you conduct to support the options selections?

b. How are Models A and B different?

2. Forecasting

a. Which approach did you use for your annual forecasts? Why did you use this method? Did you like the results?

b. Did you use the same approach for each model of phone? Why or why not?

c. How did you use the forecasting information? How did you adjust your method over the simulation run(s)? Why?

3. Supplier Selection

a. How many suppliers did you use? Did you change this number over the four years?

b. What criteria did you use to select suppliers? What characteristics were most/least appealing? How did you determine if it was better/worse to use closer/farther suppliers?

c. How did you decide whether to spend more to reduce lead times?

d. How did your supplier selection decisions change? Why?

4. Production

a. How did you set initial production levels? How did you allocate the models across suppliers? How did you factor in carrying costs, capacity constraints, and/or lead times? Did you issue production change orders? Why or why not?

b. Which model had higher carrying costs? Which had higher stockout costs? How did this information affect your decision-making?

c. Did you invest in the Celldex shows? Why or why not? How did your thinking change year to year? Why?

5. Lessons Learned / Questions

a. What conclusions can you draw regarding forecasting? Or global supply chain design? Or adapting to new market information?

b. What information was most valuable? Least? What were the biggest challenges?

c. How might this apply to new electronics being introduced today? Do the lessons apply to other products, too?

6. Add a screenshot of your best performance here.