While the simulation shows you your firm’s current total capacity, you can use this calculations to predict the amount of bikes your firm can produce in upcoming years; work out if you need to reduce or increase your capacity or; question whether there is an imbalance between your factory and workers.
In MikesBikes your factory is most effective when the capacity of your workers is well matched to the capacity of your plant. If your Factory Workforce and your Plant Capacity get out of balance then it is likely they will not be working to their full potential (possibly costing your firm more than is necessary).
This equation allows you to emphasize one form of capacity over another depending on how each approach fits with your strategic plan. For instance, you can employ more workers immediately whereas you have to wait 12 months for new Plant to become available.
Just be aware that if your Factory Workforce Capacity and Plant Capacity favor one over the other too much then you might find this is inefficient. So check your Manufacturing Responsiveness report when deciding whether to employ more workers or to purchase more Plant.
How do I calculate my Total Capacity?
Example 1
Factory Workforce Capacity = 25,000 SCU and Plant Capacity = 25,000 SCU
Total Capacity = sqrt (25,000 * 25,000) = 25,000 SCU
Example 2
Factory Workforce Capacity = 35,000 SCU and Plant Capacity = 15,000 SCU
Total Capacity = sqrt (35,000 * 15,000) = 22,912 SCU
Example 3
Factory Workforce Capacity = 40,000 SCU and Plant Capacity = 10,000 SCU
Total Capacity = sqrt (40,000 * 10,000) = 20,000 SCU
Be sure to note that this total capacity won’t be completely what is available to you. Your factory faces inefficiencies (if you’re using MikesBikes-Advanced then this will be things like breakdowns, reworking, setup, raw materials stockout and training) which will mean you don’t get to use the full 100%. Check out the manufacturing guide for more information on how this will affect your decisions.
Designing a course requires professionals, topic experts, and a deep understanding of students’ needs. The long and short of it – course design takes time. Therefore, we are creating a series of articles on how select Smartsims clients employ business simulations to engage their students.
This article follows Professor Darl Kolb of the University of Auckland. Having utilized MikesBikes Advanced in both his undergraduate and post-graduate courses, Professor Kolb’s students often exclaim this is the highlight of their degree.
Professor Kolb truly embraces the concept of experiential learning by utilizing course activities which reflect real-world situations managers of a company may experience. Through role-play students adopt roles within a ‘management team’. Instructors will take up the role of ‘shareholders’ or ‘board of directors’ who the students are responsible to. Deeply ingrained within the course content, the simulation is entirely relevant to the student’s and their futures. This relevance inherent within the simulation is key to keeping the students engaged. Professor Kolb finds this metaphore also provides students a sense of purpose and develops their skills for real-life business situations.
How is the simulation structured in the course?
“We have put it right at the centre of the design so it begins early on and runs on throughout the course so there is no seperation, it is intertwined … Students are getting used to the simulation just as they are getting used to the course.”
– Professor Darl Kolb
Generally MikesBikes Advanced features two key phases; Single-Player and Multi-Player. The Single-Player practice round has students competing against a computer opponent where they can control moving back and forth between decision periods (which we term “rollovers”). This usually occurs over a two to three week period. Students then move onto the Multi-Player competition where student teams will be competing against each other for highest Shareholder Value.
Professor Kolb’s course is structured according to the following key events:
Single-Player practice phase
Resume Activity
Multi-Player competition phase
Reflections
Board Meetings
Group presentations
Final Shareholder Value
Single-Player Phase
“Students play the Single-Player to get orientated [with the simulation] just as if they were getting work experience to get this executive role we are going to give them.”
– Professor Darl Kolb
Professor Kolb introduces the course and the simulation together, ingraining into students that theory goes hand-in-hand with real-life business situations. Providing students with access to the Single-Player allows students to experience the simulation before they begin their simulation associated assignments.
Professor Kolb introduces the simulation to students in the first class and covers how the course will run. Outside of class time students will use the Single-Player for the first week aiming to gain the highest Shareholder Value they possibly can within a set number of rollovers (six to eight). Student’s best result in the Single-Player is included with their resume.
Resume Activity
Each student must submit a brief resume which includes past qualifications and/or experience which may be relevant to a position in the Management Team of their MikesBikes company, as well as their best Single-Player result. Professor Kolb then uses this information to assign students into teams of five, with an objective of splitting up those who performed well in the simulation and/or who bring previous business experience/qualifications. As part of this, Professor Kolb also assigns each student the role of either: CEO, Marketing Manager, Operations Manager, Finance Manager or Innovation Manager for their team (or ‘firm’). This application process helps students to develop the skills required to construct a resume and apply for a specific role they desire, often students will apply to particular roles they envisage for themselves after having completed their course.
Multi-Player Phase
“When their company begins performing we give them three practice rounds so they get to see the full MikeBikes-Advanced experience but they also get to restart and have another go in a different market. We have this stage to help students to come to grips with the complexity and the depth of the simulation.”
– Professor Darl Kolb
For the duration of the course, Professor Darl Kolb will continue with tying the simulation into the content he teaches. As a live case study, MikesBikes-Advanced provides him with a lot of opportunities to address specific events in the simulation by applying theory he chooses to present in class. With the simulation being applicable to each and every student, students find this content engaging and relevant.
Multi-Player Practice Round
The Multi-Player begins with four practice rollovers which occur weekly. This gives students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with their role and the team’s dynamics. It also enables students to, this course design starts students with a few practice rounds of the simulation. Letting students test strategies, make mistakes and learn from these. Students are bound to make mistakes and that is the nature of learning. This lets students make mistakes without affecting their grades later on. After the practice rollovers have been completed, the simulation then resets ready for students to begin with the real competition.
Multi-Player Competitive Round
The simulation is then reset ready for students to begin the real competition. Further rollovers are processed weekly. Over this phase Professor Kolb uses the activities below to facilitate real-world learning outcomes.
Reflections
At certain points throughout the course Professor Kolb assigns reflective exercises for students to complete. The most intense exercise for the individual students are the reflective essays; they require a combination of theory, personal experiences, introspection, and self-evaluation. Students are then graded upon their ability to describe their situations, their insight, and their ability to combine this with theory.
Board Meetings
Mid-simulation students engage in mock board meetings, where the Management Team (students in each group) must present to their board of directors (two or three faculty members). Students summarize their strategy, goals, and performance. Board members challenge students on the reasoning behind their decisions and remind them of their responsibilities to shareholders in future decision periods. This is potentially an activity which students can be graded on.
Group Presentations
After the final rollover each Management Team presents their simulation journey to the class. This is an opportunity to reflect on what went well, what mistakes were made, what they would they have done differently and what their learning outcomes have been.
Final Shareholder Value
Teams are ranked at the end of the simulation based on their Shareholder value. This is Smartsims’ recommended key performance indicator.
How does Professor Kolb grade the simulation?
Professor Kolb’s course content focuses on managing people and organizations. As such, although students are graded on final shareholder value, the majority of their course grade is assigned to reflections, board meetings and group presentations as mentioned above.
Is this the only way to design a course with MikesBikes Advanced?
Far from it! This is only one article in a series which explains various different ways other instructors are including the simulation within their business courses. There are multiple ways on how to incorporate a simulation beyond this too! The options are limitless.
Want to get started incorporating the simulation into your course design? Want to learn more? The Smartsims Team have years of experience and are here to help. Click here to talk to them about your course and how you would like to implement MikesBikes.
Course instructors love Smartsims Business Simulations because they:
Brings business terms, concepts and processes to life
Students are actively engaged
Complements course content
It’s an exciting and rewarding teaching experience
Applicability to the real world
“Best experience of my university career”
Detailed, interactive and easy-to-use interface
Smartsims support through every step
Smartsims are a pioneer in the industry. We have been involved in education through simulation for over 20 years. Our simulations are used by Universities, Colleges, and High Schools; as well as Corporate Training and Certification Courses. Each year our simulations are used in close to 20 countries worldwide, and in the last decade we’ve had over 300,000 people use our simulations. Our customers come back year after year, and some have even won awards for the use of our simulations in their courses.
Smartsims Business Simulations are flexible in their integration, from complementing an existing course structure, through to being the central feature of a course, or even as an exciting way to end your course. Our business simulations have been integrated into a variety of courses ranging from those at an undergraduate level such as Introduction to Business, Principles of Marketing and Advertising, through to Business Strategy/Capstone, General Business, Management Accounting, Organizational Behavior, MBA and Certification Courses for Professional Institutions.
Apart from the easy to use nature of our simulations, one of the most significant points of difference with our product offering is the world class customer support. We have worked with institutions with as many as 3,000 users in single sessions, to others running 1,000 plus students spread over multiple campuses, right down to a single 15 student sections. We take care of course setup, and management of your simulation is easy with our completely automated system.
Our team are here to help and we have in-house specialists who can advise with course design requirements to fit a simulation into a new or existing course.
For a no obligation demo or free quote contact us.
The video above will run you through the offline mode; what it is and how to launch it within all of our simulations. Please do note that some courses have the offline mode disabled, in which case you won’t have the option of launching an offline mode to test your Multi-Player decisions.
We have provided you with the text of the video for you below:
“Our simulations feature an offline mode which allows you to test your Multi-Player decisions through it. This video will first run through how you can launch an offline mode and following this I will discuss the limitations of the offline mode.
Now we will show you how to launch your offline firm. Please do note that some instructors have chosen to have the offline mode disabled for your course.
When you login to the Smartsims website and navigate to the simulation page, you will see a blue launch button and also an Offline button under the Multi-Player heading. Clicking on the blue button launches your live firm and clicking on the offline button launches an offline version of your firm where you can test the quality of your decisions. You are able to rollover to try out different options and strategies before you finalise your decision for that period.
The offline mode has several limitations to it, so bear these in mind.
In offline mode, your competitors use only their default decisions so it is important you don’t read too much into the results. For instance in Offline Mode you might launch new products into empty markets and do very well due to the lack of competition. But if you use those same decisions in the live Multi-Player, you could do poorly if the other firms choose to launch new products at the same time. Always think about what might happen if your competitors were to do something differently.
Decisions in Offline Mode are not saved back to your Multi-Player firm, so if you like the decisions you made, you should copy/paste the Current Decisions report into an Excel file, and re-enter the decisions by launching your live firm.
Now try using Offline Mode yourself, and feel free to email help@smartsims.com if you have any questions.”
Rezyl, Jaya and Maria (pictured above) form the team “Aether Bikes” from King’s Own Institute, Australia. While competing with other teams within their course (taught by Rex Walsh), Aether Bikes managed to achieve First Place within our MikesBikes-Intro Top 20 Hall of Fame!
Why is this significant? What does it mean?
Our Hall of Fame historically compiles the top 20 Shareholder Value results from firms played by students in courses worldwide. This means Aether Bikes beat every other team within our database. Considering our database includes hundreds of other firms and thousands of other students, for them to beat every single one of them is quite a feat in itself! It is fair to say this team had quite a good grip and understanding of business as a whole.
For those not in the know, Shareholder Value is the main Key Performance Indicator used within MikesBikes. Further, a rollover is the simulation’s way of showing a progression in time.
How did Aether Bikes achieve this?
“We found MikesBikes-Intro very competitive and engaging.
We adapted our strategy based on the current situation of the market and our competitor’s actions. In doing so, we made sure to keep track of all the Key Reports in the simulation, such as the Industry Benchmark Report and Market Summary (All Product Details) report. In addition to that, we have also made sure to read the Player’s Manual and watch all the videos available in the website.
The competition started out steady, but as time progressed, it got more competitive than we had anticipated. It became more difficult to come up with a plan that will differentiate our firm from others, as our decisions and strategy were quite similar to our competitors. What helped us on this were the resources available in the website, such as the manuals, videos and the key reports in the simulation.”
What advice did Aether Bikes have for other students?
“We would like to advice future students to read the manuals and watch the videos available in the website. These are very helpful in understanding the game. It’s also important to look at what your competitors are doing by utilizing the reports available. We strongly advice students to take advantage of the Single-Player, as this will better prepare them for the Multi-Player part of the simulation.”
Aether Bikes’ final comments:
“We believe that Smartsims has developed a great program in providing a real-world business experience. We have learnt and gained extensive knowledge about business, and how to run a company, just like in the real world. We would like to thank Smartsims for their efforts and our lecturer, Rex Walsh for being supportive and for providing us with helpful advice.”
There’s a social media trend that’s been going on for quite a while now, where you post old photos or memories from the past to share among your friends. Along with the photo is your caption, for which you will add either #FlashbackFriday, #TBT, #ThrowbackThursday or both if you wish. These hashtags denote that your photo is a “blast from the past.” This trend is the theme of our article and today’s piece is certainly a major #TBT. Continue reading Flashback to MikesBikes Way Back When→
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think”
– Albert Einstein
Instructors have felt the pull away from traditional teaching methods such as pure theory and case studies thanks to technological advancements in ICT and education. The student of today has been raised in an environment of connectivity with access to PCs, laptops, smartphones, and phablets. It is a part of their social context (Canaleta, Vernet, Vicet & Montero, 2009). Technology has permeated into everything we do, shaping our minds and affecting the way we teach (Carr, 2010). Today’s student may be inseparable from technology in itself (Canaleta et al., 2009; Woollaston, 2013); it is then fair to say their learning environment naturally requires ICT for any form of meaningful engagement. Not only in education but in daily life, the consumer and the student seek to gain a more active role within their environment (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). Teaching methods therefore are moving away from the student as a passive learner, limited to taking notes and listening. Emerging from this is a new focus on learning surrounding the students actively constructing their own knowledge (Canaleta, Vernet, Vicent & Montero, 2009) and the instructor fulfilling the role of facilitator.As facilitators, the instructors’ role changes from simply distributing facts and theories to allowing the construction of a student experience. This is consistent with increasingly popular experiential learning theories purported by scholars such as Kolb (1984). With this in mind, it is easy for us then to state that online applications like business simulations rightfully occupy a pivotal place in learning environments.
Benefits of Business Simulations
Business simulations allow students and instructors to interact meaningfully. Further, by making various decisions for their simulated firm, students are tasked with transferring learned knowledge from class into a relevant and new scenario which is a requirement for engaging and memorable learning (Dirkx, 2001).
Stumpf and Dutton (1990) recognised that simulations resonate on both cognitive and emotional levels. Students gain the ability to apply learnt theory in action, validating that what they studied is relevant and applicable in the real world. At the same time, they develop communication and analytic skills which will be relevant to their future careers. On the other side of the spectrum, facilitators often feel that they made a positive difference to students’ learning, which is both relevant and required in today’s business world.
Anderson’s (2009) framework outlines three major outcomes from business simulation and cognitive learning:
Learning – Students gain first-hand experience of how business management decisions are interrelated. (e.g. how marketing decisions can affect manufacturing or finance decisions). Executing these concepts themselves, students learn skills such as:
Performing under pressure;
Analyzing environments to develop and implement a business plan;
Collaborating with teammates and managing conflict; and
Reflecting upon their performance and identifying areas of improvement to fare better.
The desired learning outcomes of a course are a major factor in the decision of whether or not to incorporate it as part of the course. Over several decades, scholars such as Bloom (1959) and; Gentry and Burns (1981) have provided descriptions of learning and the assessment process:
Cognitive Domain: Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives
Learning Objective
Description of Learning
Assessment Process
Basic Knowledge
Student recalls or recognises information
Answering direct questions/tests
Comprehension
Student changes information into a different symbolic form
Ability to act on or process information by restating his or her own terms
Application
Student discovers relationships, generalizations, and skills
Application of knowledge to simulated problems
Analysis
Student solves problems in light of conscious knowledge of relationships between components and the principle that organizes the system
Identification of critical assumptions, alternatives and constraints in a problem situation
Synthesis
Student goes beyond what is known, providing new insights
Solution of a problem that requires original, creative thinking
Evaluation
Student develops the ability to create standards of judgement, weigh and analyze
Logical consistency and attention to detail
Source: Bloom, Englehart, Furst, Hill & Krathwohl, as cited in Anderson & Lawton, 2009.
“It is our cognitive comprehension that allows us to adapt to what we have learnt in one situation to other situations”
– Anderson (2009, p. 199)
Attitudinal – Students engaging in the simulated learning experience gaining an appreciation for business and its nuances. The experience leads to applying learnt concepts to make effective decisions, leading to higher academic/executive performance. How does the engagement start? In his 2015 article, Gove identified that the reason simulations are able to hold learner attention is because they are immersive! Students have to navigate a complex environment and make decisions for interrelated functional areas. This complexity creates a need for students to actively engage with their simulated exercise on multiple levels such as product level, firm level and market level.
Behavioural – Tying in with student attitudes are their behaviours. As immersive as the backdrop of simulations are, they are competitive and instil in students, motivation to succeed and outperform their peers. Add to the fact that they are in a safe, risk-free environment, and you have the makings of a structure where students are willing to spend their time and energy to make well-informed and competitive decisions.
To summarize, as technology became prevalent, so did our ability to co-opt it as a method of teaching and learning. Online applications like business simulations have benefits like allowing teachers to become advisors and moderators in their own classrooms. Meanwhile, student minds are trained how to think, adapt attitudes and behave competitively to succeed in business decision making.
Contact us if you would like more information on simulations or access to a free demo account.
This video will demonstrate how to modify an existing product in MikesBikes Advanced.
This is done by: 1) Creating a new design; and then 2) Applying the new design to an existing product.
Navigate to the Design and Development Menu and click on the New button. Name the project you can identify it, specify Style and Tech specs based on consumer preferences, allocate a prime cost, and allocate an expenditure figure. Once done, Apply your decision.
A project only becomes available to use after one period in the simulation. After a processed rollover, navigate to the Products Screen, click on the Product you wish to modify, and then click on the Modify button. Click on the newly created project, and then Apply. This completes the process of successfully modifying an existing product.
There are many reasons you should consider implementing experiential learning in the form of business simulations in your business course. Here at Smartsims we consider the following to be the best.
Information Retention: Students are 80% more likely to retain the information as students are actively learning rather than listening, reading or writing about a concept.
Students have fun and learn from real-world experience.
They are learning entrepreneurial, managerial and overall business skills in a no-risk environment where you can guide students to success.
Students will be thinking competitively and are exposed to questions like:
“What would happen if I implemented this strategy in a real-world company?”
“What unexpected effects will these decisions have?”
“What are the consequences of different strategies?”
As the environment is competitive, just like the marketplace they will eventually move into, students learn that in business they will also need to consider the other firms in the market and adjust their strategy as the simulation progresses.
Smartsims Business Simulations are used in a variety of courses ranging from undergraduate level such as Introduction to Business and Principles of Marketing and Advertising, through to Business Strategy/Capstone, General Business, Management Accounting, Organizational Behavior, MBA and Certification Courses for Professional Institutions.
Anthony McCollum (above), a student at Ohio State University, achieved quite an amazing feat with the support of Professor Livengood. Anthony took 15th place in our Top 20 Hall of Fame for MikesBikes-Advanced in only six rollovers with a Shareholder Value of $977.18.
Why is this significant? What does it mean?
Our Hall of Fame historically compiles the top 20 Shareholder Value results from firms played by students in courses worldwide. This means Anthony beat hundreds of other firms and thousands of other students to take out 15th place and only with 6 rollovers! Most other entrants have achieved their results with 7 or 8 rollovers – who knows what Anthony could have achieved if his course had 2 more rollovers
For those not in the know, Shareholder Value is the main Key Performance Indicator used within MikesBikes. Further, a rollover is the simulations way of showing a progression in time.
How did Anthony achieve this?
Smartsims sent him an email asking to share his story for others to learn from. Here is his response:
“My strategy for my business, Bykes 4 Sail, was to be very aggressive.
From the very start, I spent a great deal of money advertising and increasing the quality of my bikes. I expanded into new bike groups as fast as I financially could, but not so fast that I was spreading myself too thin. I even took out a loan within the first couple years, so I had more capital with which to expand.
Once I was established in a certain bike group, I would learn from my competitors and use that to my advantage. I would increase the quality of my bikes, increase advertising, or adjust my price, all according to what my competitors had done, and what I expected them to do.
Other little details that I experimented with also seemed to make a large impact on my success. Those include finding the perfect number of employees, buying an appropriate amount of SCU ahead of time, and spending the right amount on preventative maintenance, all of which made my manufacturing process more efficient.
I was able to keep track of all of my decisions by keeping a detailed log, which helped immensely. Overall, I learned that each part of the business is equally important. Without one area running as efficiently as the others, success will be hard to find.”
What advice did Anthony have for future students?
“The best and fastest way to learn is to experiment. Try different strategies, even if you don’t think they will work. After all, I thought I was being irrational with some of my decisions when I found what worked for me.”
Business Simulations are the best environment for you to experiment with strategies and concepts learned in class! They are a safe environment where you can safely fail without any real world consequences so learn by doing. Go, play the simulation and learn!
