Supply chain education-The contribution of gamification

Supply Chain Management is taught in many business and Industrial Engineering programs. In this paper we present our experience in using gamification in several university courses in this domain. More importantly, we present gamification design principles. In these courses we used the Supply Chain Simulator (SCS)-A new and innovative web based computer gaming/simulation application. Its goal is to enable students to gain a better understanding of supply chain management by providing a gaming oriented, virtual environment experience, enabling the simulation of a large variety of realistic and pragmatic situations. The instructor can build an unlimited number of scenarios. Students learn how to simultaneously consider diverse supply chain aspects such as costs, ordering policies, transportation modes, capacity, and uncertainty. Advanced students learn how to design and develop supply chain scenarios based on real or imaginary situations. This training approach using simulation has already been used to bring gamification into a number of courses and the students' satisfaction has been consistently positive. Gamification develops students' analytical abilities in conjunction with providing tangible experience in handling practical potential challenges in a fun gaming environment. We argue that gamification tools should be focused on a single domain and allow wide modelling flexibility within this domain.