JACKET FACTORY Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 22, 1995 1 JACKET FACTORY Teviah Estrin, University of Windsor Wilfred Innerd, University of Windsor Jeffrey Kantor, University of Windsor ABSTRACT Jacket Factory is a board game designed to introduce High School students to the practice of Management Accounting. Using dice and game pieces, students manage the manufacture of different kinds of jackets using different kinds of manufacturing processes. Risks are represented by rolls of the dice and also by Risk Cards. Costs, including Occupancy, capacity, Materials, Conversion and loans, and also revenues are tracked by means of Cost Management Sheets. The relationship to the real world of business is stressed at all times. Winning may mean staying in the game as well as making the most money. GAME DESCRIPTION The Jacket Factory is a board game originally designed for High School students, but which has also achieved some success with second year university Accounting students. The idea of the game is to introduce and familiarize students with cost management principles and practices. It is played on a game board consisting of three separate leaves with squares arranged around their rims and a central selling area. Teams of two or three players, who may have differentiated roles, are asked to manage the manufacturing of three different kinds of jackets: nylon, denim or leather, each of which incurs different levels of cost, and sells for different prices. There are two different types of manufacturing pro- cess available, manual or automated of which automated is the most expensive. In addition, teams may choose to outsource production, which is the least expensive kind of manufacturing, but which incurs penalties in that selling of finished goods may be delayed. The costs which teams must manage include: Occupancy, Capacity, Materials and Conversion. These costs are represented by blocks of different colors, which are stacked upon each other in a limited number of configurations. When a particular configuration is completed, it represents a certain number of finished goods. The costs are further described as Period or Product Costs. Risk is represented in the game, by the rolling of three dice, which govern the movement of the stacks of blocks around the game board, and by Risk Cards, which describe various liabilities and benefits which may be incurred. Each team begins with $2,000,000 and may borrow additional funds in $1,000,000 amounts at various rates of interest. Teams must keep track of all costs and revenues, and record them on the Cost Management Sheet provided. DISCUSSION Jacket factory is essentially a strategy game, but one in which no one strategy will always succeed. This is because the decisions that each team makes will always be influenced by the decisions that other teams make, as well as by the roll of the dice. Each stack of blocks, except for the Outsourced stacks, must be assembled in order, Occupancy, Capacity, Materials and Conversion Costs. The rules of the game and the layout of the board make it quite difficult to do so. One underlying principle of the design was that the game should reflect as far as possible the real world. In so far as things are not easy in the real world of business, so are they in the game. One of the most interesting aspects of the game has been the way in which the players, after only a few times playing the game, come to accept the realism of the game. A noted Management Accountant attended one of the game sessions and challenged one of the young players on his choice of Manual production of leather jackets and suggested that he would be better off going in to Automated production. The young man gave him a withering glance and said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. The period costs would kill you.” We think of this as an example of learning from the inside. Initially, the players are absorbed in learning how to play and win, and have little concern for what any of the pieces on the board actually represent. There comes a time, however, usually at a point of frustration, that is when a particular strategy proves unsuccessful, when players begin to realize and accept, that the game has a reality of its own and that that reality in some measure represents the reality of the real world of business. It is then that the players become more like students and begin trying to understand the terminology, the principles and the strategies Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 22, 1995 144 embodied in the game. Although it is quite possible to determine a winner in the game simply by counting the dollars each team possesses at the end of the game, there is also an important message being communicated to the effect that all players who do become bankrupt can be said in some measure to be also winners. Merely staying in business is a measure of success and we believe it is important for students to learn that being number one, or the only winner, is not the only way to determine success in the field of business. The next step in the development of the game is to further test it with teams from about forty High Schools and subsequently to distribute it widely among High School throughout the Province of Ontario. The original impetus for the game came from the Society of Management Accountants of Ontario who wished to find ways to attract more students in to business, in to university Business Schools and eventually in to management accounting. The game had to be interesting and exciting and fun to play. In these regards our beta testing tells us we have succeeded admirably. Our next step it to pay more attention to its possible uses in university courses, where the potential seems to be quite high. Table of Contents Volume 22, 1995 Simulation Performance, Learning and Struggle Are Good Simulation Performers Consistently Good? Cognitive and Behavioral Consistency in a Computer-Based Marketing-Simulation-Game Environment: An Empirical Investigation of the Decision-Making Process Chalk & Cheese: Executive Short-Course vs. Academic Simulations Revisiting Personality Bias in Total Enterprise Simulations Are Good Strategies Consistently Good? Investigating the Use of a Computer Simulation as an Effective Pedagogical Tool for the Application of a Strategic Model The Problem of determining an Individualized Simulation's Validity as an Assessment Tool A Simulation Based Analysis of the Value of Information in the Hrebiniak Joyce Typology of Adaptation Relative to Porter's Generic Strategies The Impact of Sales and Income Growth on Profitability and Market Measures in Actual and Simulated Industries A Comparison of a Stand Alone Version of a Simulation with the Traditional Competitive Version Computer-Assisted Gaming of International Business Analyzing Simulations with Computer-Based Programs and Applying the Experience to a Real-World Business A Preliminary Investigation of the Use of a Bankruptcy Indicator in a Simulation Environment Graduates' Views on the Use of Computer Simulation Games Versus Cases as Pedagogical Tools An Analytical Advertising Model Approach to the Determination of Market Demand Dealing with the Complexity Paradox in Business Simulation Games A Prototyping Approach for Incorporating Large Data Bases into Media Planning Simulations: An Example Using Magazine Media Through the Looking Glass, Inc: Superior-Subordinate Personality Type and the Leniency effect Evaluating the Effectiveness of Role Playing Simulation and Other Methods in Teaching Managerial Skills Student and Teacher Perceptions of a Management Simulation Course Performance Evaluation: The Effect on the Propensity to Create Budgetary Slack Management Team Formation for Large Scale Simulations Comparative Static Analysis with the Complete PPA Package: A Strategic Market Planning Tool Consistency in Intent: Learning Objectives at the 1994 Intercollegiate Business Policy Competition A New Twist on an Old Game: The Business Strategy Game: A Global Industry Simulation 3ed Evaluation of Performance in Management Simulation: A Management Coefficients Model Building SimuWorlds: Strategic Management Games of the Future Bulls and Bears: A Stock Market Simulation A Systems Thinking Paradigm and Think Computer Simulation Model of Broadcast and Cable Television Industry Competition Jacket Factory The Sales Management Simulation The Marketing Management Simulation A Demonstration of Promodel Demonstrating A New, Cross-Functional Business Simulation: Vision+ A Cost Chain For The Business Strategy Game Simulation Special Session On Experiential Teaching Compensation Dilemmas: An Exercise In Ethical Decision-Making Organizational Storytelling: Telling Tales In The Business Classroom Evaluating Experiential Training: Case Study And Recommendations The Internship Portfolio: An Innovative Tool For Experiential Learning, Critical Thinking, And Communication An Ethnographic Analysis Of The Pedagogical Impact Of Cooperative Communicating Consumer Behavior: A Long-Term Integrated Exercise Using Personal Consumption Journals And Consumer Analysis Papers An Experiential Paradigm For Teaching Business Problem Solving Developing Leadership Skills The Spss® Student Assistant: The Integration of A Statistical Analysis Program Into A Marketing Research Textbook Negotiating With Your Students Using TQM Principles To Transform Accounting Systems Into An Experiential Exercise Enhancing The Effectiveness Of Outdoor-Based Experiential Training Using Virtual Reality Concepts Case Writing In A Developing Country: An Indonesian Example Experiential Learning Using Focus Groups How Real Should Experiential Pedagogy Be? A Viewpoint From Our Students Reengineering The Internship: A New Approach To Experiential Learning Utilizing The Cosmopolitan/Local And Marginal Man Constructs To Measure Students' Propensity For Creativity Developing Experiential Processes For Teaching Quantitative Techniques For Business Team Learning Roles: A Cooperative Learning Technique Creating the Ultimate Small Business Student Experience: Melding Score/Ace with SBI The Development of Trust in Work Teams: The Impact of Touch Some Outcomes of Experiential Learning: How the Cultural Dynamics of Different Countries are reflected in Workplace Norms & Values Incorporation of Job Analysis Results in Various Forms of Selection Interviews Chudesno, Inc.: An Evaluation of an Experiential Training and Development Simulation An Exercise for Exploring the Relationship between Jungian Psychological Types and Organizational Dynamics Partnership: A Radical Approach to Experiential Learning Partnership: A Nice Idea, But How Do I Get Started? Recognizing Discrimination at Work Using Critical Incident Skills Questions to Help Students Become More Successful at Job Interviewing The Video Project Introduction to Psychological Type Theory Come On Down Understanding Facilitation for Development and Continuous Learning: A Micro-Workshop Leadership and Empowerment: An Experiential Exercise in Decision Making Experiential Exercises and Pedagogy Track Workshop: Selecting a Manager for Maquiladora, Inc. Experiential Training In Multi-Cultural Corporate Settings The Role of Facilitation as an Aid to Complete Learning An Experiential Exercise to Illustrate Difference in Information Processing Behaviors and Styles How to Deliver Accessible Survey Results Age Diversity in the Workplace- Family Feud Style Nafta Standoff: A Cross-Cultural negotiating Role-Play Three Strikes and You're Out!: A Downsizing Experiential Exercise