A DMEONSTRATION OF PRODUCT QUALITY IN A BUSINESS SIMULATION, VERSION 2 OF CEO Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 19, 1992 239 A Demonstration of Product Quality in a Business Simulation: Version 2 of CEO Precha Thavikulwat, Towson State University ABSTRACT CEO is a flexible and powerful business gaming-simulation that is administratively facile. Version 2 of CEO incorporates product quality by allowing for defective products, enabling participants to apply principles of classical statistical control and Shingo’s zero quality control. Competitive analysis is aided by the tracking, tabulating, and plotting of market transactions. At full power, CEO is especially suitable for assessing business education. OVERVIEW CEO (Thavikulwat, 1 991) is a business gaming-simulation flexible enough for any setting where a business gaming- simulation would be suitable. It is designed for the business educator who wants a powerful game that will be distinguished in any assignment, without being administratively time consuming. Of its many unique features, those that enable this flexibility are as follows: • It can be played as a functional game, as a total enterprise game, or as a total economy game. • It can be configured by the instructor to emphasize learning by discovery, by perseverance, or by competition (Thavikulwat, 1988). • It can be played in three modes: independent, batch, and continuous. • It can be played in phases, with parameters changing between phases (Thavikulwat, 1991). • It can supply a score for each participant, in addition to a score for each firm. • It incorporates a real market (Thavikulwat, 1 990), in addition to a modeled market. • Although it can run on stand-alone, 256k, modestly IBM-compatible machines, it also can take advantage of the file-sharing capabilities of microcomputer networks. • It includes a task-switching program enabling it to reside in computer memory simultaneously with a spreadsheet program, or any other supporting program. • It includes configuration programs allowing the instructor to reconfigure the simulation safely and easily. Once configured and set up, CEO becomes largely self- administering. Participants process their own inputs and outputs, relieving the instructor of this burden. File encryption, automatic backups, and consistency checks assure system integrity Version 2 of CEO incorporates product quality by allowing for defective products (Thavikulwat, this issue). These defective products arise from causes that the administrator can set, and that participants can discover through experimentation and analysis. Products can be inspected by a continuous sampling p130. Defective products depress demand in the simulation’s modeled market and have a caveat emptor impact on its real market. Production can be configured in either teach mode or test mode. In teach mode, statistics on defect rates are supplied to participants, rendering statistical inference unnecessary. In test mode, these statistics are not supplied. The simulation is pre-configured to start with teach mode, and automatically advance into test mode. Consumption in the real market can be configured for either the informed variant or the uninformed variant. Informed, participants-as-consumers are given the defect rates of products offered for sale. Uninformed, defect rates are not given, but can be estimated by sampling purchases. Principles of both classical statistical quality control and Shingo’s (1986) zero quality control can be applied. Omega transformation of defect rates is supplied to aid the use of Taguchi (Ross, 1 988) methods. Competitive analysis is aided by a MARKET program that tabulates market transactions and plots product quality, volume, and market growth on relative market shares. A database of all real market transaction is available for analysis. SUITABILITY FOR ASSESSMENT CEO is especially suited for assessing business education. It is flexible, comprehensive, objectively scoring, and largely self-administering. At full power, it is a total economy simulation that accepts a virtually unlimited number of participants and firms, all of which can be active at different times and can advance at different rates. It permits interdependent competition between more educated and less educated participants, so that the abilities of the latter may be assessed with respect to those of the former. STATEMENT I authored CEO, and have used it extensively in teaching business policy and strategic management. CEO is built on MANAGEMENT 500 (Thavikulwat, 1 989), a simulation for production and operations management, and includes all its features. Version 1 of CEO (Thavikulwat, 1 991) is in print. Version 2 is undergoing review. A copy of CEO together with the instructor’s manual can be obtained by calling McGraw-Hill at 800-338-398]. I will send Version 2 supplements upon request (Department of Management, Towson State University, Towson. MD 2 1204-7097; e-mail e7b3tha@towsonvx.bitnet; phone 1w] 410-830-3230, [h] 410-8288353; fax 410-830-3236). REFERENCES Ross, P. J. 11988), Taguchi techniques for quality engineering, NY: McGraw-Hill. Shingo, 5. (1986), Zero quality control: Source inspection and the poka-yoke system. Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press. Thavikulwat, P. (this issue), “Product quality in business simulations,” Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises. Thavikulwat, P. (1 991). CEO: A business simulation to,’ policy and strategic management. NY’ McG raw-Hill. Thavikulwat, P. (1991), “Operationalizing strategy with participant-modifiable parameters,” Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, 18, 147, Thavikulwat P. 1990) ‘Consumption as the objective in computer scored total enterprise simulations,” Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, 1 7, 167-1 69. Thavikulwat, P. (1 989), Management 500: A business simulation for production and operations management. NY: McG raw-Hill. Thavikulwat, P. 11988) “Emphasizing different modes of learning through a configurable business simulation game,” Simulation & Games, 19, 408-414. Table of Contents Volume 19, 1992 The Pedagogical Utility of a Management Simulation Game in a Business Policy Course Modeling Economic Environments in Business Simulations: Some Comparisons and Recommendations Experiential Learning and TQM Principles: Teaching Behavioral Science in a Business School The Use of Poster Presentations as a Final Project in the Business Policy Course The Device Business: A Management Simulation for Strategy Formulation The Advantages of Experiential learning in the Auditing curriculum A Framework for the Identification of Moderated and Mediated Performance consequences of Pedagogical Alternatives Simulating Qualitative Research Relating to Values and Lifestyle Segmentation A New Market Demand Model for Business Simulators Interactive Optimization Using the Method of Relative Improvement Preferences: Methodology and Empirical Evaluation The Service Trainer Simulation Benefits of Internet Computer Networks for ABSEL Members How Should We Measure Experiential Learning? An Assessment of Simulation Usage in Management Accounting Courses The Influence of Myers-Briggs Type and Group Dynamics on Simulation Performance Effective Leadership Behavior in the Desert Storm Arena: An Application of the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model Installing and Consolidating Work-Team Values: The Effects of a Multicultural Outdoors Experiential Program Key Determinants and Decision performance in a Business Simulations and Experiential Learning environment Multi-Cultural Experiential Learning: A Computer Simulation in Indonesia Attitudes Toward and Emotions Related to Women as Managers: A Replication and Beyond Scenario Approach to Simulating Consumer Expenditures: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Insights into Ethical Decision making Activities and Organizational Performance: A Management Simulation Analysis of College Students and Managers Evaluating a Business Simulation Program for Joint Venture Negotiation and Management Teaching Business Interviewing Strategies with an Experiential Approach Cooperative Learning Across the Business Curriculum Modeling Total Quality Elements into a Strategy-Oriented Simulation Teaching Business Decision making using a Simulator Extending the Educational Utility of a Simulated Competition within the Confines of an Established Undergraduate Marketing Curriculum Expert Systems Versus Traditional Methods for Teaching Accounting Issues Confidence Extremes Diminish Quality Performance in a Total Enterprise Simulation Can Ethics Be Taught? A Simulation Tests a Traditional Ethics Pedagogy Through The Looking Glass, Inc.: Organizational Climate Research as Experiential Pedagogy The use of Cluster Analysis for Business Game Performance Analysis Power and Ethnicity: An Experiential Learning Exercise (How to Sensitize Students to Diversity) Directed Development of Critical and Creative Thinking Skills for Case Analysis Implementing Total Quality Management in a Computerized Business Simulation Product Quality in Business Simulations Use of Simulation for Ethics Education in Management Satisfying the University's Customers through Total Quality Management Instruction: A Case Study Personality Characteristics and Group Performance in Total Enterprise Simulations Concepts of Interval Estimation and Quality Control Charts via Computer Simulated Sampling An Examination of the Effect of Team Cohesion, Player Attitude, and Performance Expectations on Simulation Performance Results The Effectiveness of Inventory Management and Production Scheduling Training in a Total Quality Management Environment Peer Group Indicators of the External Validity of Business Games: A five-year Longitudinal Study Political Strategies and Personal Actions Does Practice make Perfect? Observations on Simulation Trial The Use of A Non-Business Computer Simulation to Teach Marketing Management BankPro Commercial Bank Simulation The Production Game Pursuing Excellence: Work Strengths, Assets and relevant Values (An Exercise) Test of a Short Outward Bound Experience for College Students What is it that we want Student To Learn? Using Two TQM Philosophies when Playing Blackjack The Lagged Effects of Decision Variables on Financial Performance Measures Used in Two business Simulations The Development of an Experiential Exercise for Career Planning and Effective Job search Performance Measuring Quality in Management of Business Pedagogy Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement: Using and Experiential Process Toward a Generalized Architecture for Intelligent Reactive Management Systems The Quality Game TQX: Using Expert Systems to Improve Training in Total Quality Management A Simulation of the Effect of the Medicaid Payment Lag on the Financial Position of Community Pharmacies The Use of a Board of Directors to Evaluate and Validate Decisions in a Competitive Graduate Management Simulation Course The Impact of Academic Dishonesty on Business Simulations and Experiential Learning Activities Picture Project: An Experience of Icebreaking and/or Decision-Making An Effective Role-playing Exercise for Teaching Requisite TQM Supervisory Attitudes/Behavior Computerized Management Simulations and Some Correlates of Students' Satisfaction The Timing and Stability of Reactions to Market Structure in a Single Player Simulation Environment A Graphics Application Extension for a Simulated Decision Support System Environment Aspects of a Group Project Utilizing Actual Business data and a Computerized Accounting System The Role of Universities' Extended Learning Department in Assisting Organizations Implement Total Quality Management A three-dimensional Learning Experience to Develop Total Quality Management Skills Estimating Quality Costs by Computer Simulation Applications and Examples of Quality Control Software Assessing Business Pedagogy A Demonstration of an Experiential Process for Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement Processes An Action-Ethics Dilemma: A Demonstration Org Sim Jr.: A 2-3 Hour Version of the 2-Day Blanchard/Murrell Organization Simulation Building Buildings: An Experiential Exercise in Organizational Structure, Communication, Leadership and Group Dynamics Expert Systems for Organization Design: A Demonstration A Demonstration of Product Quality in a Business Simulation: Version 2 of CEO Two Revolutions, Total Quality Leadership, and the Baldy: The Story of Milliken Total Quality after the Award - The Xerox Story Building a Competitive Advantage through Customer Satisfaction and Reengineering Human Resource Planning: Managing the Only Renewable Resource for a Competitive Advantage Using Simulations to Teach International Issues: An analysis of the Multinational Management Game's Learning Environment Quality Function Deployment: A Tutorial Care and Nurturing of Teams Making a Good Thing Better: Adding TQM to Participative management Empowering Organizations to Redesign and Transform Themselves - Eastman Chemical Using Simulations in Field Management Development of an International Life Insurance Company Reinforcing the TQ Environment via Simulation Transforming a Business College into a Total Quality College