SIMQ, A BUSINESS SIMULATION GAME FOR DECISION SCIENCE STUDENTS: TOWARDS A TOTAL GAMING AND TEACHING PACKAGE Simulations, Games and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 245 SIMQ, A BUSINESS SIMULATION GAME FOR DECISION SCIENCE STUDENTS: TOWARDS A TOTAL GAMING AND TEACHING PACKAGE Arthur C. Nichols, Georgia State University INTRODUCTION The business simulation game, SIMQ, was especially designed for teaching applications of quantitative methods. For the past four years, this game has been used in the quantitative methods sequence in the MBA program at Georgia State University. The game has also been adopted at several other teaching institutions and used in a number of seminars and short courses. While this game has been used in certain cases for teaching general business policy and decision making, the focus of this paper will be on the originally intended use of SIMQ as vehicle for teaching applications of quantitative models. In this paper, the manner in which the game is used to help meet the objectives of the quantitative methods sequence at Georgia State university will be explained. In addition, a gaming and teaching package, developed to assist instructors using SIMQ in the quantitative methods sequence will be described. This package consists of student assignments and related teaching materials, computer programs for quantitative applications, and a detailed instructor’s guide. THE ROLE OF THE GAME IN THE OUANTITATIVE METHODS SEQUENCE The game is employed in the second course of a two-course sequence required of all NBA students. This sequence is designed to familiarize students with a number of representative quantitative decision models, to provide insights into problems which arise in the development and use of quantitative models, and to increase the students general understanding of the role of quantitative analysis in business problems solving and decision making. Most of the quantitative techniques included as subject matter in the sequence are studied in the initial course. The second course in which the game is used is almost completely concerned with problems in the application of these tools. The focus is on the decision process and the way in which quantitative methods may aid the decision maker. The game provides an environment in which students have the opportunity to experiment with the application of a number of models as aids to decision making. Teams of students serve as management teams for different companies in a single industry. Throughout the play of the game, the students are encouraged to apply a number of different quantitative decision tools for which the game was especially designed. This approach allows students to study many important aspects involved in the applications of quantitative techniques. Through the involvement in the game, students gain a better understanding of quantitative analysis, especially the subjective aspects of model development and use, than would be possible in a lecture/problem oriented class. Students are made aware of the major limitations and. problems in the use of these techniques as well as the positive aspects. Simulations, Games and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 246 The major problems and concepts in estimating parameters, selecting relevant costs, defining objectives, and. relating model results to the decisions at hand are easily brought out in the game environment. The necessity of the use of sensitivity analysis can be seen in almost every model the student encounters. Assumptions of the mathematical techniques and assumptions of the environment which are incorporated in the models become relevant to the students when they must use the models to arrive at decisions. The students are repeatedly confronted with the problem that most models incorporate a single objective hut the results of the models are to be used to assist with decisions which must he made in light of multiple objectives. The game situation also enables students to see where a model utilized in one problem. situation may yield peripheral results which shed light on seemingly unrelated problems. STUDENT ASSIGNMENTS AND THE TEACHING PACKAGE The general teaching approach is to structure the course around a sequence of several assignments which are spread throughout the course and the play of the game. These assignments generally consists of applying particular quantitative techniques to assist the team in certain decision making areas. The use of assignments keeps the class together and leads to meaningful discussions since all members of the class are working simultaneously on the same decision problems. The assignments include formulating company objectives, forecasting industry demand by methods of time series analysis, using linear programming to aid with product mix decisions, developing an economic order quantity model for ordering raw materials, developing a buffer inventory model to assist in determining economic levels of finished good inventories, analyzing relationships between demand, price, and advertising using multiple regression analysis, using simulation (Monte Carlo) to aid in the selection of an economic repair force size, and analyzing plant expansion from a capital budgeting point of view. Students are encouraged not to limit their analysis to those suggested in the formal assignments. Some analyses, such as forecasting cash flows, are suggested and expected of all student teams. Other more sophisticated models are often developed and used by the more interested and creative students. These assignments are described and distributed in the teaching package, SIMQ Assignments and Related Materials. Also included in this package are the course syllabus and outline, material explaining quantitative techniques used in certain assignments, a list of related readings and references, material describing some of the computer programs available for student use, and a listing of an information file, assessable through remote time-share terminals, which contains historical data related to the game environment for use by the students in their analyses. GAME SIMULATION PROGRAM The computer program for the business simulation game is written in BASIC for a time-share computer. At Georgia State University, students usually enter decisions and receive results via teletype terminals. The program Simulations, Games and Experiential Learning Techniques:, Volume 1, 1974 247 has also been written in FORTRAN for batch processing. The FORTRAN version is readily available to faculty members at other institutions. COMPUTER PROGRAMS FOR QUANTITATIVE APPLICATIONS An important benefit from using the game at Georgia State University has been that the students have become quite familiar with a large number of computer programs. For almost every major quantitative technique that the students are encouraged to use in the game, a computer program has been written which is easily accessible through a remote time-share terminal. Students are also encouraged to write their own programs for less complex analyses. The emphasis on the computer not only makes the game more exciting and interesting but also provides the students with an excellent understanding of the general role, advantage, and limitation of the computer in problem solving analysis. Some of these programs are described in the teaching package SIMSQ Assignments and Related Materials. However most of the programs used by the student are explained in the computer application manual, Time Sharing System Applications in the Decision Sciences, developed by the faculty members of Department of Quantitative Methods at Georgia State University. INSTRUCTOR’ S GUIDE To assist instructors using SIMQ, a detailed instructor’s guide has been developed. The guide presents a general approach for teaching the quantitative methods course at Georgia State University and gives suggestions for using the business simulation game as an instructional vehicle in this course. The general approach and specific suggestions are based on the experience of a number of instructors using the game at Georgia State University. This manual, Instructor’s Guide to SIMQ, should also be quite helpful to instructors using SIMQ in quantitative courses at other institutions.1 The guide explains the mechanics of using the required computer simulation program and gives suggestions pertaining to course outline, organization of teams, sequence of play of the game, general teaching approach, important topics and concepts to emphasize, student assignments, decision reports, board of directors meetings, examinations, and evaluation of students. 1 To obtain copies of the game simulation program, SIMQ Assignments and Related Materials, Time Sharing System Applications in the Decision Sciences, and Instructors Guide to SIMQ, write Arthur Nichols or Brian Schott, Department of Quantitative Methods, Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia, 30303. There is a $25 handling charge for the game simulation program. The player manual (Nichols, Arthur C. and Schott, Brian, SIMQ: A Business Simulation Game for Decision Science Students, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1973) must be ordered directly from the publisher. Table of Contents Volume 1, 1974 Long Live Your Business Game Marketing In Action In Collegiate Education How to Create Your Own Business Game with Imaginit The Design, Conduct and Evaluation of a Computerized Management Game as a Form of Experiential Learning Experiential Learning: Conceptualization and Definition The Teaching Potential of a Structured Experience The Lecture versus the Game Tracking the Elective: Student-Goal Oriented Education The Use of Internal and External Assignments with a Marketing Simulation Game Constructing Mini-Courses to Supplement Business Simulations A Video-Tape/Computer Learning Experience A Collective Bargaining Negotiation Simulation: Settle or Strike Simulation in Personnel Administration Introduction to Pablum: A public Administration Game Enrichment of a Multi-Functional Game through Dynamic Overlays and Intensive Decision Analysis An Orientation to the Oklahoma Farm Management Game A Description of INTSTRAT: A Game of Investment Strategy DØG: A Decision Mathematics Game The Use of Production Scheduling Simulation in a Production Planning and Control Course Interactive Gaming: A Production Example Marketing Interaction: A Marketing Management Game ADMAG I: An Advertising Management Game Meeting the Decline in College Enrollments Using the Money Game in the Classroom Training Salesmen with The Sales Management Game Smith Management Game (BUSOP) The Business Game: A New Approach to Managerial Accounting Administration: The Key to a Successful Gaming Experience Simulation: A Frustration, A ‘Game’, or a Meaningful Experience Using Complex Simulations in Policy Courses in Institutions with Limited Resources Flexibility in Simulation Design for Continual Student Motivation A Terminal Keyboard Experience in Executive Gaming Application of Theory and of Computerized Grading in Management Simulation The Executive Education Experience Using the Toronto Management Game Experiences with the Harvard Management Game Managing the Dynamic Small Business Via Simulation The Use of Business Game and a Simulated Stock Exchange in a Business Policy Course Managerial Strategy and Systems - An integrative M.B.A. Course SIMQ, A Business Simulation Game for Decision Science Students: Towards a Total Gaming and Teaching Package The Use of Simulation in a Financial Planning Course Simulation as a Supplementary Learning Experience in Marketing Principles Intercollegiate Business Gaming: The State of the Art Intercollegiate Business Gaming from a Participant's Viewpoint Correlates of Satisfaction, Learning and Success in Business Gaming A Student' s View of Leadership Training with a Two-Level Hierarchy, Two Course Simulation Autocratic versus Democratic Decision Making: The Executive Game as an Experiment Identifying Potential Game Participants Assessment Centers Selection Based on Simulation Business Games in the Process of Management Training in Israel and the United States Evolution and Flexibility in Business Gaming Quantitative Applications of Games Growing Emphasis on Implementation Debits and Credits: First National ABSEL Conference