Understanding Human Factors in Supply Chains and Quality Management by Using Business Simulations

In a globalized world the complexity of cross-company supply chains is increasing. Within the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology For High Wage Countries” and one of its research domains “cognition enhanced self-optimizing production networks” methods to understand the complexity and to increase the overall efficiency are explored. Supply chains are considered as socio-technical systems whose performance is not only determined by technical aspects, such as varying quality, changing demands and delays, but also by humans in-the-loop and their personal experience, their ability to cope with complexity and the decision support given by enterprise software. To investigate how human factors influence the performance of supply chains a controllable game based test environment was developed, in which subjects interact with a simulated supply chain. The simulation model is based on Forrester’s Beer Distribution Game, extended by quality management aspects. Exploratory studies revealed technical and human factors influencing performance. Also, changes in the user interface and the presentation of visual indicators on selected variables increased the performance significantly, indicating the need for in-depth studies on refinements of current Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Furthermore, the study revealed that using the supply chain game increased the awareness for quality management. Hence, the game can be a fun and still highly effective module within the vocational training of both quality managers, as well as supply chain managers.