INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS OF THE BEER GAME

RETAIL

WEEK WEEKLY ORDERS SALES STOCK

ORDER RECEIVED INVENTORY
(LATE) (BOXES)
1 4 4 ARRIVE 4 12
2 8 4 ARRIVE 8 8
3 12 4 ARRIVE 8 4
4 16 5 ARRIVE 8 1
5 16 7 ARRIVE 8 0
6 16 6(2) ARRIVE 6 -2
7 16 5(5) ARRIVE 5 -5
8 24 5(8) ARRIVE 5 -8
9

CONCLUSIONS REGARDING THE RETAILER

 It is clearly shown that there is a 4 week delay for the wholesaler to deliver each
order.
 The Beer Cart (distributor) delivers orders once a week.
 The retailer and the wholesaler never speak to each other in person, they
communicate through paper orders.
 We see that from week 5 to week 8, according to the information provided in the
help, that as orders begin to increase, Inventory is at zero (0), with delayed orders
of up to 8 boxes. additional per week.

WHOLESALER
WEEK ORDER ORDERS SALES STOCK
WEEKLY RECEIVED INVENTORY
(LATE) (THICK)
6 30 0
8 30 20(10) 20 0
9 30 20(20) 20 0
10 40 8(32) 8 0
11 40 12(60) 12 0
12 60 12(88) 12 0
16 0 55(28) 6 55
17 0 60 0 109

CONCLUSIONS REGARDING THE WHOLESALE

RETAIL – WHOLESALE RELATIONSHIP
 Instead of ordering by the box, order by the thick.
 Each beer fills a truckload of beer.
 Always try to keep a stock of 12 pounds of beer in inventory.
  Receives the total orders from the distributor or beer truck. The truck takes two
weeks to deliver and another two weeks to bring the order (total 4 weeks).
 Orders are processed, sorted and shipped to the retailer.
 Ship orders to many retailers.
 When a retailer orders 4 cases, the wholesaler asks the factory for 4 barrels of
beer.
WHOLESALE - FACTORY RELATIONSHIP
 Orders are also placed through a paper carried by the beer distributor.
 The order takes 4 weeks.

FACTORY
WEEK ORDER STOCK
WEEKLY INVENTORY
(THICK)
17 19 80
19 0 100
21 0 135
24 0 220

CONCLUSIONS REGARDING THE FACTORY

 It takes 2 weeks until a bottle of beer is ready for packaging.
 It is a small factory and is limited to the production of high quality lovers' beer.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

WHAT IS NOT REALISTIC ABOUT THIS GAME?

WHY DOES THE WHOLESALE EXIST? Because within the supply chain the
Wholesaler is able to purchase goods directly from the manufacturer at low costs
given the volume of purchases. In any case, the wholesaler obtains large discounts
for purchasing large quantities of products, which is reflected in a relief in prices
for the retailer and therefore for the final consumer. In real life, a factory in order
to reduce sales costs has to ship large quantities (volume).

WHY IS IT NOT SHIPPED DIRECTLY FROM THE PLANT TO THE RETAILER? Because
the costs of the product would be very high, making the intermediation of a
wholesaler necessary in order to achieve large discounts for high volumes of
merchandise purchased.
In the event that it is shipped directly from the plant to the retailer, a charge will
have to be made for direct shipping , an additional charge that the retailer must
assume, making the product significantly more expensive.
ARE CHARACTERS SOMETIMES CONTROLLED BY THE FORCES OF THE SYSTEM?
The system clearly influences the characters, in this case both the retailer,
wholesaler and factory, as well as the distributor, are controlled by the force of the
system, in this case it significantly influences behavior and decision making .
Decision making has a lot to do with the strength of the system, since a bad
decision can affect the other members if there is no adequate structure. But just
like in real life, each of the actors in this game is completely free to make different
decisions and those they consider prudent. The objective in this case is to manage
your position in such a way as to maximize profits.

THEY BLAME OTHERS FOR THE PROBLEMS THEY FACE: What do you think? It is
normal that when there are problems we blame others, it is not correct to do so
but often we always try to blame someone when something goes wrong. Each of
us does not really see how we affect others with our actions. In the game we see
that as we increase orders, problems increase and we blame the beer supplier,
without taking into account that there are external factors that affect the speed of
meeting demands, such as communication, weather, terrain and others that can
directly affect compliance when placing an order.
In this game everyone wanted to do the best in their job, serve in the best way and
fulfill orders, every gear of the game, from the retailer to the factory tried to
comply but no matter how much they wanted to comply there was a crisis,
inherent to the structure of the system.
The important thing about this game is to understand that each of the participants
does not work without the other and that each action taken will inevitably have an
impact on the other members of the game. Once this is understood, solutions must
be sought to optimize the process. , without necessarily leaving the system.

WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF FLUCTUATIONS IN INVENTORY LEVELS?:

 It is clear that in this game there is a chain in the supply process and to
fulfill each order and fill inventories there is a delay of 4 weeks, this delay
significantly affects inventories since they depend on customer demand, at
some point they can demand increases and at another time the same
demand may decrease, which makes fluctuations in inventory management
normal. What you need to know is to manage these fluctuations, know
what to do when we have a high stock (offers, discounts, stop orders) and
when we should order.

 Getting ahead of the facts, requesting orders unnecessarily due to a lack of

response from suppliers, creates great panic in the interest of meeting
demand, a demand that in reality does not exist and that only leads to an
increase in inventories.
  The high levels of inventory, the level of service and the response capacity
were affected by the implicit uncertainty of demand since in each of the
links in the supply chain there was no certainty of customer demand, which
It led each company to source in the most convenient way according to its
stipulated strategy, using intuition in most cases.

HOW COULD THESE FLUCTUATIONS HAVE BEEN REDUCED?

1) If all the players in the beer game had known the advertising information
that reached the final consumers , regarding the quality of the product
(lovers' beer), fluctuations could have been largely avoided.
2) Delays are inevitable in this case because there is only one beer supplier,
the way in which the information was transmitted to place orders should be
more agile, currently this can be avoided with efficient merchandise
delivery and order management systems. using current technological
means.