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Student Manual Updated June 3, 2015

McGraw-Hill Practice Operations

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Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Game Description ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 3

How to Win .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Gameplay ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Learning Outcomes .................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Overview of Modules .................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Module 1: The Production Process ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Module 2: Managing Suppliers ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Module 3: Forecasting and Contracts .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Module 4: Human Resources and Capacity Planning ........................................................................................................... 4 Module 5: The New Branch .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Module 6: Maximize Net Worth ..................................................................................................................................................... 5

System Requirements ................................................................................................................................................................................ 5

Registering and Logging In .................................................................................................................................................... 6

Module 1: The Production Process ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Make-to-Order Processes ......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Operations Management: Priority and Utilization ........................................................................................................................ 9

Follow the Tutorial for Module 1 ........................................................................................................................................................ 11

Module 2: Managing Suppliers .......................................................................................................................................... 12

The “Lean or “Just-In-Time” Strategy ............................................................................................................................................... 13

Quality Inspection ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Quantity Flexibility and Supplier Capacity ..................................................................................................................................... 16

Creating a Vendor Scorecard ............................................................................................................................................................... 17


Module 3: Forecasting and Contracts .............................................................................................................................. 20

Research ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Make-to-Order vs. Make-to-Stock ....................................................................................................................................................... 20

Bids ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20

Work Request Analysis............................................................................................................................................................................ 21

Batch Manufacturing .............................................................................................................................................................................. 23

Forecasting and Specialization ........................................................................................................................................................... 24


Module 4: Human Resources and Capacity Planning ................................................................................................ 25

Human Resources ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 25


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Training................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Hiring ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Managing the Organization Chart ............................................................................................................................................... 27

Capacity Planning ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 27

Scheduling a Job Shop with a Spreadsheet ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Gather Basic Information ................................................................................................................................................................ 29 Prepare a Schedule ............................................................................................................................................................................ 29 Compare Schedules using Different Priorities ...................................................................................................................... 30

Matching Capacity to Demand ............................................................................................................................................................ 31 Maximizing Throughput .................................................................................................................................................................. 31

Constraints and Bottlenecks ................................................................................................................................................................. 32 Routing Pathways............................................................................................................................................................................... 33 Finding Bottlenecks ........................................................................................................................................................................... 33

End of the Tutorial ................................................................................................................................................................................... 36

Module 5: The New Branch ................................................................................................................................................. 37

Hiring vs. Training .................................................................................................................................................................................... 37 Analyzing Employee Expenses ..................................................................................................................................................... 38

Reputation ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 42

Module 6: Maximizing Profits ............................................................................................................................................ 43

Long-Term Perspective ........................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Total Cost of Ownership .................................................................................................................................................................. 44


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Introduction

Game Description

Practice Operations puts players in the role of an operations decision maker for a clothing manufacturing company. Operations is the engine that drives a business. Play begins with an overview of the heart of that engine – managing the production process. Players review the contract specifications as well as the production process by walking through the Production Floor and Shipping area. Players then analyze the receiving department functions of managing the supply chain and material inventories to ensure client needs can be met. In order to grow the business, players choose which new contracts to pursue and then optimize their receiving, production, and shipping departments accordingly. As the business grows, players manage both the human and facility resources in order to meet capacity challenges. Customer satisfaction is a key metric for success. In the final stages of the game, the company puts players in complete control over all areas of operations at the New Branch, with the challenge to build the most profitable company possible.

How to Win

Your goal is to make the most money possible. This will happen if you run your operation efficiently. Getting orders out to customers on time, with the correct quantity and quality will make your customers happy, which in turn raises your reputation. As your reputation increases, you will be able to successfully bid on contracts from a larger pool of customers, which will generate more revenue. If you run your operation poorly and your customers receive orders late or with errors in quality or amount, your sales force will lose bids to your competitors and you will make less money, or even run a deficit!

Gameplay

The game is turn-based. Each turn is one week. Each module is a specific length and has objectives that must be achieved before time runs out.


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Learning Outcomes

The interactive experience focuses on gaining experience through trial and error and learning how the elements of operations and production come together.

Supports online, out-of-class play and competition between you and your fellow students.

Features game-world data and situations that reflect real world operational situations.

Highlights the inherently interdisciplinary nature of business by demonstrating that the various functional areas of the company – Human Resources, Manufacturing, Accounting, and Sales – must work together in order to meet company goals.

Opportunity for actual hands-on practice as an operations manager in a manufacturing scenario

Analyze and evaluate quality considerations in the production process.

Stresses both customer satisfaction and financial results as the key success metrics.

Provides reporting features that make it easy for instructors and students to review and assess your performance and decision-making.

Overview of Modules

Module 1: The Production Process

Operations is the engine that drives a business. This module focuses on the heart of that engine, managing the production process. Module 1 should take 25-45 minutes to complete.

Module 2: Managing Suppliers

This module unlocks the receiving department, putting players in charge of managing the supply chain and material inventories to meet client needs. Module 2 should take 25-45 minutes to complete.

Module 3: Forecasting and Contracts

In this module, players choose which contracts to pursue, and optimize their receiving, production, and shipping departments accordingly. Module 3 should take 25-45 minutes to complete.

Module 4: Human Resources and Capacity Planning

In this challenging scenario, players will manage both human and facility resources to meet capacity challenges. Module 4 should take 35-55 minutes to complete.

Module 5: The New Branch

In this module, players will have complete control over all areas of their operations, and will be challenged to reach a net worth of $50,000 as quickly as possible. Module 5 should take 1 to 2 hours to complete.


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Module 6: Maximize Net Worth

In this capstone module, players again have complete control over all areas of their operations. The goal is to maximize the net worth of the firm over 50 turns. Module 6 should take 2 to 3 hours to complete.

System Requirements

Computers used to run Practice Operations must meet the Technical Requirements listed below.

Windows OS:

1. Operating systems: Windows XP with Service Pack 3 / Windows Vista SP2 / Windows 7 /

Windows 8.

2. Internet Browser: Firefox version 31 or above OR Internet Explorer 11 or above OR

Google Chrome version 31 or above

3. Memory: 512MB RAM

4. Processor: Intel Pentium 3-4 processor or equivalent/better

5. Video: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250 or better OR Intel 945

chipset or better, 1024 x 768 resolution minimum

6. Internet: 128kbit/s Cable/DSL/LAN connection per computer

7. Hard Disk Space: 500MB free

8. Direct X: DirectX 9.0c

Mac OSX:

1. Operating system: Must have OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later.

2. Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (PowerPC not supported)

3. RAM: 1GB System Memory

4. Video Memory: 256MB graphics card or decent integrated graphics chip. Must support

OpenGL 1.5+

5. Internet Browser: Firefox version 31 or above OR Safari 7.1 or above OR Google Chrome

version 31 or above

Apple iPad:

1. Model: iPad2 or later.

2. Operating System: iOS 8 or later.

3. Screen Resolution: 1024x768 or greater.


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Android Tablet:

1. Operating System: Android 4 or later.

Registering and Logging In

Navigate to www.mhpractice.com. There are two ways to register for Practice Operations and log in: 1) you can click on the Practice Operations link in Connect, or 2) you can click on the link that has been sent to you from your instructor by email.

If you are registering for the first time, the following screen will appear. Click ‘Register’ located in the lower middle of the screen. If you have already registered, simply click the Login button.

If you are registering for the first time, you will see the following screen; enter the code from the card included with your textbook, or the code that you purchased separately.

Operations

Operations Sc 101

http://www.mhpractice.com/


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Module 1: The Production Process

In this module, you will learn to manage the basic production process. This product flow appears in the Production Floor panel (below), and you can also see the progression of products through the various machines. The managers in the game will help guide you through the process.

In Practice Operations, the production floor uses a workcenter (or job shop) layout, where machines are grouped by type, with products traveling from one machine to the next as they are completed. Products start in Cutting and then move through Sewing, Press Transfer (for some products), and finally arrive at Packaging. Additional workcenters will be added in later modules, and each station can be upgraded for a one-time cost to increase the speed and maximum amount that can be processed.


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Make-to-Order Processes

By following the screen prompts, a production order that precisely matches the customer order is started on the production floor. This 1:1 relationship between customer orders and production orders is a key characteristic of a make-to-order process.

For example, review the open contract from Stallion Apparel (below), highlighting the importance of individual orders in a make-to-order system. In particular, the key elements are the client, item ordered, order quantity, unit price, and due date.


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Once your production is underway, you can view the details by looking at the Current Production Runs panel. The side arrows let you quickly cycle through all products currently in production. The icons under Production Tasks let you see which machines are required for the specific product. You can view the material required per unit and see how much of that material you have in stock. You can view the current status, the amount being produced, what priority you have it set for, and finally the quantity of finished product you have in stock.

Operations Management: Priority and Utilization

One of your key decisions is the sequencing of jobs. By varying the priority of jobs, the quantity of each item produced during a given period can be varied widely. In this example, the priority of three jobs (shirts, shorts, and pants) is varied to show how this can impact total output. Prioritization of jobs is established in the Production Area.

Click the Manager’s Desk, then select each order from the Production Schedule.


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To keep track of the state of multiple orders, go to the View Production Plan panel.

The Production Plan panel shows which machines are in use and how much of their total capacity is being utilized. ! Prioritizing jobs can save players from several utilization mishaps such as being on track to complete orders for your customers on time only to have several products all arrive at the packaging station at the same time

NOTE:

You can also change priority of production with the mouse by grabbing a product in “Current Production Runs” and dragging it to a new slot.


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Can you get your average utilization to 100 percent?

Probably not, but the higher that score, the more efficient you are managing your operations. See the equation below:

𝑈𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑

𝐵𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙=

1280

2400= 53.3%

This priority order has increased the utilization average by 10%!

Follow the Tutorial for Module 1

It’s important to follow the in-game tutorial for this module to be sure you are introduced to all the key

elements. They will be needed when you start playing Module 2. If you are unsure of any part of the


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module, replay it, and then review this section of the manual. If you feel comfortable with the concepts

introduced in Module 1, try playing through it several times to beat your own high score!

Module 2: Managing Suppliers

Time to get busy with supply chain management! This module introduces the receiving department,

and shows how to efficiently order the materials you need to produce your products. As you learned in

Module 1, proper scheduling is critical to keep your production running smoothly. The same is true with

managing your supply chain. You must make sure you receive the proper amount and quality of

materials in a time frame that allows you to sort them, send them to production to create completed

products, and ship them in enough time to arrive at their destination within the specified number of

weeks. This will make your clients happy and increase your reputation.

Of course, it is also important to manage the costs associated with suppliers. In Practice Operations,

there are two main costs associated with raw materials – purchasing costs and holding costs. Purchasing

costs can be managed by selecting a vendor with the right quality (to avoid overpaying for excessive

quality), by taking advantage of lead-time and quantity discounts, and by comparing prices among

vendors. Holding costs are

charged for materials held in

stock (about 10% per turn for

raw materials, 5% per turn for

finished

products) and

can be

minimized

through careful

scheduling of

purchases and

production.

Excess materials

can be sold, but the cash

received for inventory (either

raw materials or finished

products) that are disposed of

in this manner is a small

portion of the original cost.

In the receiving department,

you click on the manager’s desk to order new materials, and you will see trucks back up to the loading


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docks when materials arrive. Materials first go to the double pallet at the bottom of the screen until

they can be sorted. Then each pallet displays specific raw materials that are letter coded.

The “Lean” or “Just-In-Time” Strategy

One gameplay option you can experiment with in Module 2 is to use a true lean/JIT approach, ordering raw materials to arrive just as they are needed. For example, in turn 3 (January, week 3) orders arrive for slacks (250 units) and shorts (400 units). Both of these products are due to arrive at the customer in 6 weeks (March, week 1). Less than one week is required for production of these items (the limiting factor is packaging capacity, but even this step can be completed in less than a week for both products). Therefore, with 2 weeks to ship and 1 week to produce, these two production orders can be started as late as February, week 2. Therefore, when ordering the raw materials, ordering with a lead time of 3 weeks will minimize inventory holding and allow for just-in-time delivery of raw materials.

JIT/Lean requires highly reliable suppliers: for khaki either United Fabrics or Preston Premium would be preferred suppliers. Both offer the required level of quality and both can meet the required quantity. Since the price is the same for both, place an order for 500 units of khaki with Preston Premium.

For silk, Preston Premium, Reliable Clothing, and United Fabrics are highly reliable suppliers. Once again, all meet the necessary quality level. Reliable Clothing offers a significantly better price, even though an order of 400 units of silk will not qualify for a quantity discount. Preston Premium is more expensive than Reliable Clothing and United Fabrics has a minimum order quantity of 500 units. Therefore, we place an order for 400 units of silk with Reliable Clothing.


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Thanks to our reliable suppliers, the requested quantities of silk and khaki arrive exactly as promised in February, week 2, and can be used in production the following week.

However, we have encountered a snag! The sorting capacity in the warehouse is insufficient to process the shipments. 98 units of khaki and 2 units of silk are left unsorted. This is going to delay production.

This element of operations is dealt with in Module 4, where you will get the opportunity to expand your staff for different departments. In the meantime, it’s vital to run the numbers ahead of time to avoid these situations, especially since hiring more staff may not be an option for you.

Due to the delay in getting materials sorted, the slacks and shorts are not completed and in finished goods inventory until February, week 4. As a result, you would be forced to use expedited shipping to get the products to the customers on time at an additional cost of $404! That small holdup will significantly impact your bottom line!


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Quality Inspection

Stock inspections can increase the quality of your raw materials. This identifies and removes sub-standard items, decreasing the available quantity but increasing the overall quality of the remaining stock. Inspection is generally an expensive option since you are, in effect, throwing away raw materials that you’ve already paid for.

In Module 2 gameplay, you are prompted to inspect a shipment of Denim. Quality inspection is initiated from the Material Stock window.

Students are asked to confirm the inspection…

…and are shown the results of the inspection. Here, 19 “defective” units were removed, raising the quality level of the 81 remaining units to 59.0.

However, inspection is rarely an efficient strategy for improving quality. In fact, if a higher quality material had been purchased in the first place, the total cost of the materials would be significantly lower.

United Fabrics offers a higher-quality denim for $1.80 per unit.

A comparison of final cost per unit shows that purchasing from United Fabrics would result in a lower cost of ownership.


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Red Maple Fabrics United Fabrics

Purchase Price per Unit $1.50 $1.80

Inspection Cost 19 x $1.50 = $28.50 $0.00

Final Quantity 81 100

Final Cost per Unit $178.50/81 = $2.20 $1.80

So how can inspections help you? Well, they can allow you to make use of extra materials. Perhaps you

ordered cotton at a quality of 40 and you have several hundred left over. If a small order comes in with

a quick turnaround at quality 50, you may be able to produce it right away by inspecting the lower

quality material and finding enough quality 50 material to get the job done.

Quantity Flexibility and Supplier Capacity

Although price is an important consideration in vendor selection, ability to meet surges in demand is also an important attribute. Vendors with low levels of available capacity may be unable to meet demand.

For example, Alpine and Tigerlily Textiles are very similar suppliers of wool. Both have the same price, reliability, and quality levels. However, their available capacity is not comparable.


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Vendor selection must include more aspects than just quoted price. Quantity discounts, lead times, and other factors can make a significant difference between vendors.

Creating a Vendor Scorecard

By now it is clear that there are several different dimensions you can use to evaluate the suppliers. These include price, quality, and reliability. This data can be used to prepare a vendor scorecard. For example, an evaluation of cotton suppliers can be prepared by gathering data from the Receiving screen.


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After gathering this data for all cotton suppliers, the following table can be assembled.

Supplier Price Quality Reliability

Owens Textiles $0.08 50 Low

Freeway Fabrics $0.08 25 Medium

Preston Premium $0.12 80 High

Reliable Clothing $0.10 35 High

Tigerlily Textiles $0.10 60 Medium

United Fabrics $0.12 70 High

The vendor scorecard can be prepared in many ways. One possibility is to rank the vendors in each category, and to assign equal weighting to each category. The vendor with the lowest weighted rating is most attractive.

Rank

Supplier Price Quality Reliability Score

Owens Textiles 1 4 3 2.67

Freeway Fabrics 1 6 2 3.00

Preston Premium 3 1 1 1.67

Reliable Clothing 2 5 1 2.67

Tigerlily Textiles 2 3 2 2.33

United Fabrics 3 2 1 2.00

In this example, Preston Premium would be considered the “best” vendor.

Use of different weights for the three categories can lead to a different result. Consider the results if price is considered most important (assigned a weight of 0.6), while quality and reliability are assigned a weight of 0.2.

3 + 1 + 1

3= 1.67


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Rank

Supplier Price Quality Reliability Score

Owens Textiles 1 4 3 2.00

Freeway Fabrics 1 6 2 2.20

Preston Premium 3 1 1 2.20

Reliable Clothing 2 5 1 2.40

Tigerlily Textiles 2 3 2 2.20

United Fabrics 3 2 1 2.40

Now Owens Textiles is the preferred vendor.


As with Module 1, it is important to follow the in-game tutorial for this module to be sure you are

introduced to all the key elements. A clear understanding of all the points from the two modules you’ve

played through will be needed when you start playing Module 3. If you are unsure of any part of the

module, replay it, and review this section of the manual. If you feel comfortable with the concepts

introduced in Module 2, make use of your Vendor Scorecard and try playing through it several times to

beat your own high score!

0.6(1) + 0.2(4)+ 0.2(3) = 2.00


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NOTE: In longer games, purchase as much market research as you can right away. There is a minimal cost to buy it, and the knowledge can really help you plan your strategy!

Module 3: Forecasting and Contracts

Making the right choices about which contracts to bid on can make a huge difference on your bottom

line. One way to do that is forecasting. By obtaining market research that predicts upcoming trends,

you will gain a better understanding of which products customers will likely be asking for. Another

important element in this module is evaluating contracts and making effective bids.

Research

You can buy market research reports that forecast

trends for up to a year in advance.

Make-to-Order vs. Make-to-Stock

Until now, you have been running a Lean / Just-in-Time operation and buying specific raw materials

when you needed them. However, once you have a sense of what products will be popular in the near

future, you can stockpile required materials in advance, and upgrade or add machines to your

production floor. Of course, there is a risk involved in purchasing materials without a specific contract in

place.

Bids

It’s tempting to bid on everything; however, if too many bids are accepted, you can easily be swamped

and unable to complete the work. Therefore,Module 3 limits you to 2 bids per turn. A higher concern is

bidding on contracts that you are unlikely to win.In this case, you can easily find yourself with too much

of your facility idle and losing money. Properly acknowledging these scenarios can help you build a

positive reputation!


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Work Request Analysis

A good match between producer and customer is important. The bidding process offers a chance to strategically analyze jobs to determine if the opportunity is a good fit. In Practice Operations, key aspects are reputation, quality, materials, processes, capacity, and profitability. The bidding process can be used to highlight each of these aspects.

At the beginning of Module 3, there are three materials already in stock – Nylon, Silk, and Cotton.

Notice that the factory is already short of cotton, so bidding on jobs that use cotton will require additional purchases. However, we have unallocated supplies of both Nylon and Silk, so jobs that use those materials will allow us to reduce our overall inventory holdings.

Looking at the production floor, we currently have four processes available – cutting, sewing, press transfer, and packaging. Jobs that require other processes will necessitate a capital investment before we can begin production.


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There is only one production run currently in process, so there is sufficient capacity for additional work requests.

Looking at the work requests available for bid, most are out of our league (as far as reputation is concerned) or require materials that are already in short supply, such as cotton. However, the order for Boxer Shorts (Down Under) and one order for sports pants (Burgundy Fashion) are possibilities. We can see that both orders require only cutting, sewing, and packaging, so no new equipment is needed. Although both require more material than we currently have on hand, the lead time is sufficient to obtain more.

These appear to be good matches for our system.. Notice that the quality requirements for each are in line with the quality level of our existing materials. The final check is to ensure profitability of the orders.

Boxer Shorts use one unit of silk for each item. Silk of acceptable quality (50) can be purchased for $3.20 per unit from Owens Textiles.

Since we are already paying our employees, their salaries are a sunk cost, unless we intend to fire them. However, in this module, employee costs can be ignored (each employee’s salary is $0.00 per week).

Shipping the products will cause some additional costs to be incurred, but the unit price of $15.25, with a material cost of just $3.20, leaves plenty of room for profit.


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To overcome the mismatch in reputation with Down Under, we reduce the unit price to $13.50.

Sports pants use 2 units of nylon for each item. Nylon of acceptable quality (50) can be purchased for $1.76 per unit from Owens Textiles. Once again, the unit price of $14.75 leaves a large profit margin.

To overcome the mismatch in reputation with Burgundy Fashions, we reduce the unit price to $13.00.

Although both bids are rejected, additional opportunities to reduce raw material inventories will arise. In turn 3, a work request from Stallion Apparel becomes available for bidding. This request matches our reputation better, and still utilizes the existing stock of nylon. However, it requires heat transfer equipment which is not currently in the factory. This equipment must be purchased at a cost of $1,800.

In this case, the profitability of the order ($5,850 less $1,056 in materials) can justify the purchase of the new equipment. If the bid is accepted, the new equipment can be purchased in the next turn.

Batch Manufacturing

In Practice Operations, products are produced in batches. Each batch moves through the factory together, from machine to machine, until all necessary processes have been completed. The shortcomings of batch manufacturing can be highlighted in Practice Operations.

For example, a work order for 200 coaches’ jackets will first be processed at the cutting station, then proceed to sewing, heat transfer, and packaging.

Notice that each step doesn’t begin until the preceding step is completed, which results in a long lead time for the products, with much of the time spent idle. In this example, each finished goods item spends 550 seconds being processed (96 seconds in cutting, 166 seconds in sewing, 144 seconds in heat transfer, and 144 seconds in packaging.) However, total production time for the batch of 200 units is 1,873 minutes. Therefore, each item spends less than 0.5% of its time in the factory actually being processed and over 99.5% of the time waiting! Batch processes can also lead to low levels of equipment usage.


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NOTE: Raw material availability may allow bidding on lucrative short lead-time contracts.

Forecasting and Specialization

Rather than attempting to be all things to all customers, an effective strategy is to specialize. Focusing on a few, similar products can simplify processes and minimize investment in equipment. Selecting an area of specialization can begin with forecasting.

In the Research screen, the Top Product and Hot Products are identified. Examining the reports (here only the winter and spring reports since the Module 3 simulation lasts for 20 turns), it is clear that only a small number of materials are used to produce the majority of the Top/Hot products.

Clearly silk and nylon offer more flexibility. This allows speculative purchases of these raw materials to ensure stock is available on short notice.

In addition to raw material considerations, process commonality is another key factor. Existing processes (cutting, sewing, press transfer, and packaging) can support sports pants, ties, and boxer shorts. Addition of heat transfer equipment will allow production of coaches’ jackets and windbreakers.

A specialized production system with cutting, sewing, press transfer, heat transfer, and packaging, using nylon and silk raw materials, would support at least two of the top/hot products for both the winter and spring seasons.


As with previous modules, it is important to follow the in-game tutorial for this module to be sure you

are introduced to all the key elements. Players will need a clear understanding of of the previous

modules before starting Module 4. If you are unsure of any part of the module, replay it, and review

MATERIAL “HOT” PRODUCTS

Silk Boxer Shorts, Ties

Nylon Sports pants, Coaches Jackets and Windbreakers

Denim Denim Jackets

Wool Hunting Pants

Khaki Bermuda Shorts


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this section of the manual. If you feel comfortable with the concepts introduced in Module 3, try

different bidding and purchasing strategies to see how it affects your profits.

Module 4: Human Resources and Capacity Planning

So far, you’ve been managing production, ordering, shipping, receiving, sales and predicting the market.

It’s time to add human resources to the mix. This module will help you identify when and how to

expand your workforce to handle a growing customer base seeking more and larger orders. You will

also see when it is cost effective to purchase upgraded equipment and to train existing staff to increase

production capacity.

Human Resources

When more work is required in a specific area, you can either train an existing employee or hire somebody new. This area is also where you manage the organization of each department.


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NOTE: Be sure to compare all potential hires before making a decision. An employee may require a higher salary but have skill in multiple areas, saving you the cost of training later. Conversely, hiring someone with higher skills in a single area for less salary can make sense if that area is always busy.

(More on this is in the Tips in Module 5)

Training

When you get really busy, you will

quickly reach a point where more

help is needed. You can train an

existing employee or hire someone

new. If you have an area that won’t

be busy for several weeks, it can

make sense to train an employee

who is currently working in a

relatively quiet department and

reassign that person to the busy

area. Staff trained in multiple areas

can be very useful at preventing

holdups in production.

Hiring

Training is a good idea overall, but you will also need to

hire new people when the volume of work demands it.

Your pool of potential hires will have a variety of skills and

demand different amounts for a salary. For example, Tom

O’Leary is hired into the receiving department in order to

help sort more incoming materials. As was illustrated

earlier in the manual, the inability to sort fast enough can

delay production. However, that skill will also serve you if

you need to shift Tom to the shipping department after

materials have been sorted and you need more staff

helping to get product out the door.

Try not to wait too long to hire or train new staff.

Anticipating your needs will prevent delays that

may occur while waiting for a person to accept

your offer or complete training.

Severance


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Employee salaries are paid whether or not

the worker is busy. While it may be

tempting to fire an idle worker, Practice

Operations does impose a severance

charge of two weeks’ salary for any

employee who is fired. Careful planning of

staffing levels, along with retraining and

reassignment of current workers can help

players avoid these charges.

Managing the Organization Chart

Clicking on the HR manager’s desk brings up the organization chart. Here you can review payroll, both

overall and for specific departments. You can see how many staff you have in each department and

how good they are at their assigned job. Their skill level raises the amount of work they can do, so a

person with 4 stars in Production will create more product than someone with only 2 stars.

Capacity Planning


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NOTE: Longer term, you should observe your usage of raw materials and plan your receiving staff accordingly.

The most straightforward approach to capacity planning takes place in the receiving area. Each shipment must be sorted before it is available for use. Since incoming shipments are fairly predictable, determining the necessary capacity is easier here than elsewhere. Each week’s expected deliveries can be observed in the Receiving screen by clicking on the Delivery Schedule.

For example, early in Module 4, the delivery schedule shows 825 units per week are scheduled to arrive.

However, there is already a backlog of unsorted stock (accessed by clicking on the unsorted stock in the Receiving area) and sorting capacity is currently insufficient to keep up with incoming materials (in this example, sorting capacity is 525 units per week as shown in the Unsorted Stock window). With over 1,400 units unsorted, plus 825 units per week arriving, sorting capacity must be increased to about 1,525 units per week to clear the backlog in two weeks. This will require hiring two or three new employees to work in the receiving area.


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Scheduling a Job Shop with a Spreadsheet

With multiple work requests in process, prioritization can become an issue. With three or more workcenters, even a small number of work requests can be daunting to prioritize. A spreadsheet program (for example, Microsoft Excel) can be a useful tool when evaluating potential schedules.

At the beginning of Module 4, there are five work requests waiting to be scheduled in the Production area.

These five products have different routings, which causes different processing durations as they pass through production. Here it will be helpful for you to build an interactive spreadsheet to evaluate the impact of different prioritization schemes.

Gather Basic Information

First, some basic information must be gathered and a few calculations are needed. The quantity for each order is entered in column C and the due date is entered in column J. Multiplying the processing time for each station (Cutting, Sewing, etc.) by the quantity ordered allows the student to calculate the time required (shown in weeks here) for each process/job combination.

Prepare a Schedule

With this information, it is possible to prepare a schedule for each work center. The Cutting process for the first job (Plain T-Shirts) starts at time 0 and lasts 0.9 weeks. Once this order is complete, the next job at the Cutting center (Sports Shorts) can begin and the Plain T-Shirts order can begin at the Sewing center (the next process required for this product).


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Note that an order cannot begin processing until it has finished at the preceding workstation. For example, Sports Shorts cannot begin processing at the Dyeing station when Plain T-Shirts are finished (at time 6.0) because the Sports Shorts are not finished at the Press Transfer station until time 8.2. Sports Shorts are similarly delayed at the Packaging station.

Compare Schedules using Different Priorities

For example, compared to the earliest due date schedule shown earlier, scheduling jobs to prioritize those with the shortest overall duration reduces the number of late jobs (from two to one), but increases the total lateness (from 2.4 weeks to 4.2 weeks).


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Matching Capacity to Demand

On the Production Floor, capacity is determined in two ways. First, the number of jobs that can be in the system at any given time is limited by the number of production employees (one employee is required for each job after the first). Second, the processing rate of each machine can limit the number of items that can be produced each week.

To determine the number of employees to staff the production floor, it is necessary to balance the capacity across all aspects of the business. If too many jobs are active in production, there may be insufficient capacity in Receiving and/or Shipping. In addition, to keep production employees busy, it may be necessary to hire additional customer service agents.

For example, at the beginning of Module 4 there are 5 work requests waiting to be produced.

Maximizing Throughput

In order to maximize throughput, these jobs should be processed as quickly as possible. Assuming there are no equipment upgrades, the production floor should be staffed to maximize utilization of the equipment. Although this staffing level does depend somewhat on the order in which jobs are


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processed, we will assume jobs are processed in order of their due dates. Therefore, the approximate production schedule for these jobs will be as follows (if no equipment upgrades are purchased).

From this production schedule, it is clear that as many as 4 jobs can be active at any time. In fact, if we consider that additional work requests may be added to the schedule as earlier jobs are completed, it seems that 3 or 4 active jobs will be the norm. Therefore, staffing the production floor with 3 employees is a good starting point.

With this production schedule, it will be necessary to have all raw materials in stock and available within 3 weeks. This means that receiving capacity may need to be as high as 3,000 units per week. This is, in fact, not feasible in this module. A more reasonable plan might be to increase receiving capacity to 1,500 units per week (by hiring 3 new employees for the receiving area). This causes the production schedule to be modified, but production staffing of 3 employees is still reasonable.

In the Shipping area, base capacity is quite low. One order with a size limit of 75 pounds is insufficient. Therefore, additional staffing is required. Hiring two workers increases capacity to three orders per week with a total weight of about 2,500 pounds. This may be more weight than is needed, but our long term goal of having about 3 orders per week in process will require this level of capacity.

Finally, the Bidding and Contracts area also needs to be in balance with the rest of the facility. With two to three jobs being completed each week, the ability to bid on two or three orders (assuming some bids will not be won) is needed. Staffing the Bidding and Contracts area with two employees gives us the ability to bid on three contracts each week.

At this point, the production system is well-balanced, with each department capable of supporting the goal of three active jobs at any given time.

Constraints and Bottlenecks

Because the Practice Operations factory is set up as a job shop with batch scheduling, attention to constraints and bottlenecks is particularly important. Identifying the bottlenecks in the process is straightforward, beginning with determining cycle time for each work station.

To prepare for this demonstration, employees must be hired in Receiving (hire 2 employees) and Production (hire 2 employees). Start production orders for Plain T-Shirts, Sports Shorts, White Socks, and Low-Rise Jeans as soon as all workers are available.


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Routing Pathways

At the start of Module 4 there are five work requests in the factory, with three separate routings.

Routing 1 Plain T-shirts Cutting, Sewing, Press Transfer, Packaging

Routing 2 Sports Shorts and White Socks Cutting, Sewing, Packaging

Routing 3 Low Rise Jeans and Bermuda Shorts Cutting, Sewing, Dyeing, Packaging

Finding Bottlenecks

To identify the bottleneck, cycle through the stations and record the cycle time (notice that the cutting station has already been upgraded in the first turn).

Process Time (seconds per unit)

Routing Cutting Sewing Press Transfer Dyeing Packaging Bottleneck

1 72 166 244 N/A 144 Press Transfer


3 72 166 N/A 144 144 Sewing

For routings 1 and 2, the bottleneck operation is Press Transfer. For routing 3, the bottleneck operation is Sewing. Upgrading both of these work stations is recommended (with the following results).

Process Time (seconds per unit)

Routing Cutting Sewing Press Transfer Dyeing Packaging Bottleneck



3 72 136 N/A 144 144 Dyeing/Packaging

After the upgrades, the Press Transfer station remains the bottleneck for routings 1 and 2, but Dyeing and Packaging are now bottlenecks for routing 3.

the presence of several different routings complicates the bottleneck analysis. An alternative means of identifying bottlenecks is to examine the utilization of equipment. Machines with particularly high utilizations are potential bottlenecks.


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With four work requests active in the factory, the production plan initially shows that Sewing is the most highly-utilized work station (after upgrades as described earlier).

This is not surprising because Sewing (and Packaging) are two of the three operations that all work requests pass through (the third is Cutting, but capacity there is highest of all workstations). Packaging has not been highly utilized at this point because no jobs have reached that stage.

For the next week, the production plan shows that Sewing and Press Transfer are the most utilized operations.

For February, Week 2, utilization changes as the product mix begins to shift.


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As products move closer to completion, the Packaging station becomes highly utilized.


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And remains so for several weeks.

Note that in this example no new jobs were started into the system. However, it is clear from actual utilizations that the bottleneck resources are still Sewing and Packaging. Upgrading each of these stations is recommended.

Students can continue this analysis as the module progresses to better tune their system.

End of the Tutorial

There is a brief Tutorial at the start of Module 4 to introduce Human Resources and describe how to hire

and train people. From then on, you are on your own! Make use of this manual as a reference

supplement. As you can see from the material above in Module 4, there are a lot of useful tips for

improving your results when playing Practice Operations. More of these plans are contained in the next

section for the full length game in Module 5.


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Module 5: The New Branch

Module 5 gives you the opportunity to be in total control of Kibby & Strand. Your goal is simple – build your net worth to $50,000 as quickly as possible. You can choose any strategy you like, but be sure you are as efficient as possible to keep those orders (and profits) rolling in!

You’ve already learned a lot in the other modules, but module 5 offers a chance to polish your human resources skills. One way to keep your operation efficient is to employ highly-skilled workers. In Practice Operations, there are two ways to accomplish this task. You can hire outside talent or you can develop your own workers through training.

Hiring vs. Training

A common human resources dilemma is whether to hire talent from outside the organization or to develop talent within the firm. This issue can be explored in Practice Operations, Module 5.

One way to explore the talent development issue is to look at the total cost of employment. At the beginning of Module 5, a number of applicants are waiting to be hired. Two of these are Aiko Chan and Sandeep Patel.

If we are hiring for the Production area, Aiko Chan has a higher skill level (his Machine Operations skill level is 3) than Sandeep Patel. However, the higher skill level comes with a higher salary cost. To equalize the skill level, we will need to provide Sandeep Patel with training at a cost of $800 per week (for two weeks). In addition, Sandeep will not be available to work during the two weeks of training, making the total cost of training $1,240.

However, after training, Sandeep Patel will have equivalent skills to Aiko Chan at a lower salary. The train-versus-hire decision can be evaluated using a “make versus buy” analysis.


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The total cost of hiring Sandeep Patel becomes less expensive after 42 weeks of employment (41.33 weeks, in fact) and benefits of in-house training continue to accrue after that. If you expect to reach your goal sooner than 42 weeks, you may be better off hiring Aiko Chan.

Analyzing Employee Expenses

The hiring process involves a number of factors. One is the current needs of the organization while a second is the availability of candidates. In Module 5, students can learn that one key element of hiring success is alignment between different functional units and human resources. For example, if the firm has a hiring goal of three production employees, it is helpful for human resources to have this information early to allow for strategic hiring.

At the beginning of Module 5, there are three candidates in the hiring pool.

Employee Training Cost Weekly Salary

Aiko Chan $0 $250

Sandeep Patel $1,240 $220


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Since we are hiring for the Production area, the candidates’ Machine Operations skills are of highest interest to us. Clearly, Ali Ismail is significantly more expensive to hire than either Danny Kaiser or Joseph Escobar. It seems prudent at this point to hire only two candidates and to wait to see if a better candidate arises in the near future. Note that this ability to wait is only available if the firm has planned ahead and begins the hiring process before actual needs occur. In this case, an economic analysis of total hiring costs can be used to examine the total cost of employment.

Assuming employees will be actively working in Production for 10 weeks (starting in week 4), total cost for these three candidates is:

Candidate Week 2 Week 3 Weeks 4 – 13 Total Cost

Ali Ismail $400 $400 $4,000 $4,800

Danny Kaiser $220 $220 $2,200 $2,640

Joseph Escobar $150 $150 $1,500 $1,800

To complete week 1, hire Danny Kaiser and Joseph Escobar, with both assigned to the Production area.

At the beginning of week 2, only one candidate is available in human resources.

With a weekly salary of $200, Johnathan Martin has a favorable total cost of employment (compared to both Ali Ismail and Danny Kaiser).


Ali Ismail $400 $400 $4,000 $4,800

Danny Kaiser $220 $220 $2,200 $2,640

Joseph Escobar $150 $150 $1,500 $1,800

Johnathan Martin $0 $200 $2,000 $2,200

Although it may be prudent to hire Johnathan Martin, we may decide to see if a better option will arise in week 3.


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In week 3, there are three candidates available.

Total cost analysis for the candidates shows the possible outcomes.


Ali Ismail $400 $400 $4,000 $4,800

Danny Kaiser $220 $220 $2,200 $2,640

Joseph Escobar $150 $150 $1,500 $1,800

Johnathan Martin $0 $200 $2,000 $2,200

Aleksander Batalev $0 $0 $1,700 $1,700

Ming Zhou $0 $0 $2,200 $2,200

Dolph Bankins $0 $0 $2,000 $2,000

If we choose to hire Aleksander Batalev, total costs for the decisions made are $6,140.


Danny Kaiser $220 $220 $2,200 $2,640

Joseph Escobar $150 $150 $1,500 $1,800


Total $6,140


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If we had known the available pool of candidates ahead of time, we could have made the best possible hiring decisions, with a resulting total cost of just $5,500.


Joseph Escobar $150 $150 $1,500 $1,800


Dolph Bankins $0 $0 $2,000 $2,000

Total $5,500

On the other hand, hiring the first three available candidates would result in a total cost of $9,240.


Ali Ismail $400 $400 $4,0000 $4,800

Danny Kaiser $220 $220 $2,200 $2,640

Joseph Escobar $150 $150 $1,500 $1,800

Total $9,240

Remember, if you find you don’t need an employee’s services you can fire him/her. However, this is not a decision to be taken lightly. You will be charge the equivalent of two week’s salary in severance charges.


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Reputation

In Practice Operations, customers rate performance on three dimensions. Quality is determined by the quality of raw materials used, timeliness is measured by how well the requested delivery date was met, and customer service is driven by the number and skill of Bidding and Contracts staff.

As in the real world, improving your reputation increases your potential customer base and can improve margins by allowing the firm to charge a higher price for goods. Students can directly observe the impact of quality, timeliness, and customer service on an order-by-order basis.

In this case, timeliness was good, quality was fair, and customer service was poor, leading to a moderately satisfied customer.

In this order, timeliness was poor, quality was bad, and customer service was good, leading to a moderately dissatisfied customer.


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Finally, by exceeding customer expectations in quality and delivery, strong improvements in customer satisfaction can be realized.

Although the treatment of customer satisfaction in Practice Operations is necessarily simplified, the impact of meeting (or exceeding) customer expectations is clearly visible.

Module 6: Maximizing Profits

This is it! A chance to see if all your training in the previous 4 modules will pay off. You are now the boss of a brand new branch! All the decisions are yours to make! Can you run an efficient operation and make so much money that all your fellow classmates can do is shower you with admiration and ask your advice? Or will your workcenter be the one labeled as what –NOT– to do? This section of the manual will offer you a number of tips to help you be in the former category. GOOD LUCK!

Long-Term Perspective

In this module, you are committed to run your business for 50 turns, so be sure to consider the long-term effects of you decisions. The two main expenses you are likely to encounter are employee wages and inventory costs. Wages were covered in the Module 4 and 5 guides. In module 6, you should also pay close attention to your inventory expenses.


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Total Cost of Ownership

Naturally, the purchase price for raw materials is a key element of inventory cost. However, other factors also contribute to the total cost of ownership. One of the less-visible issues associated with inventory is holding costs. Holding costs have many potential causes:

Opportunity costs – the inability to use capital that is tied up in inventory for other purposes

Storage costs – the need to rent or buy space to hold inventory

Loss/damage/theft – inventory in storage is susceptible to many hazards

Taxes – some government entities assess annual inventory taxes on the value of stock being

held

These costs can really add up! In Practice Operations, the cost of holding raw materials is about 10% of the inventory value each turn. Finished products are less expensive, but still cost you 5% of value each turn. Managing inventory carefully can really contribute to your net worth.

One way to carefully manage your inventory is to delay raw material purchases as long as possible. This expands upon the vendor selection discussion that was started in module 2. The Total Cost of Ownership analysis allows us to develop a more complete view of what each vendor really offers.

Let’s examine the Total Cost of Ownership for silk material by evaluating two potential vendors. First, we need to gather the necessary data.

We will compare two potential vendors – Owens Textiles and Tigerlily Textiles. For silk, the holding cost is $0.41 per unit each turn (this is based upon the average cost of all vendors). To continue our analysis, we will also need the specific quantities and price discounts offered by each vendor.


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For now, we will ignore the difference in quality between the two vendors. Both vendors offer a quantity discount, although Tigerlily is more generous with this discount if the quantities are high enough. On the other hand, Owens offers a larger discount if we can provide them with sufficient lead time. To keep our analysis from getting too complicated, we will assume that we can order with at least three weeks’ lead time and that we will order at least 175 units at any given time. This evens the special discounts to 25% for each vendor.

The biggest difference between the two vendors is their maximum order quantity. Owens can provide up to 250 units per week while Tigerlily can meet larger weekly orders --up to 1,200 units per week. If we need to accumulate larger quantities, this could be very beneficial. Of course, Tigerlily’s higher initial price may still tilt the scales in favor of Owens.

To complete our analysis, we will evaluate the two vendors over a range of purchase quantities to determine the total cost of ownership.

For any given desired quantity, we will need to determine how long it will take to accumulate the materials from the vendor. This will allow us to calculate the average inventory and holding costs associated with waiting for the materials to all become available.

For example, if we want to have 1,000 units of silk available at some time in the future (say 5 weeks from now), we can place an order with Tigerlily to have all 1,000 units delivered 5 weeks from now. However, the quantity constraints imposed by Owens will require us to have the deliveries spread over time. It will take us 4 weeks to accumulate 1,000 units from Owens, so we will hold inventory according to this schedule.

Period Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

Inventory 0 250 500 750 1000

Holding Cost $0.00 $102.50 $205.00 $307.50 $0.00

For weeks 1 through 4, our average inventory is 375 units (0+250+500+750

4= 375). At a holding cost of

$0.41 per unit each week, this is a total added cost of $615. If we choose to work with Tigerlily, we have no holding costs in weeks 1 – 4 because our entire inventory arrives in week 5.

The other major difference between the two vendors is quality. Owens delivers a lower quality product, so we may have to perform an inspection to achieve the higher level of quality offered by Tigerlily. Inspecting 250 units of silk from Owens appears to result in about 11%


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of the units being rejected. This raises our cost per unit if we purchase from Owens.

Continuing this analysis for a range of quantities, we can determine the total cost of ownership associated with the two vendors.

Total Cost of Ownership – Owens Textiles

Quantity Unit Price

Time to accumulate (weeks)

Average Inventory

Total Holding Cost

Purchase Cost

Quality Cost

Total Cost

250 $2.40 1 0 $0.00 $ 600.00 $ 64.80 $664.80

500 $2.40 2 125 $102.50 $1,200.00 $129.60 $1,432.10

750 $2.40 3 250 $307.50 $1,800.00 $194.40 $2,301.90

1000 $2.40 4 375 $615.00 $2,400.00 $259.20 $3,274.20

1250 $2.40 5 500 $1,025.00 $3,000.00 $324.00 $4,349.00

1500 $2.40 6 625 $1,537.50 $3,600.00 $388.80 $5,526.30

1750 $2.40 7 750 $2,152.50 $4,200.00 $453.60 $6,806.10

2000 $2.40 8 875 $2,870.00 $4,800.00 $518.40 $8,188.40

2250 $2.40 9 1,000 $3,690.00 $5,400.00 $583.20 $9,673.20

2500 $2.40 10 1,125 $4,612.50 $6,000.00 $648.00 $11,260.50

2750 $2.40 11 1,250 $5,637.50 $6,600.00 $712.80 $12,950.30

3000 $2.40 12 1,375 $6,765.00 $7,200.00 $777.60 $14,742.60

Total Cost of Ownership – Tigerlily Textiles

Quantity Unit Price

Time to accumulate (weeks)

Average Inventory

Total Holding Cost

Purchase Cost

Quality Cost

Total Cost

250 $ 3.00 1 0 $0.00 $ 750.00 $0.00 $750.00

500 $ 3.00 1 0 $0.00 $1,500.00 $0.00 $1,500.00

750 $ 3.00 1 0 $0.00 $2,250.00 $0.00 $2,250.00

1000 $ 3.00 1 0 $0.00 $3,000.00 $0.00 $3,000.00

1250 $ 3.00 2 1200 $492.00 $3,750.00 $0.00 $4,242.00

1500 $ 3.00 2 1200 $492.00 $4,500.00 $0.00 $4,992.00

1750 $ 3.00 2 1200 $492.00 $5,250.00 $0.00 $5,742.00

2000 $ 3.00 2 1200 $492.00 $6,000.00 $0.00 $6,492.00

2250 $ 3.00 2 1200 $492.00 $6,750.00 $0.00 $7,242.00

2500 $ 3.00 3 1800 $738.00 $7,500.00 $0.00 $8,238.00

2750 $ 3.00 3 1800 $738.00 $8,250.00 $0.00 $8,988.00

3000 $ 3.00 3 1800 $738.00 $9,000.00 $0.00 $9,738.00

The results of this comparison show that for small quantities (500 or fewer units), Owens Textiles provides a lower total cost of ownership. However, once the required quantity rises to 750 or more units, choosing Tigerlily Textiles can lead to significant savings. In addition, Tigerlily’s ability to provide


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larger weekly quantities means your firm can respond much more quickly to large customer orders. By the time the required quantity reaches 2,000 or more units, the total savings can add up to thousands of dollars. Of course, be careful not to order too much material. If you have to sell it back later you will lose all of these savings and more!

Careful analysis of purchasing options allows you to consider all of the costs of buying (and holding) materials. The cost savings you identify can quickly add up, enabling your firm to achieve a truly impressive net worth.j

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