Production Game Debriefing- Manager (1)

1)Initially, my responsibilities were purchasing, cutting/stripping, and delivering products to theconsumer. Over the course of the game, those tasks became secondary to being themicromanager in each step of the process. Since I was constantly inquiring about the process time and progress in the Base Case and Customization steps, I devoted less time to my actually stated hardware tasks. I actually ended up cutting wires only, while Jon exclusively did stripping.My process in cutting wires was intermittent, whenever I felt our wire inventory was getting low.I also could not purchase or deliver by myself, since I did not take into account how muchmaterial I could hold. Instead, Lisa/Alex helped me purchase and carry our raw material to our workstation, and Peter helped me carry our finished goods to the consumer. I also noted down our revenue from each completed order.2)What worked well:Preparation before the game was essential. During our first meeting, I compiled a reference sheet that described which materials were necessary in the Base Case, and which were added on depending on whether the order was a Plain, Power Savor, or Deluxe. During the production game day, I made sign labels indicating piles for the three wire lengths (for both Cut/Strip and Base Case I stages), each of the Plain, Power Savor, and Deluxe orders, each WIP stage, Faulty Products, and cups for the three types of resistors. I also made cheat sheets such as “Red + X” to remind the Base Case and Customizers where to insert the wires in the breadboard assembly.We also made paper measurements for each of the 35, 45, and 25mm wires so we could simply hold the wires up to the example and cut accordingly. The fact that we were all prepared for our parts prior to the game was a great advantage.We also responded well to environmental changes and our flexibility ultimately lead to oursuccess. When Customizers needed more help, Peter went to help them assemble the three respective designs. Jon exclusively focused on Stripping when I found it more difficult.Anushirvan went from assembling only Base Case I to the entire Base Case when he saw that Base Case II workers were experiencing difficulty. This adaptation to whatever was necessary was very important.Finally, our information flow helped our process flow smoothly and without large bottlenecks.Knowing that we always had to have material on-hand in order to avoid bottlenecks, butcouldn’t have too much as to have a large buildup at the end, I concentrated on inventorymanagement at every stage of the process. I would constantly ask each worker if he/she needed anything every few minutes, and if they did, ask them exactly how much they needed. Thus, we had the appropriate quantity of materials at all times. Within 10 minutes of the game ending, I estimated that we could complete order 5 at the most, so stopped buying breadboards andexcess materials. We then concentrated all our efforts in completing orders 4 and 5 with the rest of the material. This forecasting enabled us to avoid having any inventory left at the end of the game.What didn’t work well:Though we had a very solid plan, we did not have a plan B, a safety plan. We did not anticipate what would happen precisely if and when we would have faulty orders. What happened was that when a faulty order got sent back, it was returned to the Customization stage, and all the half-assembled breadboards there created confusion so that we were not sure which parts were supposed to go where on the faulty unit.Also, we did not do a good job in assigning jobs with equal workloads. When we were onlyworking on orders 4 and 5 at the end, the four Base Case I workers had absolutely nothing to do, and we starved the bottleneck, while much pressure was placed on the Customization stage workers to get the last few orders correct.3)I would have improved our game by designing a specific plan for faulty units. Whenever a faultyunit came back, it should have been sent backward down the process, and each stage should have taken out its units. For example, if a faulty green order came back, it should have first gone to the Customizers, and they should take out the units that were added on making it a Power Saving Beacon. Then, it should be sent back to the Base Case, in which the Base Case II would check the resistors and capacitor and Base Case I would check the wires. That way, it would be done quickly and efficiently and minimizing confusion by everyone sticking to each respective role.I would have also improved the game by assigning people different tasks depending on thestage of the game. Initially, more people at Base Case I and II were needed, since there were few units to be customized. At the end, however, the Cutter/Strippers and Base Case people did not have anything to do, and they should have been prepared to step in to help the Customization processes.4)Key takeaways:a)Preparation is necessary.If we didn’t prepare for this game, everyone would have been confused about his/herrespective parts, leading to mass chaos during the game. Because we had made deliberateroles for everyone and arrived to the game alert and prepared, we were successful.b)Flexibility is key.We should always prepare for things to not go as planned. Thus, it is important that keyplayers step into other roles when it is necessary, even when the manager did not specify it.c)Always have a plan B.Going into the game, we didn’t predict that we would have faulty units, and thus didn’thandle the situation like we should have when units were sent back. We must always have a plan when units are rejected.d)Information flow is crucial.Our biggest key to success is flow of information. I, as manager, handled inventorymanagement. The Base Case I and Base Case II workers both communicated in their own lines respectively, and the Customizers were always informed about who was working on which breadboard and which orders were coming. This way, everyone was always updated and miscommunication did not happen, allowing our process to flow smoothly.。