Systems Thinking and Business Process Redesign - An application to the Beer Game

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_16F78D8CFAF2
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Systems Thinking and Business Process Redesign - An application to the Beer Game
Journal
European Management Journal
Author(s)
van Ackere A., Larsen E.R., Morecroft J.D.W.
ISSN
0263-2373
Publication state
Published
Issued date
12/1993
Volume
11
Number
4
Pages
412-423
Language
english
Notes
Invited paper
Abstract
Managers are regrettably ignorant of the fact that their business organisations are 'designable'. But recently, concepts such as business re-engineering and systems thinking, coupled with advances in methods of quantifying business systems, have enabled managers to scrutinise their business systems afresh. Ann van Ackere, Erik Reimer Larsen and John Morecroft use a well-known logistical system -- the 'beer game' -- to illustrate these re-engineering concepts and tools in a multi-stage production and distribution system involving a single brand of beer. This business game raises the fundamental question of why it is so difficult to match shipments and factory production to consumer demand. The authors conclude that such re-design concepts and tools can be applied successfully to full-scale business problems. Systems thinking, modelling and continuous time simulation can provide the framework for carrying the design process from mapping all the way through to redesign. The most effective CEOs of the future will be those who are competent to create corporate design in which employees are allowed to succeed.
Create date
05/06/2009 13:03
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:46
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