LINKS Sign-Up Form:
LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation /

This LINKS Sign-Up Form provides essential information to permit LINKS Simulations staff to manage LINKS on your behalf.

This LINKS Sign-Up Form is for one industry or for multiple industries with identical game-run schedules. Use separate LINKS Sign-Up Forms for industries with different game-run schedules.

LINKS SimulationsVariant / Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation
Instructor’s Name
Instructor’s College/University
Instructor’s Phone Number(s)
Instructor’s E-Mail Address
Course Number/Title/Section
Number of Firms (between 2 and 8)
For multiple industries with identical game-run schedules, identify the number of firms for each industry in the “Number of Firms” line above. For example, “Two Industries: A (4 firms) and B (5 firms).”
Payment Method
If students are paying for LINKS with personal credit cards via the “Pay For LINKS” link on the LINKS website, Payment Method is“Students Pay With Personal Credit Cards.” If the instructor’s institution is paying for LINKS via institutional invoiceattached to an e-mail message sent to the instructor (for forwarding to the relevant within-institution person), Payment Method is“Institutional Invoice.”
LINKS staff execute scheduled game runs daily at 900am, 100pm, 500pm, and 900pm U.S. Eastern Time. Please choose one of these four times for each round in your LINKS event.
If other game run times are desired (e.g., with multiple game runs per day or in corporate/ExecEd events with LINKS), please contact us () well ahead of time to ensure that our staff can meet your specific game run scheduling needs.
LINKS Schedule / Date / Time
(your local time) / Special Instructions and
Instructor-Optional Switches
Initialization (and advancement to M#3 and passcode e-mailing to you and your students)
M#4 / [round 1]
M#5 / [round 2]
M#6 / [round 3]
M#7 / [round 4]
M#8 / [round 5]
M#9 / [round 6]
M#10 / [round 7]
M#11 / [round 8]
M#12 / [round 9]

In academic degree-granting programs, the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation costs $38 per student for a six-round event (after initialization and advancement to month #3, the normal starting position when students assume managerial control of their LINKS firm). Extra rounds beyond six cost an additional $4 per student per extra round.

Here’s asample LINKS schedule for a LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation event. For information about other instructor-optional switches, access the LINKS sign-up webpage ( or the “Customizing LINKS” link on the LINKS Simulations website. To discuss the design of your LINKS event and the use of instructor-optional switches, please contact Randy Chapman ().

LINKS Schedule / Date / Time
(your local time) / Special Instructions and Instructor-Optional Switches
Initialization(and advancement to M#3 and passcode e-mailing to you and your students) / February 22 / Anytime / Deactivate distribution, transportation, and generate demand initially.
M#4 / [round 1] / March 1 / 13:00 / Activate distribution and transportation for M#5 inputs.
M#5 / [round 2] / March 8 / 13:00 / Activate generate demand for M#6 inputs.
M#6 / [round 3] / March 15 / 13:00
M#7 / [round 4] / March 29 / 17:00 / Deactivate air transportation for sub-assembly procurements and shipments to DCs for M#7 and beyond inputs.
M#8 / [round 5] / April 5 / 17:00 / Increase raw materials costs by 25% to take effect in M#8.
M#9 / [round 6] / April 12 / 21:00 / Last LINKS round is a double-run.
M#10 / [round 7]
M#11 / [round 8]
M#12 / [round 9]

Notes: This sample schedule shows regular weekly decision inputson the same week days. Such “regularity” is not a requirement, but it’s a typical scheduling pattern in academic degree-granting programs to help LINKS students in their time management and work-life scheduling.

Please send the completed “LINKS Sign-Up Form” as an e-mail attachment to LINKS Simulations (). / Please communicate any necessary scheduling changes after your LINKS event begins via e-mail to LINKS Simulations ().

About the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation

The key challenge in the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation is profitable and efficient management of the whole supply chain in the face of dynamic competition.

Since product development and service are not part of the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation, there are more limited opportunities to influence demand than in the LINKS Supply Chain Management Simulation. Thus, there is less sales volatility in the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation compared to the LINKS Supply Chain Management Simulation. And, it follows that the greater emphasis is on supply chain cost management rather than on supply chain cost vs. customer service trade-offs.

Starting Conditions

  • Two products actively marketed in two channels (“retail” and “direct”) in three regions.
  • As of M#3, average per-firm profitability is approximately $2,400,000 on revenues of about $27,000,000.
  • Average per-firm M#3 demand (i.e., sales volume in units):

Region 1 / Region 2 / Region 3
Hyperware
Metaware / 12,500
11,000 / 10,000
4,500 / 19,000
10,000
  • Status of product configurations (estimated product quality perceptions, a perceptual rating scale which ranges from 0% to 100%):

Initial
Configuration / Region 1 / Region 2 / Region 3
Product 1 (Hyperware)
Product 2 (Metaware) / H55211
M66322 / 5%
15% / 15%
26% / 10%
18%

Some Initial Firm Decisions (For M#4 and Beyond)

  • Since the firms have been on “auto-pilot” for the initial three months, forecasts must be updated immediately, presumably with reference to the sales history provided in the Forecasting Accuracy Report (included near the end of each firm’s standard financial and operating reports).
  • With updated forecasts, inventory levels throughout a firm’s supply chain must be examined carefully. Firms have been on “auto-pilot” for three months and over- or under-inventory situations might exist.
  • No research studies are provided with the initial M#3 results, so initial firm decisions must include consideration of which research studies would be useful in the future. This point/recommendation must be made quite forcefully by the LINKS instructor, to get the students’ attention in the “blitz” of the overwhelming initial activity set in LINKS as students assume managerial control of their firms.

Recommended Instructor-Optional Switches[1]

The LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation is targeted at a “modest” usage application (five or six rounds) in an academic degree-granting program or in an executive education seminar.

Advanced Options

  1. Change costs in material ways (e.g., increase raw materials Alpha and Beta costs by 25%).
  2. In the latter stages of a LINKS event (with at least two rounds remaining in the game run schedule), deactivate air transportation for plant-to-DC finished goods shipments and/or SAC procurements (“security considerations require surface transportation”). With surface transportation, resultant delays are possible and more salient. And, there is increased student attention to these transportation/procurement decisions and the associated appropriateness of inventory buffer stocks throughout the supply chain.
  3. Include a one-time demand surge (say, a 100% increase for one month followed by a 50% increase for a second month in both channels of one region). Such a demand surge might be based on seasonal buying patterns (e.g., the Christmas gift-giving season) or a general one-time demand increase (e.g., government spending might be increasing substantially in two successive months). The potential magnitude of such a demand surge (perhaps expressed as ranges, such as 85%-115% for the “100%” demand surge) would be described ahead of time to the students. However, even though it’s knows to the students ahead of time, the demand surge will still be a challenge for the firms to manage profitably.

Downsizing the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation

It’s possible to downsize the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation. This might be appropriate in LINKS events scheduled for five rounds and/or in an undergraduate introductory supply chain management or operations management course where a “very modest” simulation emphasis is desired. Downsizing options for the LINKS Supply Chain Management Fundamentals Simulation include:

  1. Automating Epsilon sub-assembly component decisions, so that the LINKS software controls Epsilon procurement management and students aren’t required to make Epsilon sub-assembly component decisions. Gamma and Delta sub-assembly management decisions would still be required.
  2. Deactivating generate demand decisions throughout the event, so that these decisions aren’t required. Deactivating generate demand decisions makes LINKS a pure supply-side simulation exercise with no competitive demand drivers in effect (since all demand-side decisions would be constant/unchanged across all competitors). This would reduce demand volatility, making forecasting less stressful and supply chain management generally easier for students.

With either or both of these downsizing options, the event schedule might include two rounds with distribution and transportation decisions deactivated so that the primary initial decision emphasis would be on procurement, manufacturing, and forecasting. Then, distribution and transportation might be activated for the final three rounds of a five-round event so that distribution network design would be a “new” challenge in the latter portion of the LINKS event.

[1]The use of instructor-optional switches in LINKS events is not “automatic.” Instructors must explicitly request the use of specific instructor-optional switches, either in the original scheduling document provided by the instructor prior to initialization of a LINKS industry via e-mail communication to Randy Chapman () during a LINKS event.