Initial Situation

The work of engineers and graduates in business administration takes place in an international and intercultural environment and under extreme time pressure. Further, planning is usually highly complex and can only be prepared by a team where the specialists are not always available at the same site but are recruited from different divisions of the company. This means that the number of international teams is constantly increasing. 

These changes in working conditions lead to new demands on university graduates and employees in industry and must be taken into account accordingly in their further education and training. Since theoretical lectures cannot impart the required skills adequately two planning games have been developed for the courses of studies in Operations Management at ESB Business School, Reutlingen University in which the students apply the knowledge they have acquired during the semester in a practical example within an intercultural and global context.

The planning games were compiled under the umbrella of the EPG vAG (Engineering Project Group, vAG), which is made up of the two independently operating, virtual engineering offices VLC vGmbH (Virtual Logistics Company virtuelle GmbH and VLP vGmbH (Virtual Production Company, virtuelle GmbH) . Both companies offer planning games for the acquisition of knowledge in the fields of competence which are required for collaboration in virtual, intercultural engineering teams.  

In the planning game ViPPER (Virtual Product and Process Engineering) the participants develop a pneumatic valve for a customer in their virtual company VLP vGmbH and carry out the entire factory planning up to the ramp-up of series production.

In the planning game ViSLER (Virtual Supply Chain and Logistics Engineering) the participants develop a European logistics strategy with site planning for the production and distribution of laptops, carrying out warehouse planning and deciding on the awarding of transportation contracts for parcels and general cargo. 

Similar planning games over two to five days are offered at VETC for virtual product development, factory planning and logistics planning for industrial companies in.