Procedure
For planning within a planning game 4.5 days and at the end half a day for the presentation of the results are normally scheduled.
The members of the company (each participant plays a specific role in the company) receive personal information and generally accessible information on the Intranet of VLC vGmbH or VLP vGmbH.
A planning manual is available to the employees of the company in which the procedure for factory and warehouse planning is described. In addition, the VETC operates a large media library with detailed information on technical systems of warehouse and production automation as well as of handling and conveying technology which can be used as a knowledge base. This ensures that the planning teams do not waste too much time with the development of a planning procedure but are able to concentrate directly on the planning task.
Planning Game | Preparation and Work Supporting Material | |
---|---|---|
Personalized data | Planner handbook (based on lecture material) (site, factory and warehouse planning) | Media database (Detailed information and system data of technical equipment for production and logistics automation) |
Company intranet | ||
Information change during runtime |
At certain points during the planning game the team members are sometimes confused by misinformation, information corrections or changed targets effected by the management board from their own company and are forced to revise the original plan. This helps to simulate real everyday problems in the planning teams.
The planning teams then pass through the development cycle of virtual teams which in accordance with a long-term study by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Augustin (Augustin, H.: Management virtuell arbeitender Engineering-Teams - Kommunikationsverhalten und Informationstechnologieeinsatz im Virtual Collaborative Engineering. In: wt-online 150 (2008) 5, p. 312-318) leads through highs and lows related to the different fields of influence. This experience can then be transferred by means of realistic simulation of the planning games with transfer workshops to everyday situations.
On the last day the groups present their results to a virtual Managing Board made up of company management, works council and other specialists.
To prepare the young students for the planning games different lectures and labs are provided in the courses of studies:
- Site, factory and warehouse planning
- Factory planning with laboratory
- Laboratory VR technologies in factory and warehouse planning
- Laboratory Information and communications technology for virtual teams
1 Augustin, H.: Management virtuell arbeitender Engineering-Teams - Kommunikationsverhalten und Informationstechnologieeinsatz im Virtual Collaborative Engineering. In: wt-online 150 (2008) 5, S. 312-318