ABSTRACT
In common, it seems, with several undergraduate business courses, many students at the University of Buckingham are not initially interested in operations management. Several approaches can be adopted, ranging from ‘Just do it; it’s good for you!’ to, ‘We will show you how much fun operations can be’. Over eight years at Buckingham, operations management has evolved from the former but now attempts the latter. A prime tool, but not the only tool, for this has been games. This chapter will briefly describe the games used (including the chain game, a layout game, an MRP game, various OPT games, a JIT game, quality games, supplier partnership, and a business process re-engineering game), and mention the fun and the failures. Over the eight-year period, class sizes have increased which has made the use of games more difficult, but has led to the use of some innovations such as parallel games and computer games, which has met with mixed success. The overall experience will be evaluated. I have also run many of the same games in industry, and a comparison with the industrial experiences will be given. Generally, games seem to work better where there is a real situation to refer back to, leading to the desirability to combine games with other activities such as visits.
