Editing Beer distribution game (section)

==Rules==
In the beer game participants enact a four-stage supply chain. The task is to produce and deliver units of beer: the factory produces, and the other three stages deliver the beer units until it reaches the customer at the downstream end of the chain. The goal of the game is to meet customer demand with minimal expenditure on back orders and inventory.

The game is played in 24 rounds and in each round of the game the following four steps have to be performed:  

# Check deliveries: How many units of beer are being delivered to the player from the wholesaler. 
# Check orders: How many units the customer has ordered. 
# Deliver beer: Deliver as much beer as a player can to satisfy the demand (in this game the step is performed automatically).  
# Make order decision: Decide how many units are needed to order to maintain stock. 

As previously said, there are four stages, manufacturer, distributor, supplier, retailer, with a two-week communication gap of orders toward the upstream and a two-week supply chain delay of product towards the downstream. There is a one-point cost for holding excess inventory and a one-point cost for any backlog (old backlog + orders - current inventory). In the board game version, players cannot see anything other than what is communicated to them through pieces of paper with numbers written on them, signifying orders or product. The retailer draws from a deck of cards for what the customer demands, and the manufacturer places an order which, in turn, becomes product in four weeks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Understanding the Beer Game - transentis.com - |url=https://www.transentis.com/understanding-the-beer-game/ |date=2015-01-16 |website=transentis.com |language=en-US |access-date=2020-05-30}}</ref>

Players look to one another within their supply chain frantically trying to figure out where things are going wrong. The team or supply chain that achieves the lowest total costs wins. At the end during the debriefing, it is explained that these feelings are common and that reactions based on these feelings within supply chains create the [[bullwhip effect]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sterman |first=John D. |date=March 1989 |title=Modeling Managerial Behavior: Misperceptions of Feedback in a Dynamic Decision Making Experiment |journal=Management Science |language=en |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=321–339 |doi=10.1287/mnsc.35.3.321 |issn=0025-1909 |hdl=1721.1/2184|hdl-access=free }}</ref> The game illustrates in a compelling way the effects of poor system understanding and poor communication for even a relatively simple and idealized supply chain. Although players often raise the lack of perfect information about the customer orders as a primary reason for their poor team performance in the game, analysis of the minimum possible score using the optimal strategy under different conditions shows an expected value of perfect information of 0 for the standard game,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=Kimberly M. |last2=Badizadegan |first2=Nima D. |date=2015 |title=Valuing Information in Complex Systems: An Integrated Analytical Approach to Achieve Optimal Performance in the Beer Distribution Game |journal=IEEE Access |volume=3 |pages=2677–2686 |doi=10.1109/ACCESS.2015.2505730 |issn=2169-3536|doi-access=free |url=http://authors.library.caltech.edu/65681/1/07360108.pdf }}</ref> and simulations that included giving players perfect information still showed poor team performance.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Croson |first1=Rachel |last2=Donohue |first2=Karen |last3=Katok |first3=Elena |last4=Sterman |first4=John |date=2005 |title=Order Stability in Supply Chains: Coordination Risk and the Role of Coordination Stock |journal=APA PsycExtra |doi=10.1037/e640112011-046|hdl=1721.1/102763 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>