Jul18
El Juego de la Cerveza – Systems Dynamics
One of the activities conducted during the System Dynamics class in Colombia was the Beer Game – El Juego de la Cerveza
It allows students to experience first-hand how structure of business organizations impact their behavior, to some extent irrespectively of how skilled their managers may be. In the game, a 3 tier distribution system delivers beer from a factory to consumers. Only the retailer knows the consumer demand. As information and goods propagates through the chain with delays, oscillation occurs.
Students play competitively, as a pool of money collected from them at the start of the game will be awarded to the winners. A very entertaining and active dynamic develops during the 4 hour exercise.

The Systems Dynamics Society offers kits for playing the beer game, that I recommend. They include everything you need to run the game, as well as videos of Professor Sterman running a session.
I have attended many of his sessions, both as student and observer – my employer sponsors the Beer Game during incoming MBA orientation at MIT. Professor Craig Kirkwood at Arizona State University also has very good materials and hints.
I decided to run with a low-budget version that uses beans, pieces of paper and boards printed on common plotter paper. Everything is in Spanish language. I believe publishing the materials here may be useful to colleagues in Latin America and other Spanish-speaking countries.

Here is the board for the game, and here are the slides
For editable versions of these files, please contact me directly.
No related posts.
Hola Juan Carlos,
me podrias mandar los archivos del tablero a mi también? Muchas gracias y feliz año
Que tal Juan Carlos.
Me parecio bastante interesante tu blog, pero no pude accesar a los archivos del tablero y las diapositivas del juego de la cerveza.
Me podrías apoyar en ese sentido por favor.
De antemano, muchas gracias.
Juan Carlos, no se puede descargar el tablero del juego y los slides en español en el enlace anterior, ¿por favor podrías enviármelo a mi correo? Gracias y saludos
Hola Juan Carlos, no he podido descargar el tablero del juego en español en el link que proporcionas, ¿podrías enviármelo por favor?
Gracias anticipadas.
hola juan carlos
Hecho de menos la hoja de registro, ¿podría decirme que cosas hay en dicha hoja?
un saludo
daniel naranjo
Hi
Is it possible to download the editable files to convert it to English?
Thanks
Karthik
Hello,
Great material, but do you have it in English ?
Kind regards,
Vibeke (Norway)