Could we use games to explore different supply chain options and designs, just as the military uses games to explore different strategies and tactics? Could a supply chain game show us the best supply chain solutions the same way wargames can show the best military solutions? If so, what would that supply chain game look like?
“We wargame because we must. There are certain warfare problems that only gaming can illuminate.” – Robert Rubel, Professor Emeritus, Naval Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College.
Military organizations have been using games to train their people and predict possible outcomes of future battles since the Prussian Army began using the wargame “Kriegsspiel” some 200 years ago. This shouldn’t be surprising if we accept the notion that games are a biological adaptation in mammals to gain survival skills. Play is the activity of practicing survival skills in low-urgency situations that can then be used in high-urgency, life-and-death situations. This is exactly what the military does with wargames.
Reality vs Playability in Games
Let’s start by noting that there are two kinds of games:
- Entertainment games – games designed for having fun
- Serious games – games designed for learning real-world skills
Entertainment games are about having fun, not about learning real-world skills. And as a result, game design techniques used for entertainment games and for serious games differ in significant ways.
History is used as a theme for entertainment games, but serious games (such as wargames) seek to literally replicate and recreate history. So the data used in wargames for terrain, logistics, weapons capabilities, etc. needs to be as accurate as possible. These games must be accurate enough to help decision makers get an understanding of where and how future conflicts might develop, and help historians replicate and understand why past conflicts happened as they did.
The problem with entertainment games is that the skills learned by players are rarely transferable to the real world. For example, chess masters develop great skill in the game of chess, which allows them to perform to a higher level than novices. But these skills are not directly transferable to the real world. Studies show chess masters have superior memory and skill in chess, but chess masters have the same memory and skill capacity as chess novices in areas not related to chess.
This is why the use of realistic data and accurate models in educational simulations (serious games) is so important. It enables skills developed in those serious games to be transferable for use in the real world.
Applying Techniques from Wargames to a Supply Chain Game
SCM Globe is a serious supply chain game, and like wargames, it uses accurate data, and a map of the world as its game board. This is shown in the screenshots below. These screenshots show the model of an actual supply chain for a company that makes furniture in Indonesia and sells to customers around the world. This model was created by defining groups of four types of supply chain entities: 1) Products; 2) Facilities; 3) Vehicles; and 4) Routes. And then dragging and dropping the resulting entity icons to place them on a digital map in places where they actually are or where people want them to be.
(click on screenshots to see larger images)
SCM Globe leverages digital maps (like Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Maps, OpenStreetMap, etc.) to create its game board. Players are able to zoom in on the map and turn on the satellite view and place products, facilities, vehicles, and routes in exact locations on the map. The information used to define these entities accurately reflects the real world.
This placement of entity icons (products, facilities, vehicles, routes) creates a mathematically rigorous model of the supply chain, yet supply chain designers do not have to deal directly with the math or need a lot of training to quickly create accurate models. The supply chain models created by defining and placing the entities on the map are then run in simulations and people can see how well their supply chain designs work. They use simulations results to improve their designs and explore different options. The skills students learn in these simulations are directly transferable for use in the real world.
This use of models created by placing game pieces on a map, and realistic simulations that show performance of those models makes SCM Globe quite similar to wargames. Both use similar techniques to teach students real-world skills that they can use to effectively solve problems they will encounter in their jobs.
Manual Games versus Video Games
Philip Sabin is Professor Emeritus of Strategic Studies in the War Studies Department of King’s College, London UK. In his book, Simulating War, he explores using wargames as teaching tools, and he describes and shows examples of effective use of wargaming techniques.
Professor Sabin explains that “manual wargames”, games where you have to manually manipulate each piece on a game board, push students to understand the overall system that is created by all the individual pieces. They see how each piece relates to the other pieces on the board. The process of manually manipulating each piece requires a higher level of mental engagement than would be required if the pieces were automatically moved about by the game itself. This higher level of engagement is what focuses students’ minds and enables them to see the patterns and learn the skills needed to respond effectively.
Sabin explains that most video games used for entertainment hide the components that make them work because that makes for better entertainment. But this inaccesable “black box” game design doesn’t allow students to grasp the inner workings and operating logic of the game, so overall understanding is diminished compared to the depth of subject matter understanding developed by users of manual wargames.
Modeling and Simulation Enables Deliberate Practice
Like wargames, SCM Globe is composed of both modeling and simulation. The modeling part happens when players design their supply chains by creating the supply chain entities and placing them on the map. In this process players are exploring the map, defining products and demand, locating facilities, and creating vehicles and routes to move products between facilities to meet demand.
Once this is done, students click on the “Simulation” button, and the software runs the model in a simulation. It shows real-time readouts of cost and performance data for each of the facilities and vehicles. And it shows how long the supply chain will operate before a problem develops. When there is a problem, the simulation points out where the problem is and what caused it (for instance warehouse A ran out of product B) as shown below.
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The benefit of combining modeling and simulation is that students can easily create supply chain models by defining and locating products, facilities, vehicles and routes on a map. Then in simulations, they quickly find out how well their models work. Students can play “what if” games and test out different model designs. They change models, simulate the effect of those changes, and keep improving their models until they get the performance they want.
Design Thinking
One of the main reasons Professor Sabin and other wargame designers prefer using manual wargames instead of automated video wargames is because the ability to redesign the rules of the game encourages students to understand the details of how the game works. They see the results produced by different model designs. Whereas in automated video games students cannot rewrite the rules of the game because it would take an enormous amount of time, as well as require software skills that most students do not possess. So exploration of different operating models is restricted to only what is already programmed into the game.
SCM Globe provides the ability to change the rules and design new and unique supply chains models in the same way as manual wargames. People can start with any of the existing supply chain models from the SCM Globe library and change them by adding new entities or changing existing ones as they wish. They can also create completely new supply chain models from scratch, or model real supply chains such as their company’s supply chain or a competitor’s supply chain. Simulations then show the results of the design and operating decisions made in those models.
Because people can modify existing supply chain models and create and explore new ones, it gives them the opportunity to literally become skilled game designers, or more specifically, to become skilled supply chain designers.
NOTE: SCM Globe worked with the U.S. Air Force in 2024 and 2025 to develop an AI-assisted, multi-user, military collaboration platform called “Enterprise/X4SIM” for logistics training, supply chain design, operations planning, and real-time performance monitoring. The commercial version of this platform is now available for business use.