Industrial War Game for Top Business school

Industrial War Game for Top Business school


Industrial War Game is a real-life practical project for MBA program for postgraduate students from the MBA classes. Industrial War Game is very important and useful for MBA program.


The scope of the war game covers (but not limited to) the followings topics:

1. Project Management,
2. Process Control,
3. Quality Management,
4. Capacity Planning,
5. Constraints Management,
6. Supply Chain Management,
7. Inventory Management,
8. Forecasting
9. Scheduling
10. Resource Management
11. Production Planning and Control,
12. Simulation,
13. Marketing
14. Human Resource Management
15. Financial Management.

The ways of how the war game is conducted

The Industrial War Game is a short term (2-3 days to 2-3 weeks) project. It is quite similar to the ‘Simulated War Game’ in a business school. Unlike the current ‘Simulated War Game’ that is based on a rather simulated/hypothetical situation, Industrial War Game focuses on real-live industrial practices. Under this project, graduate students from the MBA classes are required to solve industrial problems. The Graduate Students will travel to the site for an intensive fieldwork. At first, the students gather at the business school and they will be transported to the site (usually it involves a large manufacturing or service operation). Then, these students are divided into separate groups. Each group will be briefed about the issues/problems face by the company. Each group will have a different problem. The relevant material and information is given. Sometimes limited amount of information is available, whereby the students have to search for more information from the site. After that, the students will have to use some techniques/tools/methods to identify the real problems (the causes/ the relevant issues / the related individual or departments, etc.). Having identified the problems and the causes, the students will have to look for alternative ways to solve the problems. They usually have to do some analysis, discussion, brainstorming, interviews, etc. Then, they have to evaluate the alternative solutions and choose the best possible solution. Finally, the students have to present their work to the management of the company.

The project takes 2-3 days to 2-3 weeks depends on the situation. Because it is an intensive project, the students will have to stay over-night in the nearby hotel/chalet/apartment. Usually during day time, they have to report to the company for fieldwork. Evening and at night, they have to have meeting and preparing reports, analyzing data, etc. The whole project will be assisted by an Industrial Tutor (IT) from the business school. It is called Industrial Tutor rather than Graduate Assistant or Research Assistant is because they have to involve in searching, contacting, discussing, planning, organizing, and coordinating the project. Every individual project is jointly designed by the Industrial Tutor, company personnel, and the lecturer.

The company (usually manufacturing or services operations) provides the following:
(a) To provide access to company premises and operations site
(b) To provide places and facilities for the project
(c) To provide information, such as company background, products, process, operations, and systems, etc.
(d) To provide the issues/problems of real industrial practices.
(e) To allow students for site observations, requests for information, interview, collect data, analyze data, etc.

The business school provides the following:
(a) To provide transportation and logistics for students’ field work
(b) To provide background theories/concepts before field work
(c) To provide necessary facilities and equipments such as computer, camera, laptop, projectors, papers, stationery, etc.
(d) To employ an Industrial Tutor/Industrial Assistant (instead of Research Assistant/Graduate Assistant) to search, contact, discuss, plan, organize, and co-ordinate the project.
(e) To bare the labor cost, equipment costs, transportation and logistics cost, as well as any other cost that directly involve in the project.


Through Industrial War Game, MBA students will be benefited in the following ways:

§ The MBA graduate will gain industrial knowledge, skills, experiences, and capabilities in solving practical industrial problems.
§ The MBA graduate will acquire industrial-relevance and hands-on experiences
§ The MBA graduate will gain managerial and operational knowledge transfer from the industries, update of the latest development in industrial management.
§ The MBA graduate has high employability in future


Justification of having Industrial War Game for Top Business School

1. Industrial-relevant: MBA graduates from the business school will be more well-trained than others due to their industrial-relevant project
2. Real-live practices: teaching MBA classes is very practical oriented task, unlike others that usually conduct their course in the classroom, top business school should provide a substantial fieldwork from the industries.
3. Problem-solving ability: In line with the education learning outcome, the project helps to improve the graduate students ability in solving industrial problems
4. Decision making capability: It will help to strengthen our graduate students on their decision making as well as improve their expertise in the areas of management
5. Knowledge transfer: New knowledge may be generated from the project, knowledge also transfer from the university to industries as well as from the industries to the university
6. Helping the industries: companies that involve in the project may benefit from solving the problems, and possibly improve their performance.
7. Activities and networking: through Industrial War Game, many activities are organized which will enhance networking between the university and the industries.