Fortience Consulting Launches "Silo Break™," the First Board Game-Based Experiential Learning Solution in the SCM Domain

Fortience Consulting Co., Ltd. (formerly QUNIE Corporation, Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Shigeki Yamaguchi, hereinafter Fortience), a member of the NTT Data Group, has launched "SCM Business Game™," a new board game-based experiential learning solution aimed at allowing each employee to simulate management-level themes in the SCM domain and elevate their perspectives. The first installment, "Silo Break™," will be offered starting March 30th as part of Fortience's SCM consulting services. "Silo Break" is a game designed to help participants experientially understand that pursuing individual optimization in each SCM-related department does not necessarily lead to overall optimization, and to consider what kind of communication is required between departments. In the game, participants take on the roles of various departments such as management, procurement, production, and sales, and experience the overall picture of SCM and the importance of inter-departmental communication in a simulation format. While being a familiar content like a board game, it is designed to allow participants to experience a decision-making structure similar to real-world SCM, and can be utilized for human resource development across a wide range of levels, from management to front-line leaders. ## Background In many companies, SCM reform is a critical management theme. However, at the operational level, there is a structural problem where individual departments such as procurement, production, and sales make optimal decisions within their respective goals and constraints, resulting in overall inefficiency. Furthermore, due to a lack of communication between departments, it is difficult in daily operations to grasp how a decision that is rational for one's own department might affect other departments or the overall organization. To address these challenges, "Silo Break" was developed with the aim of not just acquiring knowledge, but understanding the overall structure of SCM and inter-departmental relationships through experience, leading to behavioral change in the field. Fortience combined the knowledge of its young consultants in board game design with its long-cultivated expertise in the SCM domain to reproduce constraints and inter-departmental relationships similar to real-world SCM in the game. ## Solution Overview "Silo Break" is a board game-based solution played by teams of 4 people. Each participant takes on the role of corporate planning, procurement, production, or sales, making decisions under limited constraints such as inventory, personnel, and budget. Each department has different goals. Unexpected demand fluctuations and supply troubles also occur. Players must maximize their own department's results while dealing with events and aiming to maximize the overall team score. As the game progresses, the structure where decisions rational for one's own department ultimately negatively impact other departments and undermine overall optimization becomes clear. In such situations, participants are designed to naturally understand the communication required in an era of accelerating uncertainty by repeatedly making decisions and engaging in inter-departmental dialogue within the game.