Fortiens Consulting Launches "Silo Break™", its First Experiential Learning Solution in SCM Domain

Fortiens Consulting Co., Ltd. (formerly KUNIE Corporation, headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President and Representative Director: Shigeki Yamaguchi, hereinafter referred to as Fortiens), a member of the NTT DATA Group, has launched a new board game-based experiential learning solution, "SCM Business Game™", aimed at allowing employees to personally experience management-level themes in the SCM domain and broaden their perspectives. The first installment, "Silo Break™", will be offered as part of Fortiens' SCM consulting services starting March 30th. "Silo Break" is a game designed to help participants intuitively 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. It is a board game-style program where participants take on roles in departments such as management, procurement, production, and sales, and experience an understanding of the overall SCM picture and the importance of inter-departmental communication in a simulation format. While using the familiar content of a board game, it is designed to allow participants to experience decision-making structures close to real-world SCM, making it applicable for human resource development across a wide range of levels, from management to front-line leaders. ■ Background SCM reform is positioned as a critical management theme in many companies. However, in practice, there is a structural issue where optimal decisions made by each department, such as procurement, production, and sales, within their respective goals and constraints, lead to overall inefficiency. Furthermore, due to a lack of inter-departmental dialogue, it is difficult in daily operations to grasp how decisions that are rational for one's own department might affect other departments or the overall business. To address these challenges, "Silo Break" was developed with the aim of not only acquiring knowledge but also fostering an understanding of the overall SCM structure and inter-departmental relationships through experience, leading to behavioral change on the ground. By combining the expertise of Fortiens' young consultants in board game design with their long-cultivated expertise in the SCM domain, the game reproduces constraints and inter-departmental relationships that are close to real-world SCM. ■ Solution Overview "Silo Break" is a board game-based solution played by teams of four. Participants each take on the roles of Corporate Planning, Procurement, Production, and Sales, making decisions within constraints such as limited inventory, personnel, and budget. Each department has different objectives. Events such as sudden demand fluctuations and supply disruptions also occur. Players must maximize their own department's performance while also dealing with these events and aiming to maximize the team's overall score.

As the game progresses, the structure becomes clear where rational decisions made by one department negatively impact other departments, thus undermining overall optimization. In such situations, participants naturally come to understand the nature of communication required in an era of accelerating uncertainty through repeated decision-making and inter-departmental dialogue within the game.