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

Fortience Consulting Inc. (formerly QUNIE Corporation; Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Shigeki Yamaguchi; hereinafter "Fortience"), a member of the NTT DATA Group, has launched the "SCM Business Game™," a new board game-based experiential learning solution. The program is designed to allow individual employees to simulate management-level themes within the SCM sector and broaden their perspectives. The first installment, "Silo Break™," will be available starting March 30 as part of Fortience's SCM consulting services.

"Silo Break" is designed to help participants experientially understand that when individual departments involved in SCM pursue local optimization, it does not necessarily lead to overall optimization. The game encourages participants to consider what kind of communication is required between departments. In this board game-based program, participants take on roles such as management, procurement, production, and sales, simulating the overall SCM landscape and realizing the importance of inter-departmental communication. While using the familiar format of a board game, it is designed to replicate decision-making structures close to real-world SCM, making it applicable for talent development across a wide range of levels, from management to frontline leaders.

Background In many companies, SCM reform is a key management theme. However, on the front lines, structural challenges persist where departments like procurement, production, and sales make optimal decisions based on their own goals and constraints, resulting in overall inefficiency. Furthermore, due to a lack of dialogue between departments, it is difficult in daily operations to grasp how a decision that seems rational for one's own department might affect other departments or the organization as a whole.

To address these issues, "Silo Break" was developed with the goal of moving beyond mere knowledge acquisition to understanding the entire SCM structure and inter-departmental relationships through experience, ultimately leading to behavioral change in the workplace. By combining the insights of Fortience's young consultants in board game design with the company's long-standing expertise in the SCM field, the game reproduces the constraints and inter-departmental relationships found in real-world SCM.

Solution Overview "Silo Break" is a board game-based solution played in teams of four. Participants take on the roles of corporate planning, procurement, production, and sales, making decisions under constraints such as limited inventory, personnel, and budget.

Each department is assigned different goals. Additionally, events such as sudden demand fluctuations or supply disruptions occur. Players must maximize their own department's performance while dealing with these events and aiming to maximize the team's overall score.

As the game progresses, it becomes clear that decisions that are rational for an individual department can negatively impact others, undermining overall optimization. In such situations, the game is designed so that participants naturally understand the type of communication required in an era of accelerating uncertainty by repeating decision-making and inter-departmental dialogue.

<Board Image> (Overall Board) (Management Board)

Through this solution, participants experience that departmental optimization does not necessarily lead to overall optimization. They also realize that in situations with sudden events and high uncertainty, cross-departmental communication and rapid decision-making significantly influence outcomes.

A major feature of this solution is that it serves as an opportunity for young employees to simulate a management perspective, while providing a space for management to review their organization's decision-making and communication. Furthermore, by having members with different positions and expertise share the same experience, dialogue across the entire SCM organization is promoted.

Implementation Benefits Prior to this official launch, trial sessions were conducted with select clients. The following feedback was received:

<Customer Comments> ● "I thought this SCM business game would be effective when conducted between departments or executives who rarely interact. It deepens understanding of the positions and operations of other departments, leading to better mutual understanding." ● "In actual operations, discussions often stall because each department insists on its own optimization, preventing cross-departmental problem-solving or improvements that would benefit the company as a whole. It was impressive to see that 'exactly the same thing' happens in the game." ● "I believe it is important not just to provide information in monthly meetings with departments (sales, supply/demand, production, procurement, etc.), but to share information regarding future outlooks based on current conditions and realities, just as we did in the game." ● "We were able to exchange opinions freely in the game, but in actual work, I cannot speak as I would like for fear of saying the wrong thing due to a lack of knowledge. To overcome this, I thought it would be necessary to hold study sessions to learn about the knowledge and operations of each department."

Future Outlook Fortience plans to continue expanding its "SCM Business Game" experiential learning solutions, using various SCM themes faced by companies as subject matter. Beyond one-off training programs, the company will deploy these as practical solutions that drive corporate transformation by linking them with consulting services such as SCM diagnostics and organizational design support.

* "Silo Break" detailed information: https://www.fortience.com/solutions/scm/silo-break/

About Fortience Consulting's Support in SCM and S&OP Fortience Consulting possesses advanced expertise in S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning), including the construction of next-generation global SCM, and has a wealth of consulting experience in the high-tech and process industries. Leveraging high-level expertise and practical experience, Fortience Consulting's consultants support clients' supply chain reforms from various perspectives, such as global SCM expansion, strengthening flexibility to change, and realizing rapid decision-making. This contributes to strengthening the overall competitiveness of the company and improving sustainable corporate value. https://www.fortience.com/solutions/scm/

About Fortience Consulting Inc. Fortience Consulting Inc. is a business consulting firm within the NTT DATA Group. The company provides consulting services to a wide range of industries, including globally operating manufacturing and distribution companies, as well as finance, public services, and government/municipalities. Professionals with high expertise and deep operational understanding draw strategies starting from the ideal future state and work as one with clients to achieve results. For more information about the company, please visit: https://www.fortience.com

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