Bryan plays beer game

The Beer Game
I started playing the game by reading the short overview and background on the homepage. I would like to know what the game is about. However, I think student may prefer jump into the game without looking at the introduction. I tried to click the three icons, which are much like the three challenges in the Food Chain, but they are not links. Then I clicked wrap-up to begin my trail.

My first trail is to play the simulation. Before play it, I read carefully the instruction of the goal: to keep the inventory at 20 cases. Then I begin to play. For the first three days, in which no change took place, I just click run until I see the consumption raised up to 8 (in the fourth week). Then I begin to increase the order from wholesaler gradually by raising it one case more per week in order to avoid severe fluctuation. (Because I predict that the consumption may change from time to time, which means it is a ill-structured problem).
Below is my first trail.
WEEK CASES
1 4
2 4
3 4
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
8 8
9 8
10 8
11 9
12 10
13 10
14 10
15 10
16 10
17 10
18 8
19 8
20 8

I ended up spending $141.88 with 20 cases in the inventory by the 20th week but the system told me I failed. It might because I didn’t compensate the inventory with equal amount of cases immediately, so I tried the second time.

The second trail was a success one. When consumption goes up (8 cases), I immediately compensate the inventory with a larger amount (10) of beers. So the inventory recovered soon and reached the original balance. This time, I know that the consumption will be steady (8 cases) so I know the model is an ideal one. So I can know what it is like.

For the third time, I looked at the model (stack-flow chart) provided by the software. What caused the problem is the 2 weeks’ delay. Inventory was both added and drained by retailers and consumers. So understanding the dynamic is the key thing to solve the problem.