4/14/2014 New business sim: 'Benihana' Operations Management Simulation (Experiential eLearning)

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August 03, 2008

New business sim: 'Benihana' Operations Management Simulation

Our third Harvard Business Publishing business simulation is the Benihana Operations Management simulation (see earlier posts

for descriptions of our Pricing and Leadership simulations). Designed to expand upon teaching points developed in the best-

selling Harvard Business School Benihana of Toy ko business case, the simulation uses discrete event modeling to simulate

customer flow through a ty pical night at a Benihana restaurant. Students explore learning principles in operations and serv ice

management including the impact of a batching strategy , optimizing capacity utilization, managing cy cle time, and strategies for

smoothing demand and process variability .

To quickly recap the product design of these web-based simulations, they are meant to be topical in nature within a single

discipline so that faculty might use them to focus learning on some key objectives. They are also designed to be extremely usable

from both the user and administrator perspectives. They are designed to be play ed and debriefed all within 2-3 hours, depending

on the complexity of the configuration chosen by the administrator. More information on our our thoughts about simulation

design and effectiveness can be found elsewhere on this blog -- click on the "simulations and games" category on the home page.

Developm ent Model & Sim ulation Authors

The development model includes a three-pronged approach:

Our Harvard Business Publishing product development team serves as the product authority and contributes project

management and product line design.

Our simulation partners at Forio Business Simulations prov ide their Broadcast simulation platform (a feature-rich, web-based

platform) as well as sy stem dy namics modeling and business consulting experience.

Harvard Business Publishing selects faculty authors to serve as subject matter experts and content authorities.

In this instance Georgetown University professor Ricardo Ernst at the McDonough School of Business had already developed a

prototy pe of this simulation for use in his Operations Management classes. His prototy pe served as the foundation for this

simulation, enhanced and informed by the team which also included original case author and HBS Professor W. Earl Sasser, Will

Glass-Husain of Forio, and Nicole Harris and Heide Abelli at Harvard Business Publishing.

Sim ulation Sy nopsis

From the Facilitator's Guide:

The objective of the teaching plan presented herein is to help students sy stematically unearth the elements of Benihana’s

profitability , determining how each aspect of the operation contributes to superior financial performance. In the process,

students learn how to apply important principles of operations management and become familiar with the vernacular of this

management discipline. Students come to realize that terms such as throughput capacity , demand variability , capacity

utilization, and serv ice time apply not only to a manufacturing environment but also just as aptly to a serv ice operation. They

also learn how variability negatively impacts an operation. Possibly the most important message the simulation convey s to

the student is simply that effective Operations Management practices can have a powerful impact on a firm’s profitability ,

including a firm that competes in the serv ice sector of the economy .

The simulation is a tool that helps students unlock in a quantitative manner the secrets of Benihana's profitability and helps

them digest key operational insights. It is organized as a series of challenges, each with a different set of options for managing

the operation and demand. In all of these challenges, the goal is to manage the bar and dining area in order to maximize

utilization, throughput, and most important, total profit for the evening.

The specific challenges are:

1 . Batching Dining Room Customers: How does batching strategy affect throughput?

2. Optimally Designing the Bar: What's the optimum size of the bar for maximum profitability ?

3. Reducing Dining Time: What is the optimal dining time across an evening?

4. Boosting Demand with Advertising and Special Programs: How will marketing efforts affect operations and profitability ?

5. Scheduling Different Ty pes of Batching at Different Times: How do more complex forms of batching affect operations and

4/14/2014 New business sim: 'Benihana' Operations Management Simulation (Experiential eLearning)

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profitability ?

6. Designing Y our Best Strategy (final capstone challenge): What is the best combination to maximize profitability ?

Sim ulation Design

This simulation is designed to prov ide an engaging, experiential learning environment for students. The basic architecture

includes:

a Prepare section which is used once and optionally referred to later by play ers (and play ers can be restricted to this section

only until an administrator ‘opens’ the full simulation to students);

an Analy ze section that prov ides users with current information that they must peruse in order to make effective decisions.

This is a single-play er simulation but lends itself well to group analy sis/teams as well (pairing up students around a single instance

of the simulation).

T he Prepare T ab: How to Play screen

T he Analy ze T ab: Challenge 1 screen. Users can run and save various scenarios, see summaries of indiv idual and averaged

runs, and export summary information to Excel.

4/14/2014 New business sim: 'Benihana' Operations Management Simulation (Experiential eLearning)

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Challenge 1 screen -- animation. Users can choose to run the simulation in animated mode to see the effect of batching on

customer dining, on lost customers, etc.

T he Analy ze T ab: Challenge 2 screen

T he Analy ze T ab: Challenge 3 screen

4/14/2014 New business sim: 'Benihana' Operations Management Simulation (Experiential eLearning)

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T he Analy ze T ab: Challenge 4 screen

T he Analy ze T ab: Challenge 5 screen

4/14/2014 New business sim: 'Benihana' Operations Management Simulation (Experiential eLearning)

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Features & Learning Objectives

In this online simulation, students play the role of a Benihana manager. Discrete event modeling is used to simulate customer flow

through the restaurant. In indiv idual challenges, students make decisions about:

Managing bar capacity , batching customers, and changing restaurant table lay out.

Implementing marketing initiatives to drive demand.

Increasing or decreasing length of dining experience.

Designing the best strategic approach to maximize restaurant profitability .

A final capstone challenge requires students to design the best overall operations

management strategy for the restaurant.

A comprehensive Teaching Note covers:

How to analy ze capacity , demand rates, cy cle time, and throughput in a serv ice operation.

How batching strategies improve throughput and the importance of increasing capacity at bottlenecks.

How to minimize or eliminate demand variabilities (cy clical, stochastic, batch size, and serv ice time).

How to optimize across multiple variables in an operation and ensure

consistency in the overall operations strategy .

Sim ulation Sam pling

Educators can sample the simulation as detailed below. Some access is only prov ided to qualified educators and trainers who

contact HBSP Customer Serv ice as noted. The full Facilitator's Guide with Teaching Note is available to qualified educators and

trainers.

Video overview

This 11-minute simulation overv iew v ideo explains the simulation from the student’s perspective as well as the

administrator's. It uses voice-over and animated screenshots to step users through the simulation.

Student Experience Login

http://forio.com/simulation/harvard-benihana-demo

username/password: user/user

This will place y ou into Round 3 of a sample simulation where y ou can nav igate the Prepare, Analy ze, and Decide tabs. Note

that y ou will not be able to submit a decision or advance to the next round.

Adm inistrator Login

To experience the simulation as an administrator, contact HBSP Customer Serv ice: 1-800-545-7 685 (outside the U.S. and

Canada, 1-617 -7 83-7 600) to purchase or request educator access to the simulation: Benihana Operations Management

simulation #2653

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