Role game as a method to increase cross-functional understanding in a supply chain

The supply chain improvement program should start with improving the participants’ understanding of the whole process and interrelationships within it. It is also important to achieve a widespread consensus on the most important improvement needs. Furthermore, employees of different functions need to improve their skills in communication and cooperation with other functions. In order to succeed, this organizational learning should exploit different parties’ experience and be organization wide, covering the whole supply chain. The learning should also offer personal experiences and be interactive between different functions. In this paper, we demonstrate with a specific case the use of role game as a tool to increase process understanding and communication skills in a kick-off workshop of a supply chain improvement program.