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Technical Papers
Aug 19, 2017

Experiencing Supply Chain Optimizations: A Serious Gaming Approach

Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 143, Issue 11

Abstract

To provide new opportunities for acquiring experience in coordinating construction supply chain activities, this paper describes a serious gaming approach. Serious games offer their users an experience that is designed to be meaningful. Following the triadic game design approach, the authors designed a board game that challenges a player to design and construct a skyscraper called Tower of Infinity. The research aim was to explore how serious games (like this one) can contribute to the experiential acquisition of construction supply chain management knowledge. Game sessions were organized in which 64 construction management students played the board game and reflected on it in a written report. A content analysis of these reports was then conducted to assess three hypotheses. Based on that analysis, it is concluded that serious games can enable students to experientially learn how to improve the performance of a construction supply chain through (1) co-ordinating design and construction tasks in a coherent manner; (2) taking constructability aspects into account when designing; and (3) continuously balancing scope, time, and cost throughout a project. Experiencing supply chain optimizations in such a playful way promotes better understanding of how and why waste occurs and may, ultimately, contribute to more efficient construction supply chain management practices.

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Data Availability Statement

Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data sharing policy can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001263.”

Acknowledgments

The research work presented in this paper was partly funded by the European Union (Tempus IV). The authors would like to thank Ruth Sloot and Sander Siebelink for their assistance during game play sessions. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

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Go to Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 143Issue 11November 2017

History

Received: Sep 15, 2016
Accepted: May 5, 2017
Published online: Aug 19, 2017
Published in print: Nov 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jan 19, 2018

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Authors

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Researcher, Dept. of Construction Management and Engineering, Univ. of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500AE, Enschede, Netherlands (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2357-8548. E-mail: [email protected]
Hans Voordijk [email protected]
Associate Professor, Dept. of Construction Management and Engineering, Univ. of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500AE, Enschede, Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Arjen Adriaanse [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Construction Management and Engineering, Univ. of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500AE, Enschede, Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Timo Hartmann, A.M.ASCE [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Civil Systems, Institute for Civil Engineering, Technical Univ. of Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]

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