Abstract:

The COVID19 pandemic outbreak in 2020 has been haunting the world, not only infecting tens of millions of people and causing huge number of deaths, but also interrupting the international economy in many aspects. Together with the Sino-America trade war, the global supply chain is severely disrupted, damaging the status quo of the world. To ensure business continuity, enterprises try to review their supply chain risk management (SCRM) strategies to mitigate loss. Knowledge Management (KM) is another managerial discipline adopted by the industries to improve innovation and operational efficiency.

The combination of SCRM and KM together is a potential opportunity, yet the integration may need a learning path for employees. Business simulations are available to deliver education and training to audiences on particular topics. Many such game-based simulations have been developed for universities and companies. During the COVID19 lock-down period since early 2020 some education institutes find the use of computer-based simulations helpful to improve the interactions between teachers and students. This can raise up the teaching quality of online sessions.

So far there are only a few SCRM or KM simulations developed. The combination of both basically does not exist. To fill the gap, this project develops a web-based digital simulation game, namely “Know Your Risk in Supply Chain” (KYRSC). It aims at introducing how risk knowledge can be created, transferred, and utilized for supply chain by using food industry as an example. Through simulating the operation of manufacturing, which includes the process of food products from the agricultural farm of one country to the supermarket shelves of another country, students can experience various scenarios in the food supply chain. Risk factors such as international tariff, coronavirus contained inside frozen food, and the more traditional ones such as labour strikes, natural disasters will be included. The Nonaka model notations are adopted as main KM framework. Students can also learn how to accumulate the knowledge of risks, by traveling on the socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization ( SECI ) path of Nonaka. By combining the concepts of KM with SCRM, the game players can understand better the core elements of innovations within the traditional and operational based context. Stacked knowledge can generate new knowledge and are amplified across different enterprise levels. KYRSC can be adopted for ordinary university classes, MOOC subjects, or industrial training.

Keywords:

Supply Chain Risk Management, Knowledge Management, Nonaka Model, Gamification, MOOC.