A team of Missouri S&T graduate students – separated geographically but
united via the Internet – matched wits and skills with seven larger teams from
the United States and Canada to win the 2nd International HEC Montreal ERP
Simulation Game on Thursday, June 12.

All eight teams had one hour to set up a virtual manufacturing company using
SAP, the leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software used by companies
worldwide. Within this hour, the teams completed initial product design and
development, costing, pricing, procurement and production plans, demand
forecast, distribution channel selection, and marketing
strategies.                 

For the next five hours, the students evaluated market fluctuations, reacted
to breaking news, analyzed consumer behavior and responded to competitors’
reactions as they managed various processes from purchasing raw materials to
choosing the distribution channel.

With only four members, the Missouri S&T team was the smallest in the
competition. All other teams had six members. Missouri S&T fell to fifth
place in the third quarter, but came back to win using their well-planned
business strategies.

Missouri S&T also had the only virtual team. “We were all physically in
different states and countries,” said faculty advisor Dr. Bih-Ru Lea. “I was in
Taiwan, our team captain was in Huntsville, Ala., and the other members were in
Rolla, Mo.” The team overcame communication and resource hurdles using audio
conferencing and text-to-speech features of Ventrilo voice communication
software.

Missouri S&T’s team was sponsored by St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. and
included:

• Evangeline Bays of Waynesville, Mo., a graduate student in business
  administration and team captain
• Mayur Raicar of Goa, India, a graduate student in information science and
  technology
• Abishek Suvarna of Bangalore, India, a graduate student in information
  science and technology
• Lin Zhu of Zhengzhou, Henan, China, a graduate student in information
  science and technology

Assisting the team were Lea, assistant professor of business administration,
and industry advisor Mark Jordan, director of enterprise application services
for Monsanto.