The Blue Connection is an innovative web-based business simulation game. It engages participants in transforming a virtual e-bike manufacturer's linear supply chain to a circular value chain. In teams of 4, participants will represent the functional roles of VP Finance, VP Purchasing, VP Supply Chain, and VP Sales.
Team members will be confronted with diverse real-life, real-time dilemmas, and cross-functional understanding and collaboration are the key success components.
This business simulation game is the core of the learning solution: Circular Business Transition.
The upside is clear to many… Increase in economic growth* with 1% to 4% through circular strategies which entail maintenance & repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishment and recycling.
These strategies enable companies to:
…but what does this mean in practice and which challenges will you encounter?
Valuation of materials and components
Laws and regulation
Counterparty risk
Value chain collaboration
Control mechanisms
Reverse logistics
Ownership of goods
Product quality
“The Blue Connection allows participants to rapidly understand how circular business models can be applied to a real case. The competition factor add also a lot of fun and facilitates the assimilation of the different strategies.”
Jérôme Petry Attaché, Deputy Director Sustainable Technologies, LE GOUVERNEMENT DU GRAND-DUCHÉ DE LUXEMBOURG, Ministère de l’Économie“Mastering the Circular Economy book is an impressive combination of theoretical frameworks and practical tools on Circular Economy, supported by the online business game on the virtual company ‘The Blue Connection’ of Inchainge. A must have for lecturers in the field of Circular Economy and logistics!”
Hedda van Raalte Lecturer Logistics Management / Supply Chain ManagementIt’s increasingly clear that modern businesses need to transform how they operate.
The circular economy provides new business opportunities,
but it also comes with its challenges to go from linear to circular.
What does this mean and which challenges will you encounter?
The world is inhabited by more people, of which a higher share lives in cities and is getting older.
Wealth has increased globally, creating a larger middle class, which uses far more raw materials.
The result is increasing CO2 footprints and waste production. As a result, global consumption currently goes beyond the earth’s regenerative capacity.
Participants get to run their own virtual company called The Blue Connection, a manufacturer of e-bikes. Due to the increased demand for companies to transform how they operate and the new business opportunities provided by the circular economy, the e-bike manufacturer hired a new management team to transform the company’s linear value chain to a circular one. Participants will learn how to adopt a circular approach by transition away from a take-make-dispose linear production towards a circular business models.
Negotiate on sales contracts with your retailers regarding circularity, warranty and the maintenance service of your product.
Collaborate with the right Recycling Service Providers and oversee the cost and process of disassembling, reusing, refurbishing and recycling.
Manage the design of your product. Selecting appropriate suppliers to source from and deciding on the quality and recyclability of product components to buy.
Determine a buy back price to create a reverse flow of products. Manage the financial arrangement with the bank and the potential lease agreements.
The Blue Connection’s simulation software has been designed to be easy to use for anyone, on any platform from PC to tablet. There is no need to read a hefty manual before starting, because all help information is integrated in the game-screens and can be read on a need to know basis.
The Fresh Connection can be easily tailored to match your learning objectives.
Tailored to perfectly fit your level and learning objectives no matter your background or experience.
Face-to-face, Online or Hybrid.
They can be varied to suit your needs.
A high-performing circular value chain requires collaboration ffrom across the organization. Adopting a circular approach from a take-make-dispose linear production can be a serious challenge.
How do you adapt to the circular economy? Ideally, you’d like to experiment with different scenarios wherein people learn to overcome various obstacles and learn from best practices. This is where we come in: through our business simulation games, participants have the unique opportunity to learn by experience by immediately putting complex theories into practice.
Advantages of experiential learning: