Development of a simulation game for the craft production paradigm

Simulation is an effective and practical tool for teaching manufacturing systems; it allows students to experiment with various systems in a realistic setting. This paper develops a simulation game for the craft production paradigm using Lego blocks. The role of participants is to understand the craft production paradigm and learn how to engage in a team-work and manage time. The simulation game consists of hands-on activities that will be used to teach high school students the concepts of manufacturing systems with the focus on the craft production paradigm. The hands-on activities discussed in this paper were performed by a group of high school teachers who served as suppliers, customers, and assembly operators. Two groups of six teachers conducted the simulation experiments and results on both system performance and learning outcomes were analyzed.