USER GUIDE:
It explains how to run your simulated company successfully by managing five departments
and tracking your performance.
1. Introduction
You run a sensor manufacturing company in a competitive market.
Your goal: analyse, plan, and execute strategies to become a market leader.
Practice rounds help you learn how decisions affect performance.
2. Industry Conditions Report:
Introduces five market segments:
Traditional, Low End, High End, Performance, Size
Each segment has unique buying criteria:
o Price
o Age
o MTBF (Reliability)
o Positioning (Size vs. Performance)
You use a Perceptual Map to visualize product positions.
3. Research & Development (R&D):
Responsible for product design and updates.
Changing Performance and Size repositions your product on the map.
Higher MTBF = more reliability but higher cost.
R&D affects both Marketing and Production plans.
Repositioning products keeps them aligned with market drift.
R&D project costs are driven by the amount of time they take to complete. A six-
month project costs $500,000; a one-year project costs $1,000,000.
If the project length takes more than a year, the revision date will be reported in the
next Capstone Courier. However, the new performance, size and MTBF will not
appear; old product attributes are reported prior to project completion.
When products are created or moved close to existing products, R&D completion
times diminish. This is because your R&D Department can take advantage of existing
technology. If the module is active, TQM/ Sustainability investments can also
decrease R&D times. It is important to verify completion dates after all decisions
have been entered. Usually you want repositioning projects to finish in less than a
year. For example, consider breaking an 18-month project into two separate projects,
with the first stage ending just before the end of the current year and the second
ending halfway through the following year.
Changing the MTBF alone will not affect a product’s age.
Age criteria vary from segment to segment. For example, if a segment prefers an Age
of 2 years and the product’s age approaches 3 years, customers will lose interest.
Repositioning the product drops the Age from 3 to 1.5 years, and customers will
become interested again.
4. Marketing
Responsible for:
o Price setting
o Promotion budget (builds Awareness)
o Sales budget (builds Accessibility)
o Sales forecasting
o Your Marketing Department is concerned with the remaining P’s (beyond
R&D’s product): price, place and promotion. Your Marketing Department is
also in charge of sales forecasting.
o The first decision the Marketing department must make is to price each
product. For starters, it’s necessary to know that every segment has a $10.00
price range. Customers prefer products–the ideal–towards the bottom of the
range. Price ranges in all segments drop $0.50 per year. For example, if in
Round 0, Traditional customers expect a Price between $20.00 and $30.00,
then in Round 1, the Traditional price range will be $19.50- $29.50; Round 2,
$19.00-$29.00, etc. This puts pressure on companies to improve their cost
structures.
Price ranges drop $0.50 per year, forcing cost efficiency.
Promotion and sales budgets have diminishing returns—don’t overspend.
Sales forecasts guide production volume.
5. Production
Plans how many units to produce.
Must balance capacity, automation, and inventory:
o Capacity = units you can produce per year.
o Automation = lowers labor costs but slows R&D.
You can buy/sell capacity or adjust automation (both take a year to take effect).
Each product has a dedicated assembly line.
6. Finance:
Manages company funds through:
o Current Debt (1-year loans)
o Long-Term Debt (10-year bonds)
o Stock Issues / Buybacks
o Dividends
Controls A/R (Accounts Receivable) and A/P (Accounts Payable) policies.
Avoid Emergency Loans — they hurt stock prices.
Makes sure cash flow is positive at year-end.
7. Scoring:
Performance is measured by the Balanced Scorecard, including:
1. Financial – Profitability, stock price
2. Internal Business Process – Efficiency and plant use
3. Customer – Satisfaction and product performance
4. Learning & Growth – Employee productivity
8. Deep Dive (Customer Survey Score)
Determines demand each month based on:
o Product’s match with buying criteria
o Price, Age, MTBF, Positioning
o Promotion, Sales, and Credit policies
High survey score → high market share.
9. Advanced Modules
If enabled:
Human Resources (HR)
o Training, R&D staff retention, and sales compensation.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
o Improves efficiency, reduces costs, increases demand.
10. Reports
Proformas = projected financial results for upcoming year.
Annual Reports = actual results from the previous year.
Includes Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, Income Statement.
VIDEOS:
Introduction:
Chips manufacturing company.
R&D – Where you Invent and Revise Product.
Performance, Size & MTBF.
Marketing – Determine Product price, Sales, Promo Budget and Forecast sale for
coming year.
Production – Schedule manufacturing plan, Manages the size of the plant and
Automation levels.
Finance – Ensure your company has the funds it needs to grow.
To check perform- Balance sheet- Income statement – Cashflow.
Capstone Courier:
How much Sales and Profit.
Second Shift and Plant Utilization.
To check vs Capacity Chart.
Total unit Demand, Actual unit Sales and Next year Segment Growth Rate.
Check all the Graph.
Customer Survey Score:
To consider Price, Age, MTBF and Position.
Finance Video:
To check Current Debt, Bond issue & Stock issue.
Marketing Video:
Forecasting Video:
R&D Video:
Situation Analysis Video:
It is use to How to take Management decisions.
Based on Future Demand, Overall industry production capacity and Profitability.
All functions old Video: