FOCUS
Supply Chain Coordination
GAMIFIED Supply chain’s importance has become evident during these unprecedented times. Therefore, firms need to invest in sustainable technologies & strategies that could be applied to a broader workforce. Gamification is one such way. Dr. Abhishek Behl, Faculty, OP Jindal Global University, through this article, presents an overview of how gamification has been used as a tool and a strategy to improve supply chain coordination. Unlike other complex technologies, gamification is easy to implement and has proved to have longevity. Thus, it is critical to implement game-based solutions to supply chain organizations that will help them improve their performance and help them stay connected.
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OORDINATION is a critical piece in supply chain management. The nature and complexity of the supply chain network often make it difficult for firms to practice and improve coordination. Supply chain coordination helps firms to improve their operational performance. Supply chain performance still uses traditional approaches that rely on operations management fundamentals. The most common approach in supply chain coordination uses a problem characteristics approach. However, with the growing complexity in humancomputer interaction, firms have heavily relied on tasks' mechanization. The steady rate of development in technology in business operations has transformed business operations using industry 4.0 applications. The 4th industrial revolution has also helped supply chain operations get automated, which has helped improve efficiency. Along similar lines, blockchain has also
10 CELERITY July - August 2021
gained prominence in the supply chain space. It helps to improve transparency and trust among stakeholders. On the flip side, many firms hesitate to invest in blockchain and similar technologies for several reasons: lack of funds, lack of learning, and handling the complexity of data to extract meaningful information. The growing reliance on technology makes firms empowered on the one hand and makes employees crippled on the other hand. While digitization is reaching the forefront of every supply chain process and is actively being used to improve productivity, coordination among various stakeholders involved in SCM is highly affected. Some wellestablished strategies to improve coordination include quantifying the bullwhip effect, improving dialogic communication, using technology, and devotion of resources. Recent studies and evidence-based research have also shown that firms have invested in tech-based resources like
Dr. Abhishek Behl is an expert in gamification and is currently a faculty at O P Jindal Global University. He has earned his second Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He holds rich experience in teaching, research, and consultancy. He has also served as a Senior Manager- Research at Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad. His research is in business analytics and decision sciences with a focus on gamification, stakeholder engagement, sustainability, and e-commerce startups. He has won several awards and grants at the national and international level in gamification. He is also a director of “Gamification4all.com” which is designed to spread awareness about gamification and bridge the gap between theory and practice.
cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics to improve coordination. However, most of these technologies are complex and often give an advantage to large-scale firms. It leaves us with an important question: How can supply chain coordination be developed organically for supply chain firms? How can the process of supply chain coordination be made sustainable? The answer to these questions lies in offering solutions that can be used, practiced, and implemented across all supply chain management levels. We propose to address these concerns using gamification as an approach.
GAMIFICATION: AN OVERVIEW AND APPLICATION IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT Gamification is defined as ‘the use of game design elements in a non-game context’. Games have always been a source of entertainment, and it is a general belief
