The famous "Beer Game" - invented in the early 1960s from academics at MIT - involves roles by four different players in a beer supply chain (supplier, manufacturer, distributor and retailer) trying to make decisions about what inventory levels to maintain.

The purpose of the game is to show how lack of communication and visibility can make such decisions very difficult indeed. The exercise also demonstrates the reality of the "Bullwhip Effect" in terms of order flow.

Now, OpEx Analytics is developing a new version of the game that very interestingly will include a form of machine learning - meaning in part that game participants can play against the computer.

Dr. Larry Snider of OpEx Analytics and also Lehigh University explains all that and more in this Supply Chain News Makers video discussion with SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore.

Please watch this short clip, excerpted from our weekly supply chain video news program this week.