1. Littlefield Technologies: Overview
Arkansas State University
Dr. Ahmad Syamil, CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP

2. Littlefield Technologies
Littlefield Technologies is a factory simulator that allows students to compete with each other over the web while developing operations management skills.
Littlefield Technologies was developed by Dr. Sunil Kumar and Dr. Samuel C. Wood at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Stanford has licensed the simulator to Responsive Learning Technologies, which has implemented it in a way that multiple universities can access it over the web

3. Littlefield Technologies
It is most commonly used in courses that include the following:
Operation Management
Management Science/Operations Research/Quantitative Methods
Production and Inventory Control
Industrial Engineering
Manufacturing
Learning Objectives include:
Utilization and queuing
Capacity management
Lead time management
Inventory control
Cash flow management
Managing customer responsiveness, etc.

4. Littlefield Technologies
Littlefield Technologies is a job shop which assembles Digital Satellite System (DSS) receivers
These receivers are assembled from kits of electronic components procured from a single supplier
The assembly process consists of four steps carried out on three stations
Board stuffing
Testing
Tuning

5. Littlefield Technologies
4 steps
Step 1 consists of mounting the components on PC boards and soldering them at the board stuffing station
Step 2 is when the digital components are briefly tested at the testing station
Step 3 is when key components are tuned at the tuning station
Step 4 is when the boards are exhaustively “final tested” at the testing station

6. Littlefield Technologies
All the stations consist of automated machines which performs the operations
You may buy and sell any machine
Board stuffing machines cost $90,000
Testers cost $80,000
Tuning machines cost $100,000
Selling retirement price is $10,000
Orders arrive randomly at the factory and each order is for 60 receivers which is then matched up with 60 raw kits and becomes a manufacturing lot

7. Littlefield Technologies
If an order comes in and there are less than 60 raw kits, then the order waits in the customer order queue pending arrival of raw kits
Each kit is processed one at a time and does not move on to the next station until the entire lot is complete on the current station
Once all stations are complete, the lot is then shipped to the customer

8. Littlefield Technologies
Raw kits are purchased from a single supplier and cost $10 per kit ($600 per order) with a fixed cost of $1000 per shipment
The supplier requires 4 days to ship any quantity of raw kits
An order is placed when the following 3 criteria are met:
The inventory of raw kits is less than the material reorder point
There are no orders for raw kits currently outstanding
The factory has sufficient cash to purchase the specified order quantity

9. Littlefield Technologies
The order is shipped when all 60 kits are complete for that order
If an order is shipped out within 24 hours after it arrives, then $1,000 is earned
If an order is shipped out after 24 hours of arrival, then a penalty is given
Orders that take longer than 72 hours will generate no revenue at all

10. Littlefield Technologies
You will have some cash on hand when the assignment begins
This amount is depleted by buying machines as well as buying raw kits from suppliers
The revenue comes from filled orders in the allotted amount of time and earns interest at 10% per year
There are no taxes and all overhead costs are ignored
The winning team is the team with the most cash at the end of the game

11. Registering Your Team
Before the assignment begins you need to create and register your team (maximum = 3 students per team)
You need a team name (all lower case letters and no punctuation) and a password
On the registration page, you will have to enter the code given in class
Then you can enter your selected team name and password
Finally, you will need to enter names of the team members

12. Accessing Your Factory
Your factory can be accessed from the entry web page using your team name and password
The following points about configuring your browser are crucial but only necessary if things do not appear to be working right:
Browser must be Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later or IE 3.0 or later
Java and JavaScript should be enabled

13. Using the Simulator The web-based simulator runs continuously
One hour of real time corresponds to 24 hours of simulated time
Your factory is updated at login time and you can also click the update button on the bottom of the page
Assignment information is given to you before each assignment and while the assignment is running you can access the simulation as many times as you would like
Once the assignment is over, the page is frozen and no more changes can be made

14. Using the Simulator Clickable icons are shown after login
They reveal a menu and corresponding data
Clicking on the icons will enable you to change certain features of the factory such as the number of machines in a station
Sources and used of cash can be found here as well
Finally, you can check the overall standing of your team