Stock Smart — Multi-Echelon Inventory at Noordveld Components
A four-round, intermediate inventory and operations simulation set inside Noordveld Components B.V., a €148M Tilburg-based distributor of industrial…
About this simulation
The director of international development of a fictional family-owned Spanish tile maker (EUR 210 million of sales, 84% in Spain) must take the company abroad after the board sets a target of 40% of sales outside Spain by 2031 and a consultant ranks markets by size, starting with the United States and China.
Decision 1 (January 2027): how markets are ranked (by size, by existing relationships, or by size discounted by cultural, administrative, geographic and economic distance weighted for a heavy product), where to start (the two biggest markets, France-Portugal-Morocco, or six markets at once) and the price policy.
Decision 2 (January 2028): how much to adapt the catalogue, how to aggregate markets (country by country, regional platforms or one global catalogue) and what to do about thirty containers held at a customs office, including paying the agent to speed it up.
Decision 3 (January 2029), after a lasting rise in Spanish gas prices: where to produce for abroad (Spain, a line in Tangier or a contract manufacturer in India), what to say about origin (including keeping Made in Spain on boxes made elsewhere) and what to do with the markets that lose money.
Decision 4 (January 2030): the next wave (pause, the next ring of Mexico and Colombia, or the big far markets), what is measured and who decides what.
The model is deterministic and quarter by quarter over five years: each market group has a potential discounted by its four distances, penetration ramps with the quality of the ranking, and adaptation, aggregation, plant location, freight, customs friction and coordination costs follow from the decisions.
The score combines the quality of each decision with international profit, return on the capital invested, the failure rate of the markets opened and reputation with customers and distributors, and is capped when a decision breaks the law (a payment to a customs official, a false country of origin). Inspired by published research on distance and global strategy. Spanish (primary, Spain) and English.
Who it is for
An advanced simulation for participants used to working with the main frameworks and trade-offs of the subject, designed for executive education and experienced professionals.
How a session runs
- The instructor creates a session from the Eureka dashboard and invites the participants.
- Participants play 4 rounds. In each one they submit their decisions and the simulation calculates the results.
- The instructor follows each participant's progress and results from the dashboard, and uses the class results for the debrief.