La Próxima Generación
A 90-minute, 4-round Express simulation from the seat of the first non-family people director of a third-generation family firm, on how, and…
About this simulation
A 90-minute, 4-round basic Express simulation for Spanish vocational training (Formacion Profesional), module 1481 Gestion de la produccion en procesos de edicion of the Tecnico Superior en Diseno y Edicion de Publicaciones Impresas y Multimedia (Real Decreto 174/2013).
The learner is Nerea Casbas, a newly qualified publishing production technician who runs the production of a fictional independent publisher in Zaragoza through 2027: 24 new titles a year, a backlist of 310 titles, a distributor that serves the bookshops, a rented warehouse and about a third of the copies served coming back as returns.
Four situations set the year's course: the spring titles, and what run each new title gets (the run of its forecast, not the run that makes the copy cheapest) and which route each title is printed on (offset above the break-even run, digital below it, the slow backlist on demand); the autumn titles, and their format and paper (formats that use the press sheet) and which printers the house works with (two printers on a framework agreement with signed dates); the spring returns, and when the autumn titles come out (spread over the autumn) and when and how much is reprinted (by weeks of cover); and the warehouse, and what is done with the stock (valued, written down, the slow backlist to print on demand, remainders only within the publishing contract) and how the year is accounted (an account by title with the run rule).
One critical error caps the round: remaindering the year's new titles before two years without their authors' consent. Some mistakes look fine on the day they are made and come back later through the stock: the long run, printing far away for the lowest price, everything for Christmas. KPIs: sales covering their break-even, controllable cost, copies returned per 1,000 served and bookshop orders left unserved.
Lesson: long runs bring the unit cost down and the returns up. Spanish primary, English parity. Fictional company, brand and people; real curriculum and rules cited.
What participants learn
After the session, participants will be able to:
- Apply a forecast to set the print run of each new title, comparing the saving per copy of a longer run with the cost of the copies that come back
- Analyze the break-even run between offset and digital printing and decide which titles move to print on demand
- Evaluate formats and printers as production costs, weighing price per copy against lead time and the reliability of the delivery date
- Apply backward planning to stagger a release calendar and set the reorder point of each reprint in weeks of cover
- Evaluate the stock title by title, clear it within the conditions of the publishing contract and write the account by title that sets next year's run rule
Prerequisites
- Cost per unit and break-even point
- The printing processes: offset, digital printing and print on demand
Who it is for
An introductory simulation that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, designed for undergraduate courses. It also works in vocational and high-school programmes and in onboarding sessions.
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 first round opens with: lunes 25 de enero, 9:00: la tirada y la impresión.
- The simulation can be run in English, Español.
- The instructor follows each participant's progress and results from the dashboard, and uses the class results for the debrief.