ENGINUITY 2014
Learning How To Play
Copyright Virtual Management Simulations
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Hotspot
The mouse,
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hotspots to display further information.
and not the keyboard, should be used at all times.
Introduction
The following sections will guide you through learning how to play ENGINUITY, covering the key
points you need to know, such as : How to use the Participants’ Module
 Getting the most out of the Tutorial
 Practising, or trialling, the key to success
The Participants’ Module is the software used by participants to take part in an ENGINUITY competition. It enables : Decisions to be made for each period relating to the key managerial functions
 Company performance to be measured and assessed
 The global economic outlook in which the company is operating to be analysed
Keep clicking anywhere on the screen to advance
Company information is held in a company database, which is unique to each team. The company database is
selected using the Select Company Database button.
Contents
The Participants’ Module
Selecting The Company Database
The Main Menu
Making Decisions
Submitting Decisions
Learning Tools
The Tutorial
Trialling
Exit
Selecting The Company Database
Participants’ Module
Thethe
All
company
information
database
a team
used
needs
to learn
toOnce
manage
how
to their
play connection
ENGINUITY
businesshad
is been
held
depends
in the
upon
company
the nature
database,
of the
a successful
made
to
the
required company database the Main Menu is displayed,
which is in Access format.
competition.
and decisions can be made for the current period.
Every

For the
company
annualdatabase
competition
follow
forthe
industry
same the
naming
trial convention
company database
of “ccc_t?p?.dat”
“trial2014_t1p5.dat”
where :- is
used. This can be downloaded from the Participants‘ Area of the website.
 ccc is the competition id

Fort all
is the
other
team’s
competitions
unique number
the trial data normally used will be the live data for the competition.

This
p is
will
the
have
current
beenperiod
sent to all team contacts by the competition controller when the team
registers for a competition.
Whichever database is used :-
 It should be placed in appropriate local folder.
 The name of the company database
should“trial2014_t1p5.dat”
not be altered.
The trial database,
is downloaded from the Participants‘ Area of
the website, and placed in a folder structure setup specifically for the competition.
the trial
data is placed
in the “default”
folder.
As an example we will use Initially
the first
scenario,
where
the trial
database being used is
for the annual competition for industry.
Further sub folders are created to hold different trials, and their results.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Key Point(s)
The name of the company database does not need to be changed, since the
folder structure separates the different trials.
The Select Company Database button from the
opening screen of the software is used to browse
The database is highlighted by clicking on it, and then the Open
for, and connect to, the company database.
button used to connect to it.
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The Main Menu
Participants’ Module
The Main Menu displays relevant information about the company being managed : Company database; The location of the company database being used.
The Industry information menu has options that describe the
conditions
of bothname
the local
and global economy
in which the
 Team details;
team number,
and(UK)
the management
structure.
The Miscellaneous menu has additional
Using
‘housekeeping’
a pull-down
menu
options
structure,
the
Main
Menu
The
Assessing
performance
menu
has
options
that enable
company
is operating.
The
decisions
menu
has
options
that
enable
decisions
 Current
status;
The
current
key
indicator
score
of thetocompany, and
is theMaking
gateway
to managing
theperformance
company.
company
performance
to
be
measured
and
assessed.
entered
each they
period
to the key functions of the business.
thebe
period
in which
arerelating
operating.
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Quit
Making Decisions
Participants’ Module
Rather
The
Help
than
menu
going
is back
split into
to the
two
Main
sections.
Menu,
The
thereveals
Guide
Relevant
options
company
give
aninformation
overview
of
options
key features
Clicking
on
the
Making
decisions
option
the
four
decision
screens
relating
toprovide
All
the
Change
decision
period
screens
can
have
be some
used
to
common
display
the
menu
decisions
options.
made
related
a
short
to
cutthe
toOverheads,
company
current decisions,
information
with
links
the
Industry
to the
current
information
where
and
appropriate.
which can help
Finance,
Procurement
andtodirectly
Job
Progression.
in related
previous
periods,
denoted
asdecisions,
‘Completed’.
in making effective decisions.
Change decisions can be used to move between decision screens.
On all the
decision
screens
:- but we will take a closer
Each decision screen is described
in detail
in the
Tutorial,
look at some of the important
features
thatare
aredenoted
common
themtext
all. on a white background
 Input
fields
bytoblack
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The default mode when opening
Key Point(s)
Read-only information is shown in different coloured
any of the decision screens is to
We will use the Financial
decisions
as the
example.
Only
one
decision
screen
canyellow,
be opened
at grey.
once.
backgrounds,
normally
pink or
enable decisions to be made for
the current period.
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Submitting Decisions
Participants’ Module
In the Trialling section we will look in more detail at how the email feedback and the period 6
processes
the trial
decisions
Having
made some
decisions
the Participants’
Module
database can be used to review The
theCompetition
quality
of Controller
trial
decisions
made
for
periodfor
5.
5, and
emails
back
the
database
the next
period,
ishave
closed
down,
and
the
trial
database
isfor
emailed
to the
Decisionsperiod
been
made
using
the
trial
database
“trial2014_t1p5.dat”,
whichfor
contains
the results
for period 5.
Competition
Controller
processing
anddata\attempt1.
feedback.
which aretrial2014_t1p6,dat,
stored in the folder
c:\enginuity2014\trial
The database for period 6 is placed in the sub folder attempt 1,
where the original decisions were stored.
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The Tutorial
Learning Tools
The
Glossary
lotsabout
of
Let
us
suppose
that
information
is
needed
aboutand
how
to
bidFirst,
for
a
Thekey
Although
tutorial
the
tutorial
atutorial
detailed
key
slideshow,
concepts,
the
the
best
first
way
source
tojob.
learn
ofthe
help
about
for contains
learning
Enginuity
is the
to
The
slide
in is
the
isintroduces
the powerpoint
contents the
slide,
click
on
Procurement
button
in
Clicking
on
a
hotspot
will
reveal
useful
information
that
elaborates
which
isathe
gateway
to all the other
information.is discussed in another section.
Making Decisions section.
how to
have
go,
play
and
ENGINUITY.
practising
(trialling)
further
information.
in more
detail
on selected topics.
Then, click on the Bidding Decisions button to learn how to bid for a job.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Key Point(s)
The green buttons are self-paced demonstrations of specific topics.
Keep clicking anywhere on the screen to advance
Quit
Trialling
Learning Tools
The
Company
Performance
Summary
provide
a detailed
set
performance
statistics
relating
to
Detailed
feedback
Trialling
is email
very
flexible,
and
trials
can
be
either
:-of they
Using
the
feedback
and
the
period
6submitted
database
apossible
thorough
review
be
carried
out
of the
Key
After
performance
opening
the
indicators
period
6particular
database,
Trial
the
assessment
Main
Menu
provides
a number
of
tools
for
assessing
performance.
For
Trial
The
teams
3
decisions
areas
to
that
manage
are
are
sent
their
by
email
company
useful
to
the
as
are
Competition
effectively
:as
Controller
for
processing.
needcan
to spend
time
learning
Management
Consultants
Report
Updated
trial
database
Detailed
feedback
is
also(MCR)is
provided
the
email
forstrengths
each
of
the
four
decision
all
of during
theindicators
company’s
activities,
and
can
be
used
to
identify
andstart
weaknesses,
10 aspects
key performance
are used
Key
to
performance
measure
theReport
indicators
overall
success
(KPIs)
ofon
are
the
used
company.
to measure
the
progress
oftrial
the
company,
and
The
Management
Consultants
athe
detailed
review
carried
out
each
period
by
an
performance
period
5.
about
ENGINUITY,
and
there
is
the
opportunity
to
trial
software
prior
to
the
of
a external
The
email
feedback
will
provide
a
initial
assessment
of
the
quality
of
the
decisions.
screens,
and
concentrates
on
areas
that
could
be
improved.
Measuring
performance
initially
total
1,000
points
at
the
start
of
period
5.
and
explain
the
rise
and
fall
of
particular
key
performance
indicators.
consultant,
and
canController
be a valuable
aid inperformance.
managing
thetrial
company
successfully,
especially

As
athe
group/team
effort
competition
The
The
email
Key
returned
Performance
usingmanagement
some
from
Indicators
trial
the
Competition
data. for
measuring
overall
containing
the
results
consists
ofand
twoin
From
of
the
results
changes
can
then
be
made
to
theHistory.
period
5 decisions,
The
 The
indicators
Key assessment
performance
are weighted
indicators
according
are
to
their
used
variability,
to
determine
totalling
how
a
well
1,000
a
company
at
the
end
is
performing
of
the
overall.
addressing
areas
of
concern.
However,
for a is
more
detailedThe
analysis
the period
database
shouldtoto
be
opened
in

Individually
elements
:- submitted.
top
section
ofhelp,
the6 summary
relates
the
state
ofthe
the
The
feedback
accompanied
by
supporting
and
references
the
another
trial
 The Performance
summary provide
The
detailed
total
KPI
information
score
at
the
that
end
can
of
period
be
used
5
is
to
shown,
assess
and
how
is
well
a
measure
particular
of
areas
the
quality
of
the
of the
Participants’
Module,
after
firstreal
saving
itthe
to an
appropriate
folder.
Past

The
experience
Performance
has
Summary
shown
for
that
analysing
trialling
performance
is
the
key
in
key
to
areas
success,
since
and
the
can
History.
make
all
company
at
end
of
the
History.
tutorial
for
further
information.
As business
time progresses
are performing,
the
weighting
and
can
of
each
decisions
help
indicator
to
explain
submitted,
will
the
change,
success
and
is
highlighting
based
or
failure
upon
of
improvements
reviewing
particular
all
performance
the
or
deteriorations
decisions.
indicators.
in
that
area,
but
For
the trial the results
the MCR
can beconsiderably,
filtered for :After
a
few
trials
performance
should
improve
and
it
should
not
be
long
before
the
the

Detailed
difference
feedback
thestarting
email
itself
a competition
or notisso
well.
the
overall
total
will between
be theon
measure
by which
the
ultimate progress well,
of the company
determined.
 Period 5 will
only be
team,
and performance
its members,
well
prepared
forgraded
the in
competition
ahead.
Analysing
In----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------addition,
the for
results
are
somewhere
between
the lowest
possible, "Some
major
 The
Management
Consultants
Report
reviewing
detail performance
by period,
and in
 Where the nature
is
“N”,
representing
the
negative
comments,
and
areas that may need addressing
Key
Points(s)
 The updated
Management
consultants
report
problems",
iscontaining
a detailed
through
review
to the
highest
carried
out
possible,
eachfor
period
"Excellent".
by of
an5how
external
consultant,
During

The
particular
the trial
areas
period
phase
of concern.
6a database
team
is able
to gain
all
a good
the results
understanding
period
tomanagement
manage their
The
email
feedback
is
only
provided
during
trialling,
and
not
during
the
live
and can be
a valuable aid
in managing
the company
successfully,
in addressing
areas
concern.
company
effectively,
learning
about
the decisions
andespecially
concepts
involved.
Asofthe
saying goes,
competition
 The Financial analysis displays detailed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------financial information for previous periods.
‘practice
We
will take
now
makes
take
a closer
perfect’.
a closer
look look
at detailed
each
at
each
one.
one.
 The Overhead analysis displaysKey
Point(s)
overhead information for previous periods, relating to the key overhead
departments.
Even with a grading of "excellent" it may beThe
possible
to section
improveofthe
numerical
bottom
theoverall
summary
relatesscore
to the
 The Procurement analysis displays
with detailed
some subtle
bidding
tweaks
analysis
to the
fordecisions.
previous periods.
performance of the company since the History.
 The JobMake
analysis displays detailed
job information.
Submit
Review
 The Personnel analysis displays
detailed personnel information for previous periods, relating to clients, project managers
decisions
results for
decisions
and consultants.
Feedback
Further
for period 5
Use the
Participants‘
Module to enter
decisions into
the trial company
database for
period 5.
for
processing
E-mail the trial
company
database to the
competition
controller for
processing.
returned
Trial results are
returned, along
with detailed
feedback.
period 5
Review the
results for period
5, and determine
changes
required to
previous
decisions.
trialling
Change the
previous
decisions, and
have another go
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