Siemens Launches Online Game

Siemens has recently launched an online game called Plantville, which isdesigned to simulate the experience of running a manufacturing plant. In fact,players of the game don't just manage one plant -- they manage 3 plants --Bewell Vitamin Company, the Hopon Train Co. and Quenchco Bottling Co.

The overall goal of the game is to educate players on how to bestmanage the plant. Determination of how well players are managing the plant isdone via several key performance indicators (KPIs). Some of the KPIs used in Plantvilleare safety, on-time delivery, quality, energy management and employeesatisfaction.

Every decisions made by players, from hiring additional employees topurchasing new equipment, to performing maintenance, comes with costs that arededucted from budget. Available capital is increased by accepting new orders asthey arrive. All in all, this virtual game very closely simulates most of theaspects involved in managing a plant.

To help players make the most out of their time in Plantville, acharacter called Pete the Plant Manager helps guide players through the game bysharing best practices. A "goals" tab also keeps players up to date on theplant issues they should be focusing on most. Players can also link Plantvilleto their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts to keep up with otherPlantville players and offer hints.

Two other areas of the game, Pete's Puzzlers and Plantville Cafe, offerextended learning environments. Pete's Puzzlers are a series of brain teasersthat provide tips on how to better play the game through enhancement of plantperformance. In the Plantville Cafe, chat sessions with Pete cover topics suchas process control, energy efficiency and industrial networking.

Of course, a principal goal of this game is to help spread the wordabout Siemens products and its role in industry. "Driving preference forour company by illustrating how Siemens can be America's partner forinfrastructure and industry is only part of what we hope to accomplish withPlantville," said Daryl Dulaney, president and CEO, Siemens Industry Inc. "Wealso designed the game to educate our current and future employees about thebreadth of Siemens portfolio and to strengthen our position as an employer ofchoice."

You can access the game at: http://www.plantville.com

To see my review of the game and what value I think is in it for designengineers, see my blog post about Plantville.