Siemens Launches Online Game

Siemens has recently launched an online game called Plantville, which is designed 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 best manage the plant. Determination of how well players are managing the plant is done via several key performance indicators (KPIs). Some of the KPIs used in Plantville are safety, on-time delivery, quality, energy management and employee satisfaction.

Every decisions made by players, from hiring additional employees to purchasing new equipment, to performing maintenance, comes with costs that are deducted from budget. Available capital is increased by accepting new orders as they arrive. All in all, this virtual game very closely simulates most of the aspects involved in managing a plant.

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

Two other areas of the game, Pete's Puzzlers and Plantville Cafe, offer extended learning environments. Pete's Puzzlers are a series of brain teasers that provide tips on how to better play the game through enhancement of plant performance. In the Plantville Cafe, chat sessions with Pete cover topics such as process control, energy efficiency and industrial networking.

Of course, a principal goal of this game is to help spread the word about Siemens products and its role in industry. "Driving preference for our company by illustrating how Siemens can be America's partner for infrastructure and industry is only part of what we hope to accomplish with Plantville," said Daryl Dulaney, president and CEO, Siemens Industry Inc. "We also designed the game to educate our current and future employees about the breadth of Siemens portfolio and to strengthen our position as an employer of choice."

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 design engineers, see my blog post about Plantville.