Students from the Faculty of Management at Okayama University of Science (OUS) developed a simplified version of the “LEGO® Supply Chain Simulation,” based on a simulation made available by the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. On August 6, they held a workshop for high school students and other participants at the Okayama SDGs Fair 2026 in Okayama City, Japan.
Participants took on different roles in manufacturing, logistics, and inventory management, experiencing firsthand how goods and information move through a supply chain. One high school student commented, “It was a lot of fun, and I learned so much about supply chains.”
The goal of the workshop was to build helicopters using LEGO bricks. Each team consisted of one person responsible for finding the necessary parts from a pile of LEGO bricks, three people assembling individual components, one person completing the final assembly, and one person inspecting the finished products. The three component assemblers were responsible for the helicopter body, rotor, and skids, respectively. Two teams, which included high school students attending the event, competed in the simulation.
Six OUS students who had previously learned the simulation in class served as facilitators, including fourth-year Faculty of Management students Takuya Matsumoto and Mio Murota.
The rules were simple: build as many complete helicopters as possible within five minutes. Each completed helicopter was worth 200 points, while 10 points were deducted for every unused part remaining at the end of the round. The key was therefore to maximize the number of finished products while keeping inventory as low as possible.
In the first round, both teams were left with large amounts of inventory, which kept their scores low. Even helicopters that appeared complete were sometimes rejected at the inspection stage as defective products.
Efficiency improved dramatically in the second round, when teams were allowed to place orders for parts they needed. By the third round, participants had begun assembling components while monitoring the progress of the final assembly process. This resulted in much better performance, with one team even achieving zero remaining inventory. The final scores were 800 points for Team A and 1,120 points for Team B.
As the competitive game progressed, participants worked faster and communicated more frequently, and the atmosphere became increasingly lively.
A key feature of the workshop was turning the hands-on experience into meaningful learning. Between rounds, the OUS students introduced participants to Toyota’s Lean concepts, including the Kanban system, which focused on producing only what is needed, in the required quantity, at the right time, as well as Kaizen and the elimination of the seven types of waste.
By connecting these concepts with problems they had just experienced themselves—such as piles of excess inventory—participants were able to develop an intuitive understanding of the principles underlying supply chain management.
After the workshop, one participating high school student said, “It was really interesting, and I learned a lot about supply chains. This experience has made me want to study the subject in greater depth.”
Professor Makoto Uchida, who supervised the workshop, said, “Seeing the participants enthusiastically tackle each challenge gave me a real sense of the value of hands-on business education. Globally recognized concepts originating from Toyota, such as the Kanban system and Kaizen, can be understood intuitively when experienced through a game. For our university students, the workshop also provided a valuable opportunity to practice explaining complex theories in an accessible way. We hope to continue sharing the university’s knowledge with the next generation through experiential learning.”