Capsim CapStone, Foundation are really top simulation games for business people and students, we tried the game many rounds and rounds, for long time, besides other games like BSG online for shoes and drones, flying camera. Capsim Capstone and Capsim Foundation use sensors are the key products because of their popularity in all aspects of life and work. To share our finding with players around the world for free, we have collected winning guides and tips from many experienced players and our own findings from the games, many games, to support new players get the most from the game and good lessons from time and efforts.

Thanks for Capsim Creators and Players.

Good Luck and Success!!

TIP 1. Industry Condition Report and Decisions Plan Excel file

So, when we start Capsim 2017, we can have 4 options or 4 different strategies.

Option 1. Follow Drift suggested from Industry Condition Report (each Industry is different from others). You can download excel file from http://top20mba.com or http://topmbabooks. for free.

We can use the Excel file to calculate Specifications for R&D more easily.

WE NEED TO INPUT FIRST LINE (ROUND 0) WITH SPECIFIC NUMBERS FROM INDUSTRY CONDITION REPORT OF YOUR OWN INDUSTRY (THIS LINE LOOK FAMILIAR BUT THEY ARE DIFFERENT FROM ANY GAME TO GAME, CLASS TO CLASS).

The segment circle drift rates are the 2nd bottom line (Note to get data from Your Industry Condition report to Excel file)

The segment Ideal Spot Offset is the bottom line (Note to get from Your Industry Condition report to Excel file)

If we follow this strategy, our products are up to date but not very competitive, because most of competitors try to upgrade toward Ideal Sport which is much better specifications.

TIP 2. Drift Spots, Ideal Spots and Sweet Spots

Option 2. Follow Drift Plus Ideal Spot Offsets suggested from Industry Condition Report (each Industry is different from others)

This strategy is the Highest upgrade specification, therefore, it often cost too much and takes too long time for R&D.

Also, this specification is too good, (ideal), so, we often out of stock, we can not produce enough to sell to market. Then, we get less Profit. So, we should select somewhere called sweet spots, which are 50% adjustment between ideal and drift spots. The key is to get higher Pfmn and Size than top selling products, not to produce perfect products at high cost. Just make products better than competitors and also meet customers demands.

If should not follow strategy 2, it is too much advance in R&D and it cost too much time and money.

OPTION 3. Half way from Drift to Ideal Spot Specification.

OPTION 4. One third way from Drift to Ideal Spot Specification

We often start with Strategy 4 or 3 above. It is the best way to get Profit and also Competitiveness at the same time.

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We need to create a base for our strategy, we can use excel file like this - LINK TO FILE

NOTE: Numbers for the first line is taken from Industry Condition Report. Each Industry has DIFFERENT starting numbers, so, we need to download Industry Condition Report and input these Specification in the excel file to create our own STRATEGIES (page 2 of 8 from report). Only for Round 0 of STRATEGY 1 - then other cells will be automatically updated.

Note to put Specification of your own Industry in to this line in excel files.

TIP 3 - Re-position Low End sensor for only ONE time in Year 3

The original Low-End sensor should only be re-positioned once for the entire game, not to the Ideal Spot.

The Traditional segment sweet spot is the same with Ideal, Drift spots because Ideal Offsets is 0-0 for this segment.

The High End, Performance, and Size segments have sweet spots half way from Drift to Ideal Sport. We can use excel file to calculate (download at the end of this article).

Note: If Sweet spot with half way cost too much and too long time to R&D, we can select strategy 4 with 1/3 way from Drift to Ideal spots.

We upgrade original Low End only one time for the entire game, upgrade in Year 3 with specification of Year 4 Sweet Spot (PFMN 4.1 - SIZE 16.3 or PFMN 4.9 - SIZE 15.5) - The new Low End segment will be created in Year 1 with Sweet Spot specification of Year 4.

Note that all figures to input in your game is different from this article, you should get number from Industry report, put 1 line in Excel file and get your own game figures. Just input in only Round 0 - Strategy 1 --> Then all tables will be updated.

For Capstone, we created 3 new products in HE, LE and Traditional and may terminate 2 products Performance and Size.

The Age is important for Low End, because it is 7 years old to sell well, from 6-7-8 is selling well, besides other factors. So, it is quite strange that 1 year new can not sell as well as 7 years old. May be due to long time experience of using this Cheaper, Lower cost product.

So, we can update LE in advance 3 years, then leave it, if necessary, update 1 more time.

TIP 4 - Lower MTBF to the minimum of the range (except Performance segment only)

From Round 1 to Round 8, for all the rounds, when we do R&D, we should lower MTBF to the minimum of the range in order to save cost and increase contribution margins.

The is the key Profit Driving tool since Reliability only accounts for small percentages of the Customer Buying Criteria (see all the 5 segments to see details, in Capstone Courier Report every year, page 5-9).

Except only Performance segment, we keep that max MTBF at 27.000, for all the other 4 segments, we select minimum MTBF eg. Traditional to 14.000, Low End to 12.000, High End to 20.000 and Size to 16.000

We set MTBF for Performance to max 27.000 because buying criteria for this segment is 43%. See following figure.

Again, the numbers for each Industry is changed when game created for different class or group, so we need to check the number from Industry Report and Capstone Courier every round (year).

If we want to compete is 3-4 segments (not all 5), the two most potential and profitable are Low End and Tradition.

They are most potential lucrative.

We need to read reports for Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 and then in Round 3 and 4 we will select to leave 1 or 2 least competitive which have least profit.

Creating 1 new segment, eg. Low End is good (often in Round 1)

Creating 2 new segments, eg. Low End and Traditional will provide more Profits in later Round, eg. 5-6-7 and 8. (Often we create New Traditional in Round 2)

In Round 3, we can create new High End segment (more profitable). However, if we see strong competition in High End, we should create new segment in SIZE (better than Performance - high cost).

It is better we flexible with MTBF, do not always leave that lowest, we save cost but lose competitiveness. So, we can add that according to their importance, for example, 20% of purchase, we can set that 17.000 (range from 14.000 to 20.000), we can get both objective, saving cost and maintaining competitiveness. Another important thing is we need to analyze competitors after each round to find top selling products in each segment and update our products close and higher to the best selling products.

TIP 5 - R&D 8 Rounds Guides - Round by Round Guide from Round 1 to Round 8

Note:

In order to apply this Round to Round strategy for R&D, we need to create an excel file with your own data from Industry Condition Report and put data in Excel file to get more precise numbers.

Step 1. Download Industry Condition Report (from your game)

Step 2. Download Excel file for automatic calculation strategies and decisions

FREE DOWNLOAD - LINK

Back up link - LINK

Step 3. Very important

Open page 2 of Industry Condition Report and get the Table 2, first line for Round 0 and put that numbers in Round 0 in Excel file, then the file will automatically calculate all decisions for 8 rounds, with 4 different STRATEGIES.

DO NOT USE THE DEFAULT numbers in excel file, that is a little bit different from YOUR GAME (creator and administrator change the numbers when new industry is created for new class).

--> Get Round 0 number from Industry Condition Report

--> Put into Excel file, Round 0 (only 1 row) --> Then the file will automatically calculate all the decisions

(Check Drift and Ideal Offsets - 2 last rows of table 1 - they often do not change for all game)

We can use the Excel file to calculate Specifications for R&D more easily.

If you have come to this Step. We are half way win the Capsim Simulation !!

Again, this Round to Round guides can apply if we start from Round 1. DO NOT use this suggestion if you are already in the middle of the game, having completion several rounds without this guide. If so, your company may not have enough upgrades and automation to follow this suggested strategy, you can refer to other tips to Rescue Company or Mid Game Tips.

Now, if you are in Round 1, we can apply this Round to Round Strategy and Win the game.

The numbers are from my game, you need to use your Excel file, numbers will be a little different. If you can not create your file, email: wincapstone2012@gmail.com - I can create a file for you for FREE.

We use the following strategy for the guides and winning tips in Round to Round Strategy.