WHOLETRAIN - A Computer based Training aid for Wholesale Management

Since their emergence in the late fifties, business games have found increasing application in management training in the UK retail trades. The phenomenal advances in microcomputer technology of the last five years have had a significant impact on the nature of simulation games currently employed:simple manual games for example the retail inventory management game, Shoprofit, Outlet, Pantheon and Exercise Phoenix have become rapidly outnumbered by computer packages such as Alfreds of Alfriston, Experimark, Going into business on your own, Co-op, Supermarket, Stockshow and Supertrain. In the wholesale trades, the history of simulation games is much more recent. The development of the WHOLETRAIN package towards the end of 1984 marked (as far as we know) the arrival of the first business game in theUK, specific to the needs of the wholesale sector. WHOLETRAIN was the oucome of many months of work by UMIST and MAKRO on an interactive machine-based system for the training of wholesale (cash and carry) junior management and supervisory staff.