Karl Tiselius: Summary of the football-game between Product Development and Supply Chain Management 9'th of April 2011

This beautiful Saturday the sun was shining brighter than ever and the great football field at Färjestaden (north east of Älvsborgsbron) was booked for 2 exiting hours. However, until some minutes before kick off the situation looked dark for the SCM team. Only 7 people had showed up, and luckily Linda joined as the eight person and PD that was sooo many(!!!) agreed on playing 8 against 8. PD had like 12 substituters and SCM had none. To play the game in 2 x 30 min was decided by the teams and the independent referee. Fit for fight we where happy from the start and all dressed up in yellow! The football field was perfect and with 13 degrees sun the task to play fun football couldn't start better. After a good start everything just got even better! This is the story of how some students from the best master program represent the class in the most satisfying way...

Photo 1. The SCM-team: Christopher, Linda, Tony, Adrian, Karl, Nedko, Erik & Greta

Game started and the SCM-team (dressed in yellow) was so far fresh and "on the toes". The game started evenly and the feeling of nervousness slowly declined. Product Development (PD) all dressed up in light blue Chalmers shirts sponsored by their department. One of the most active managers on the field, the SCM-player; Erik Adolfsson, showed some dignity early in the game as a central midfielder and when the first chance came he showed the perfect ball-skill, scoring the first goal in the game. PD - SCM 0 - 1. Short after Adrian scored, 0 - 2, and the feeling of joy spread in the outnumbered team of future Supply Chain Managers. Filled with happiness and self confidence the Product Development changed in some new fresh substitutes’ that totally surprised SCM offensive defense and scored, 1 - 2. Analyzing the downstream mistake the whole SCM-team made SCM change towards a better perfection of JIT-delivery and networking. Just listen to this: After a perfect long ball, from Adrian, Karl managed to win the ball in a head-to-head duel and kick it on "half volley" (with his left foot) perfectly in the right corner (1 – 3), followed by another fast and possibly the most beautiful goal by Adrian (1 – 4) in the top right corner from long distance. Christopher played great as a defender and stopped, together with Greta in the defense almost everything (dressed in blue) that tried to get through.

Photo 2. Christopher owning the ball 100%

Sometimes the Product Development team managed to take a shoot, but their chances where pathetic, taking into consideration that SCM had Tony “The Wall” guarding the goal. Building up these interacting defenses was sort of Total Quality Management, redefined.

Photo 3. SCM goalie Tony shooting the ball over for a following attack for SCM.

In front Linda attacked continuously fooling the defense of PD boys in the midfield AND defense line, opening up for Erik Adolfsson to shoot the ball in the net (1 – 5). Some minutes later Nedko fired off an unforgettable Bulgarian bazooka, letting the enemy live with the fact that they where 5 goals behind (1 – 6). In the last minutes of the first half Karl scored again (1 – 7), and again (surprising himself and the too short goalie) with his left foot. Happy times! The halftime whistle-tone blow as a rescue to the humiliated PD team, but SCM acted like they could play on forever. However, a break was needed after 30 minutes of intensive running and playing.

Photo 4. Half-time talk within the SCM actors. Evaluating and recharging batteries.

A funny thing is that Karl played with a GPS and heart rate monitor, recording the whole game in positioning and condition. Maximum heart rate was 185, but on average it was 150. 8,5 km of running in 60 min football paying. However the average running performance of the entire team was somewhat lower. See more of that analyze is possible to view in Picture 1.

Picture 1. GPS (and heart rate) monitoring of Karl Tiselius (during the game)

Loaded with water and positive feedback the SCM felt proud entering the football field again to play the last 30 minutes. Second half and time to change sides. What also changed was the character of the game, as PD started to roll the ball better and seemed to have constructed a working supply chain. Changing the score to 2 – 7 and 3 – 7 pretty fast made the SCM team changing back to a more aggressive tactic, relying on the stable Greta taking a more defense role. The best Mexican (and scorer) in this match showed splendid team-play together with Erik A, Nedko and Linda, letting himself finalizing with a beautiful (and important!) goal in the bottom right corner.

Photo 5. Power of SCM! Linda & Karl backing up when Adrian goes all in.

Adrians shooting was very hard, accurate and always dangerous to the PD’s. Inspired by that Tony, that some time earlier in the game changed position with Christopher in the goal and later also with Adrian in the top, showed some French magic surprising the opponents that he wasn’t only a great goalie, but also a superb striker. Tony fired of a perfect shoot, after zigzagging through half of the PD-team, scoring 3 – 8. With a feeling of relief again, SCM played more relaxed, but with the possibility to change players continuously PD managed to surprise SCM with a quick counter-play scoring 4 – 8. This made the entire SCM team especially the Mexican seeing red and Adrian scored his third goal with 10 minutes to go (4 – 9) followed by his fourth and last goal (5 – 10) 5 minutes later.

Photo 6. Adrian fooling a PD-student and scoring shortly after for his forth time

The reason the PD team could score more goals in the second half was much due to the fact that SCM-players still couldn’t change or rest at any time. When the final whistle tuned beautifully over the field it was like nice music in the SCM team’s ears. Our supporter on the side Nils, screamed in joy and so did the victorious team. Adrian was so glad, but also so in pain after a heroic game and he needed medical support from Greta as shown below.