FactorySim
Run a factory, watch it behave, and discover why the obvious choice often costs you.
Try It Right Here
Eleven exercises, playable right in this page. Nothing to install, no account needed.
Best on a desktop or laptop with a mouse. If the demo doesn't load, your network may block WebAssembly — try opening it in a new tab.
FactorySim puts students in charge of a small factory and asks them to make it profitable. They staff machines with operators, buy raw materials, and run the line over a simulated work-week — then a scoreboard shows the net profit, units sold, and exactly where time was lost. The lesson isn't in the rules; it's in watching the factory behave. The move that looks obvious usually earns less than the one that reads the numbers. Longer term, FactorySim grows into a classroom platform where students compete on shared scenarios and instructors run the conditions — but the single-player demo is playable right now, above.
Being Tested The Core Exercises
Each scenario isolates a single operations concept. These four are the guided path — the demo also ships a five-scenario pack covering constraint elevation, matched sets, throughput accounting, cash-to-cash and buffers, plus two on running a crew against a payroll. Eleven in all, playable now.
The Bottleneck
Find the constraint. The slowest machine sets the pace for the whole line.
Two Products, One Constraint
Judge products by throughput per minute of scarce machine time — not sticker price.
The Batch Trap
See how big batches starve downstream machines and lock cash in work-in-progress.
The Rope
Release raw material only as fast as the drum can consume it — no faster.
Being Tested In the Demo
Real-Time Simulation
Machines consume inputs, process parts, and pass output down the line in real time — with a speed control to run the week fast or slow.
Materials Economy & Scoreboard
Buy stock as you go, sell finished goods for cash, and review net profit, return on cash, and how much of the week each machine actually spent producing — the board names the one setting the pace.
Build Your Own Scenarios
The desktop build includes an editor for laying out your own machines, operators and materials, and picks up exercise files dropped into a folder. The browser demo is read-only — it ships all eleven scenarios but does not author new ones.
Runs Anywhere
Runs in any modern browser with nothing to install or sign up for, and ships as a native build for Windows and Linux. The layout reflows for tablets and phones, controls meet touch-target sizes, and reduced motion, larger text and colourblind-safe machine colours are all one screen away.
Planned Roadmap
- Classroom competition & live leaderboards Students race on shared scenarios with a live leaderboard — competition mechanics that lecture-based business content rarely delivers.
- Instructor controls & class setup Configure scenarios, adjust difficulty, and manage conditions across different class sections.
- Advanced supply chain modeling Multi-tier supplier relationships, demand variability, and logistics constraints layered into the simulation.
- LMS integrations — Canvas, Moodle Grade passback and roster sync so FactorySim fits into existing course structures without friction.
- Custom factory sharing Publish and share custom factory configurations with the PlayEDU educator community.
- Localization Translated exercises for international operations and Theory of Constraints curricula.
Teaching business or operations? Let's talk.
FactorySim is in active development and we're looking for instructors willing to run early tests with their courses. Your feedback shapes the roadmap.
Inspired by the Theory of Constraints, a management methodology developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. FactorySim is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Goldratt organizations.