Abstract: The teaching method using ERP sand tables has been popular among teachers and students from the beginning when it was introduced into the college course system. ERP sand tables, as teaching aids, have been continuously developed and improved by both teachers and vendors. The Sand Table Laboratory at Huangshi Institute of Technology (HIT) in China has all along been committed to research of the layout settings and color function display of the tabletops. It is designed and planned that financial data and financial formulas can be displayed through tabletop colors as much as possible with the layout settings of the tabletop color module, so that even those students, who do not major in Accounting, can master the basic financial knowledge quickly.

 

Keywords: ERP Sand Table; Tabletop Colors; Settings; Financial Data

 

The tabletop of ERP sand tables has always been one of the characteristics, which can attract trainees quickly. On the other hand, numerous sand table vendors are also very concerned about the coordination of patterns and colors on sand tabletops. However, at the present time, functional roles of colors are rarely taken into account for the sand tabletops by vendors in China, while active researches with the purpose of specifically displaying financial terms and financial indicators through color settings are even rarer. The Sand Table Laboratory at Huangshi Institute of Technology (HIT) has all along been committed to research of the layout settings and color function display of the tabletops. It is designed and planned that financial data and financial formulas can be displayed through tabletop colors as much as possible with the layout settings of the tabletop color module, so that even those students, who do not major in Accounting, can master the basic financial knowledge quickly.

 

1. The status on R&D of sand tables in China

 

1.1 Colleges in China generally attach importance to the rule settings of ERP sand table courses

The handwork sand tables for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in China are mainly divided into two categories, namely Manufacturing/Industrial Sand Tables and Commercial Sand Tables. Both types of tabletops account for absolutely the dominant share in the output of handwork sand tables, of which the percentage of Manufacturing/Industrial Sand Tables exceeds 90%. The handwork sand tables are all set up based on simple enterprise business processes, and are classified into several modules, including Procurement, Production, Marketing, and Finance. With the positions of General Managers being established, “Virtual Enterprises (VE)” involved in competition take shape. Several similar VEs, under the environment with exactly the same starting points and rules, through fair competition, operations in compliance, and preparations of statements, undergo “years” of fierce competition, after which the winner will be determined finally. By this way, the trainees will experience mistakes in business operations, and summarize and master knowledge out of mistakes and corrections.

Because the tabletops have been set in the same principle, and the enterprise structure in simulation is almost difficult to change, ERP sand table vendors in China usually make minor adjustments in rules, to realize the product differentiation, and further to reduce the risk of infringement upon intellectual property rights.

 

1.2 There is a trend that ERP sand table teaching software will replace handwork sand tables

In the teaching process, handwork sand tables are often limited by the level of teaching staff, the quality of students, and even the teaching time and other factors, which will lead to very large difference in teaching effects. Particularly, a variety of report records and profiles are involved in the teaching process. In case of unbalanced reports, the progress of teaching will be greatly affected.

To reduce teachers’ workload and decrease reporting errors caused by handwork operations, Kingdee Software launched a series of electronic sand table software, including “Business Management”, “Financial Management”, “Venture Star”, which are widely recognized and bulk purchased by a lot of colleges and universities in China. Many other vendors and especially some teachers who give lectures to students in class are also devoted to exploring and developing electronic sand table software, based on their own resources and characteristics. Those vendors include Nanjing Allpass, Changchun Bolang, Shenzhou Shewing, DSEdu, ERPBase, China View, Wuhan University of Technology, and ITMC.

 

1.3 ERP sand table teachers place emphasis on the research of teaching effects

By retrieving research papers, we can find that many ERP teaching papers contributed by some college teachers focus on research-based teaching effects and teaching methods with their on-site teaching experience and practice advantages. These result in such phenomena that the sand table vendors focus on tabletop rule design and the teachers focus on teaching methods and effects. Few of them pay attention to the research over the color module in tabletop functional settings.

 

2. The features of ERP sand tabletop in China

Sand table top is usually a map similar to a large poster, and the map is divided into three blocks, namely the upper, middle and lower blocks. Taking up the minimum space in the map, the top part total is the expenditure area for comprehensive costs, which are divided into nine types of specific costs. Here we allocate chip-laying positions for these nine types of costs, to visualize the occurrence of costs. Taking up around 80% of the total map, the middle part is also divided into three blocks, namely left, central and right blocks. The left block reflects the flow of funds, in turn consisting of the pool of accounts receivable for 4Q, cash pool, as well as amortized pool reflecting long-term loans, short-term loans, usurious loans and accounts payable. The cash flow is vividly reflected as follows: over time, the accounts receivables gradually become due, and from top to bottom flow into the cash pool; at the same time, various items raised gradually become due, and flow towards the cash pool, with cashes are used to pay due loans; the cash pool in the middle reflects the amount of cash available to the enterprise. The right block reflects the proceeding of production, in turn consisting of raw materials, production line and product pool. At first, raw materials are ordered. Over time, the raw material pool turns into the production line, and according to different production cycles of production lines gradually turns into the pool of finished products. Till the date of delivery, products are taken out of the pool of finished products in exchange for accounts receivable or cash for a certain payment period. The middle part consists of production, marketing and finance rules as described above. The bottom part reflects investments into product development, ISO certification and market development, etc.. Materials, products and funds, which are required in the process of sand table exercise, are represented by different chips. Their flow is reflected on the tabletop.

 

2.1 Relatively abundant sand tabletop brands

As teaching aids, handwork sand tabletop products are mainly supplied by two vendors, one being UFIDA Software and the other being Kingdee Software. They have been unanimously recognized by many teachers and students for simple rule settings and obvious usage effects. Meanwhile, more and more vendors and teachers have taken part in research and development in this field, and there are many newly emerging brands, such as Nanjing Allpass, Changchun Bolang, Shenzhou Shewing, DSEdu, ERPBase, China View, Wuhan University of Technology, and ITMC. 

Fig 1: Sand Table Top of UFIDA Software

Fig 2: Sand Table Top of ERPBase

2.2 The same principles of tabletop settings and slightly different settings in numbers of factory and production lines

Tabletop layout is generally divided into four modules, namely Procurement, Production, Marketing and Finance. Different factories would nearly make the same settings in three modules of them, i.e., finance, marketing and procurement modules. Only slight adjustment is adopted in workshop settings in the production module and the total capacity of production lines, but mostly limited to two or three-workshop settings, and the total capacity is adjusted by 10 or 8 production lines. Other types of industrial sand tabletops would rarely appear.

 

2.3 Difficult for beginners to overcome barriers quickly

Currently, only few brands have attended the needs of the beginners. Job titles and operation rules are set up on the tabletops, to help the beginners access the role quickly and reduce the decision-making mistakes out of unfamiliarity with the rules, in an effort to improving teaching effects:

Job title is directly marked on the position of corresponding operator, which will prevent beginners from randomly taking their seats, so that the users can quickly understand their focus areas, reduce the interference from other colors, and enhance the operation efficiency. The basic operation rules can be placed near the job title for convenient check before operation in each step, to reduce the mistakes due to unfamiliarity with or neglect of the rules. After two years of experiment and practice in Sand Table Laboratory at Huangshi Institute of Technology, such settings are proved to be able to effectively enhance the learning effects for beginners. 

Fig 3: Sand Table Top Designed

                                                                         by Huangshi Institute of Technology  

3. The principles of setting financial indicators and formulas at sand tabletop colors

Since 2008, Sand Table Laboratory at Huangshi Institute of Technology has begun trying to design tabletops suitable for its students. After 2 years of teaching experience, we have established a base for setting color display, and we think color display is worth of further research.

 

3.1 Setting the tabletop colors based on the balance sheet

In the finance module, the color settings highlight the differences between long-term debt and short-term debt, and also between current assets and fixed assets. The setting structures are adjusted a little based on the original tabletop, to enable beginners to identify the corresponding modules quickly.

 

3.2 Color difference focused on the financial formulas

The background color of cost modules in tax area and marketing module are set as the same, to form the formula of comprehensive management costs: comprehensive management costs = cost modules in tax area (with sky blue background) + marketing modules (with sky blue background);

Current assets and inventories are set with different colors. The background colors of accounts payable, one-year long-term loans, short-term loans and usuries in financial deal modules are set as the same for describing terms and formulas vividly, such as current asset/flow ratio, liquid assets/ quick ratio, total assets/ total liabilities (asset-liability ratio), and so on.

Of course, from this thinking mode, total assets, current assets, fixed assets, total liabilities, long-term loans and short-term loans, etc. can all be displayed with the differentiation of layouts and colors on the tabletops.

 

3.3 Colors instead of terms in display

Different technical terms are set and highlighted with different colors and layouts on tabletops, so that the beginners can quickly memorize the colors, and then memorize the financial terms by colors.

 

3.4 Aiming to help the non-financial professionals quickly memorize the formulas in the settings

We can help the beginners memorize terms by colors and help them quickly memorize the financial formulas through the practice of preparing the report forms in sand table learning, which are much beyond mechanical memorization of formulas.

 

4. The effect of financial indicator colors in teaching courses

Since March 2009, the current version of the tabletop has been in application at ERP Sand Table Laboratory at Huangshi Institute of Technology. After three semesters of teaching experience, great effects have been achieved.

 

4.1 Facilitating the quick positioning of trainees

Students can quickly locate their own positions, and observe their own areas effectively to reduce the distraction errors. Also, as large-sized tabletops are needed, tennis tables are used as experiment tables, which can reduce inconvenient operations of students, who might have taken the wrong seats.

 

4.2 Helping students obey the rules

Rules are written near the posts. Plan I mainly targets at beginners. The rule is simple, easy to memorize and compare; Plan II is for those who have received training on sand tables, and the rules are more difficult. These rules also have been written near the posts in the tabletop, to help people reduce dependence upon their memory of rules from their first training. Those students based on experience memory may make some errors, so they will form a new habit of observing operation rules at different stages and at any time. By comparing those two different rules, we can help students make decisions based on specific rules at each time, rather than based on experienced judgment remaining in the memory.

The sand table top presented by Huangshi Institute of Technology can, through the regional settings and color settings, vividly elaborate the financial equation as follows:

* Asset-liability ratio

* ROA, ROE

* Current ratio, quick ratio

* Long-term adaptation rate of fixed assets

* Comprehensive management fees, current assets, liquid assets, and net profit or loss in finance and others

4.3 Facilitating the understanding of financial terms

The sand table program at Huangshi Institute of Technology is set mainly for students of non-accounting majors. Since 2011, the program, as part of the extracurricular training courses of “Entrepreneurship Management”, has been available for undergraduate students in the whole college. About 300 students participate the training each semester. Students of non-financial majors or even non-economic administration majors can understand the financial terms, by highly efficient explanation and operation of the colors. It has been proven that the concepts and methods are feasible.

The sand table top designed by Huangshi Institute of Technology can display the following financial terms:

* Amount receivables, cash

* Amount payables, short-term loans, long-term loans, usurious loans

* Raw materials, work in process, finished goods

* Equipment value, the value of construction in progress, plant and land values

4.4 The financial formulas can be memorized in vivid details

In teaching practice, the display method of explaining colors and formulas can help students memorize the financial formulas in vivid detail, with significant effects. Take the concept and formula of Comprehensive Management Costs as an example: when teaching how to profile comprehensive management cost schedule, the teacher can describe as follows: "Comprehensive management cost is shown in Figure 3, which is the sum of the sky-blue item in front of Finance Manager and the sky-blue item in front of Marketing Manager". Then, the students can know where to check the comprehensive management cost even if they have never learned the financial formulas.

Project Group here considers that the color setting of sand tables is of great significance. It can help arouse the enthusiasm out of students. The effects are more obvious especially for those students who have not received financial knowledge. We hope that more teachers, students and vendors will pay attention to the color settings on the sand tabletops and to enhance the effects of the sand table teaching together.

 

 

References

 

[1] Xie Shuli. On Sand Table Simulation Teaching of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) [J]. Heihe Journal, 2010, 8.

[2] Xu Fang. The Application of ERP Sand Table Experiment in Accounting Experiment Teaching [J]. Market Modernization, 2010, 22.

[3] Guo Qiaoli. Further Thinking on ERP Sand Table Simulation Teaching Experiment in Higher Education [J]. China Management Informationization, 2010, 14.

[4] Xu Junjie. Several Discussions on Implementation of ERP Sand Table Simulation Teaching [J]. China Management Informationization, 2010, 14.

[5] Liu Xianming and Tian Xin. On Course Teaching of ERP Board Simulation in Higher Learning Institutions [J]. Journal of Huangshi Institute of Technology (Humanities and Social Sciences), 2010, 8.

 本文发表在2011年第三届IEEE信息工程与电子商务国际学术会议论文集中。

 作者简介：

 刘显铭（1971-），男，汉族，吉林长春人，黄石理工大学工程经管系讲师；

 唐莉（1977-），女，汉族，四川乐山人，成都理工大学工程技术学院管理系讲师。