Benihana
Operations Management Simulation
Simulation Overview
This single-player simulation models a typical evening at a Benihana restaurant, challenging learners to improve operational efficiency and profitability by managing demand and process variability. Across six progressive challenges, they apply key principles of operations management—capacity analysis, bottleneck optimization, and variability reduction—to explore how strategic process design affects performance outcomes. The exercise bridges theory and practice by showing how manufacturing principles can drive success in service operations.
Players
Single Player
Languages
English
Simulation Time
Total Time: 2 hours
Intro 15-20 minutes, Gameplay 1-1.25 hours, Debrief 25-30 minutes
Accessibility
No Accessibility Compliance
Price
$165 per person
Simulation Categories
The Story
Learners take on the role of an operations manager at Benihana, a fast-paced restaurant where they balance bar capacity, dining flow, and customer demand to maximize profitability. Guests move from the bar to shared dining tables, creating natural variability in timing and service. Through a series of challenges, learners test how decisions about batching, bar design, dining duration, and promotional programs influence efficiency, utilization, and the bottom line. Each round reveals the trade-offs between demand, capacity, and customer experience that define effective service operations.
Core Competencies
Operational Efficiency
Systems Thinking
Strategic Decision Making
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Data-Driven Insights
Learning Objectives
Resources to Power Your Simulation
This simulation comes with a Facilitation Guide along with 1:1 facilitator training and free trials.
Available with this simulation
Facilitation Guide
Debrief Slides
Facilitator Video
Student Video
Free Trial & Demo
Check Out Similar Forio Sims
Operations Management
System Utilization in Service Management
Based on the classic Manzana Insurance case, students manage a service process — reading and writing insurance policies — while developing intuition about capacity utilization, turnaround time, work in progress, and the effects of demand variability. This exercise includes four configurable scenarios and an assessment quiz built in to the exercise.
Check It Out
Strategy
Value Champion
Learners manage SmartShoe’s special order for AllStar Sports, making strategic and operational choices to maximize profit. They apply value chain analysis to align activities across purchasing, production, and delivery.
Check It Out
Supply Chain and Capacity Planning
Global Supply Chain
Organizations of all kinds are faced with difficult supply chain decisions. In the Global Supply Chain Management simulation, learners balance process and results to design and manage a cost-effective and flexible supply chain strategy.
Check It Out