The book's Student CD includes three software packages—the Computerized Beer Game, the Risk Pool Game, and the Bidding Game—that help to illustrate many of the concepts discussed in the book. The authors have found that, in teaching executives and M.B.A. students, these games help students better understand issues and concepts such as the bullwhip effect, the value of information in the supply chain, and the impact of lead times, centralized decision making, risk pooling and suppliers competition on supply chain operations. As in the second edition, the authors have also included a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to help students understand many of the supply contracts concepts introduced in Chapter 4.