Learning by doing, in a simulated workplace.
Principlay is SAM’s simulation of a real work environment - real work functions, roles and processes - where problems like the ones in your everyday work arise and are solved in a structured way, using principles as the start for improvement discussions. That is the name: principles, played.
A simulation of real work, run on principles.
Principlay is a role-play tool developed by SAM that simulates a real work environment - its functions, roles, material and information flows - so participants can understand and discuss real questions and problems in a playful manner. The basis of the game is to use principles as the start for improvement discussions.
Originally developed to train people in flow-oriented principles and practices, Principlay has grown into more than 30 customised simulations tailored to specific client situations: production, order-to-delivery, modular production, process industry and more. Thousands of participants from all over the world have taken part.
You may recognise some of these signals.
Principlay earns its place where understanding has to be shared before it can be used:
A transformation needs a mutual understanding across the whole enterprise, fast.
Principles exist on paper, but people haven’t felt what they change in practice.
A specific, stubborn situation - two sites sharing one flow, a merger, a new process - needs to be rehearsed before it is lived.
From half a day to a week, tailored to the issue.
A Principlay workshop may span from half a day up to a week. During a typical one-day session we simulate and reflect, test solutions and discuss how to go forward, in a realistic simulation with real product variants in real material and information flows.
Step into the simulation.
The team takes on real roles in a rebuilt work environment - production, planning, purchasing, sales - with real product variants moving through real material and information flows.
Let the problems arise.
Problems similar to everyday situations come up in the simulation - in some versions, quality problems arise spontaneously without being introduced, allowing actual root-cause analysis - and are solved in a structured way using SAM’s mindset model, the principles and its methods.
Reflect, test, go forward.
Round by round the team reflects, tests solutions and agrees how to carry the principles into its own work: a discussion anchored in what everyone just experienced, not in theory.
A mutual understanding that holds under pressure.
A shared, lived understanding of the principles, across functions and sites.
Solutions tested in the simulation, ready to try in the real flow.
A common language for flow, deviations and improvement.
The services Principlay brings to life.
Principlay carries SAM’s services into the room: the same principles, experienced rather than presented.
Management by Means
Principles, behaviours and decision-making made visible in practice.
See service →Customer Focused Flow
Order-to-delivery simulations that show what flow principles change.
See service →Modularisation
The Modular Production simulation lets teams experience a modular programme’s effect on the whole value chain.
See service →Strategy and Deployment
Exploring complex challenges in realistic environments before committing.
See service →Principles are learned by doing.
Tell us the situation your team needs to rehearse - from flow basics to modular production - and we’ll tailor a Principlay around it.