A branching, choose-your-path tabletop built for a medical device manufacturer. A fire at a supplier most executives have never heard of takes out the only source of a single chip — and hospitals still need pumps. Six shared injects establish the disruption, then the room's own decision — buy on the broker market, or redesign around an alternate part — sends the exercise down one of two independent, fully-scripted paths. Neither one gets the parts here fast enough.
Every detail below is fictional — specific enough to feel real in the room, and generic enough to map onto almost any manufacturer whose product depends on a part it doesn't make and can't easily replace.
A Massachusetts-based maker of hospital infusion pumps and the disposable sets that run through them, with ~3,100 employees and $1.1B in annual revenue. Norvale pumps are installed in about 900 U.S. hospitals, and every new pump and every service repair depends on a custom microcontroller made by a single supplier: Hexatron Semiconductor, at one plant in Penang, Malaysia.
Single-sourcing that chip was a deliberate decision seven years ago — better pricing, tighter quality, and a supplier that had never missed a delivery. On paper, it's a 7-week inventory buffer and a strong relationship. In practice, it's one building.
Six injects, delivered over the first 53 hours, that every player experiences regardless of what the room ultimately decides. This phase ends with the decision that splits the exercise in two.
A fire breaks out overnight at Hexatron's Penang plant. Norvale doesn't learn about it from Hexatron — it learns nine hours later, when a supply chain risk alert service flags a local news report. Hexatron's account manager isn't answering.
Hexatron confirms its cleanroom was destroyed and estimates 16 to 24 weeks to restart. Norvale has seven weeks of chips across production and service. Then procurement discovers that the supplier of the pump's power module also uses Hexatron parts — a dependency nobody had mapped.
Unity Health Purchasing, which buys pumps for 140 hospitals, asks for written assurance about supply. A regional sales director has already told two hospital systems there will be "no impact."
Hexatron says it will allocate remaining wafer inventory across its customers. Three larger device makers and an automotive supplier use the same chip family. To Hexatron, Norvale is a small account.
Regulatory affairs flags that an interruption in supply of a device used in critical care may require notifying regulators — and that any change to the pump's components will require a regulatory assessment before it ships.
A parts broker offers 40,000 of the exact chips at nine times the normal price, available in ten days, with paperwork that can't be traced back to Hexatron. Engineering says a redesign around an alternate chip would take about 14 weeks, plus a regulatory submission of uncertain length. The room has to decide.
From here, the facilitator runs one of two fully independent scripts depending on what the room chose in Inject 6. Toggle between them below to see how each one unfolds — in a live session, players only ever see the one they earned.
Norvale commits $14M for the broker lot. The purchase exceeds the procurement director's authority and goes to the CFO, who approves it by email from an airport. The broker requires payment in advance.
The first shipment arrives. Incoming inspection finds inconsistent laser markings on about 8% of chips in two of the five lots. Quality orders X-ray and electrical testing on every lot before anything goes on a production line.
The only qualified independent lab can't finish full testing for two weeks. Production of new pumps stops while the chips wait. Service technicians start rationing repair boards.
Testing confirms that one lot — 12% of the purchase — is counterfeit: relabeled, lower-grade parts. The other lots pass every test so far. Operations wants to start building with the passing lots; Quality wants to scrap the entire purchase.
In response to Norvale's supply interruption notice, regulators ask how the company is sourcing components during the disruption and what provenance controls are in place.
Hospitals start rationing pumps. St. Brendan Children's Hospital asks for priority on new pumps and repairs, citing its pediatric critical care patients. Unity Health asks for a written allocation policy that treats all of its members equally.
A medical device trade publication reports that Norvale bought chips on the broker market and that some were counterfeit. Competitors' sales reps forward the article to Norvale's hospital customers within hours.
The VP of Quality tells the CEO she will resign if pumps are built with broker chips before every lot has completed full testing. The COO says waiting two more weeks means hospitals go without pumps.
Four lots have passed every test the lab can run. Using them would restart production for about eight weeks. Scrapping them all means relying on Hexatron's recovery and the redesign Norvale hasn't started. The room has to decide.
The board asks why a single-source dependency on one plant was accepted for seven years, and whether there's a dual-sourcing plan. Engineering says a redesign for a second chip would still take 14 weeks — whichever path the company took this week.
Engineering pulls 60 people off the next-generation pump to work on the redesign. The next-gen launch, which the company has promised to investors for next year, slips by at least two quarters.
Regulatory affairs concludes the alternate chip changes the pump's control electronics enough to require a new regulatory submission. The review timeline is uncertain and outside Norvale's control.
With seven weeks of chips, Norvale has to allocate. Sales wants to protect its largest contracts; the chief medical officer wants to prioritize critical care units; finance wants to protect the highest-margin accounts.
Told it will receive 60% of its normal pump volume, a Unity Health member system with 22 hospitals announces it is evaluating a competitor's infusion platform. Switching platforms is a multi-year decision.
Hexatron revises its restart estimate to 28 weeks. Norvale's inventory now runs out about seven weeks before the redesigned pump can realistically ship.
Installed pumps fail at their normal rate, and every repair uses the same scarce chips as new production. Every board that goes to a repair is a new pump that doesn't get built.
A nursing association posts that hospitals are reverting to manual IV administration because they can't get replacement pumps. Local news picks up the story and names Norvale.
Engineering finds that the alternate chip requires rewriting the firmware that controls dosing safety limits. Verification and validation can't be safely compressed, and the schedule slips another three weeks.
The parts broker returns with a new offer: 30,000 chips at twelve times normal price, still without traceable provenance. Buying them would bridge the gap until the redesign ships — or put unknown parts into pumps. The room has to decide.
The board asks why the second-tier dependency on Hexatron was never mapped and what the company's supplier risk program actually monitors. The answer is: first-tier suppliers, annually.
The two paths are built to converge on the same hard questions, arrived at from opposite directions.
The full Norvale scenario — every inject, both paths, and the debrief questions — is available as a print-ready PDF you can share with your own team or board. Enter your email and we'll take you straight to the download.
The Norvale exercise is a sample — built to show how a supply chain simulation can branch on the decision that actually matters, and stay uncomfortable in both directions. A simulation built for your organization starts with your products, your suppliers, and your customers.
Exercises often require access to crisis plans, escalation structures, and vulnerabilities. That material is handled in confidence, and NDAs are available on request.
Talk to us about a custom simulation →
The Crisis Studio