Littlefield Technologies is a web-based, discrete-event simulator of a simple factory consisting of four steps on three stations and a raw materials inventory. It is most commonly used in courses that include the following topics:

The factory is a make-to-order assembler of electronic systems. Students access their factories from web pages. The instructor or a T.A. can start the simulation, monitor teams' progress, and perform other administrative functions from a different set of web pages. In a typical assignment, students group themselves into teams of four students each, and register their teams on the web. Each student team receives its own factory to manage for a specified period of time, typically one to two weeks. Students manage their factories by purchasing and selling machines, changing the inventory order quantity and trigger point, changing a scheduling parameter, and selecting among a choice of lead time quotes. Students make decisions in response to historical records of inventory levels, queues, utilization, lead times, cash flows, and the team's relative standing to the other competing teams. Each team factory sees the same environment. For example, a new order arrives to each team's factory at exactly the same time. The factory environment is further described in the note Littlefield Technologies: Overview.

Littlefield Technologies is designed to overcome many of the difficulties associated with computer-based assignments. An instructor or a student only needs a web browser that can run Java and Javascript. Netscape Navigator version 2 or later, or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3 or later meets these requirements. The computer must have access to the internet. The software resides on a central server provided by a private company,Responsive Learning Technologies. As a result, instructors do not need to be concerned with software installation and maintenance, or platform compatibility issues. Instructors may use two assignments that have already been created (along with teaching and grading notes) or they may design their own assignments. Instructors may get a temporary, free trial account to evaluate the software and, if desired, design new assignments. If the instructor decides to use Littlefield Technologies in a course, Responsive Learning Technologies has a per-student charge of $15 for non-profit educational institutions and $75 for other institutions. See Ordering Littlefield Technologies for more information.

There have been required assignments using Littlefield Technologies in the Stanford University Graduate School of Business's required MBA course in Operations since the 1996-97 academic year. Five professors have used the assignments in that course. In polls of MBA students in the 1997-98 school year, students rated the course the "most effectively taught" of the required MBA courses, and in a form distributed to students, rated Littlefield Technologies as the most educationally valuable assignment in the course. Other universities and other departments within Stanford University began using the software in the 1998-99 academic year. In the 2002-03 academic year more than 4000 students in about two dozen universities played Littlefield Technologies. Students included high school students, undergraduates, graduates, and students in executive education programs.