We spent our last day of company visits with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is a network of firms ranging from auditors and accountants to business consultants. The first presenter focused on supply chain transparency. He emphasized the importance of an information flow between all parts of the supply chain: the supplier, the manufacturer, the distributer, and the customer. With this information flow, the decision-making process is quicker. Implementing Artificial Intelligence into the supply chain has similar results. The next presenter was from Superhome Center (DIY) Ltd, which is a company of home improvement and DIY stores that are local to Cyprus. He also talked about their supply chain process. They have over 450 imported containers of products coming mostly from China, which was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Another impact of the pandemic was on their online ordering process. Before the pandemic, they did not have any kind of website set up. However, their number one priority is their customers, so they set something up as soon as possible.

After these presentations, we split off to talk to three other presenters. The one that interested me the most was the woman who talked about the concept of a circular economy. A circular economy adds value to the product at each step of the supply chain. In order to do this, the product can be recycled, refurbished, remanufactured, or reused. Depending on which one of these is done, the product is sent back to a different level of the supply chain. For example, if the product is reused, it is transferred from one customer to another. However, if the product is remanufactured, it is sent back to the manufacturer. I found this very interesting because sustainability is very important to me, and I appreciate seeing it implemented into the supply chain process.

During our free time in the afternoon, a few of us visited the Cyprus Museum. I really loved seeing some of the beautiful history of the island. One of the artifacts that particularly stood out to me was a jar of coins that was discovered under the House of Dionysus, which we visited on Saturday. Seeing this connection to another piece of history was super cool, and I would recommend visiting the museum to anyone who has not yet.