The first alarm went off at 5:30am this morning.  It took my body a minute to comprehend that it was time to get up, but the Dutch don’t mess around when it comes to flower auctions.  By 6:30 we had met Dasha and bussed off to our site visit at the Royal FloraHolland flower company.  Royal Flora serves as an intermediary between growers and buyers of flowers.  They collect flowers from primarily the Netherlands, but also from Africa and South America.  They then package the flowers and sell them in an auction to buyers all over the world, including the west coast of the United States.  The auction typically takes place online, and is conducted in the early hours of the morning.  This company has given me the most clear cut view of a supply chain on the trip thus far.  While the windmill and airplanes both had supply chain aspects, Royal Flora had what I think of as a traditional supply chain.  It starts in the fields, is sold to the distributor (Royal Flora), moved into the wholesale stores, and then purchased by the daily customer.  A perfect example of how a company can efficiently move from concept to customer. As the largest flower conglomerate in the world, their warehouse was something of a spectacle.  The size of it was extraordinary, in fact I don’t think I could even see the end of it.  I learned that the entire complex is around 5.5 million square/ft, with much space dedicated to open warehouses, but also some for auction rooms, offices, and loading bays.  We spent over an hour walking around the viewing platform in the warehouse.  The warehouse looked hectic, with hundreds of people driving around in carts, and carts of flowers moving around on tracks.  But clearly there was a method to the madness.

After leaving the warehouse, we spent an hour in a small town to kill time before visiting a tulip farm.  The town was very quiet.  We spent time in a bakery and grocery store.  An interesting difference between the town and Amsterdam is that the stores did not accept American credit cards, whilst everywhere in Amsterdam does.  This is likely due to the difference in tourist activities.  From there I napped on the bus going to the tulip farm, which was re-energizing considering the early wake up call.  The farm was the beginning of the same supply chain that the factory is a part of.  At the tulip farm we were given a lesson on the operation of a tulip business, and it was certainly more complicated than I had anticipated.  The primary goal of tulip farming is not the flower itself, but the flower bulbs.  The bulbs are harvested and sold to be replanted.  They are typically sold in the summer so that they can be replanted quickly in the fall.  Unfortunately, the flowers have to be cut for this to happen.  Thankfully many are still put to good use in parades and other events.  The farm employee also explained how they have to check all of the tulips consistently to identify any sickness.  When they find sick tulips, they must remove them as quickly as possible to prevent the issue from spreading.  This process can not be done by a machine, so it takes serious manpower to scavenge the large fields.  Ultimately, being able to visit the farm and factory was a great way to see multiple parts of one supply chain in one day.  The scale of this operation was fascinating to me, and I think that I learned a lot about how a concept can reach its final consumer.

Because of the early start, we were back at the hostel by 1:30pm, and given the rest of the day to ourselves.  A group of us went into downtown Amsterdam to do some shopping and get lunch.  Downtown I purchased a rubber duck from the ‘The Rubber Duck Store’.  This is certainly a unique type of store that I had to take advantage of as we don’t have them in the states.  Tomorrow we will visit MX3D, who are known for their 3D printed bridge in Amsterdam, so stay tuned for another educational day!