Our first stop was at the headquarters of Medochemie, a company that produces generic drugs. Going into the presentation, I thought medicine companies researched, manufactured, and tested their products. But no, there are companies such as Medochemie that focus only on producing drugs. The main goal of the company is to produce more affordable medicines in a faster amount of time, as there are so many different pharmaceutical companies they need to stand out in some way. The business is structured like a pyramid where the production itself, at the bottom of the pyramid, is outsourced to other companies. The presenter also mentioned that the biggest problem in the industry of pharmaceuticals is human error, as there are so many details that can be done incorrectly.

In the next part of the presentation, we learned about the supply chain of Medochemie, the first time we learned about a company’s supply chain on this trip. Medochemie’s supply chain is very detailed and is updated every four weeks. The company uses forecasting, which is extremely difficult in the pharmacy industry due to various factors. It applies the forecasting data to their business plan, where they set parameters for the next couple of months. The other significant part of the presentation where I felt part of the industry was that we walked around the warehouse of the headquarters. The machinery was fascinating to watch as there were automatic forklifts and moving storage racks. It sparked a little childhood interest that one man designed the whole warehouse, and his ideas came to fruition.

Our last stop was at Colombia ship management, who, in their own words, “do anything related to the maritime industry.” The company talked about various topics regarding the management of ships, but my takeaway was that “the men of the ships are the most important part of the industry.” The presenters cited both the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine war as examples of this assertion. In the Ukraine war, for instance, the company’s biggest lost was not being able to use workers from Russia and Ukraine. Additionally, we got to see the Emergency room and the updated room, which felt stressful to sit in. That being said, it is incredible the number of ships the companies manage, with only a small amount of management personally.