Our Tuesday consisted of two main events, both company visits, as we went to Medochemie and Columbia Ship Management. The Medochemie trip took us to both a conference room for a presentation, and also a tour of the inventory warehouse they own. One main topic they talked about was how they flow through the supply chain. They use a 3 stage planning process – strategic, tactical, and operational. The strategic phase includes budget planning, is planned for 3-5 years, and updated either yearly or quarterly. The second stage, tactical, accounts for sales and operational planning, which can take 1-1.5 years. Finally, the operational part focuses on scheduling, direct material planning, and eventually execution. It was interesting to hear them dive into their business process, as many other companies have not done so. What was the most impressive, however, was the inventory warehouse we got to walk through. They utilize almost every inch of space in the warehouse to store their extra stock that they always keep on hand. The warehouses were also organized and categorized based on product type. This experience was probably our best of the trip to date.

After a short lunch break at the old town marina (and a run to Mcdonald’s), we were back on the road headed to Columbia Ship Management, a maritime service provider with over 400 vessels and 16,000 employees worldwide. The vision of the company is to be the leading international provider in shipment and maritime industries. They pride themselves in having complete transparency of management and fee structures to customers, and they attempt to build long term relationships with their clients. Being a very broad company, they have positions available in many fields, including my own of finance. We also got a tour around the main building, where we were showed the companies emergency meeting room. This room was only used in dire times, when top officers would meet during an emergency and stay until a resolution was decided and executed. We were also given very nice water bottles by the company, and we are thankful for their generosity. Tomorrow we have a few more companies to go visit, and a planned fish mezze that I am super excited for.