The Benhard Schulte Shipping Management Company was super interesting to learn about! They provide lessons to aspiring students according to the IMO requirements. Some of their programs require some sort of rescue training and security background. They have around 650 vessels which is crazy! The company was originally a British Air Force, which I thought was very interesting. It is located near the Limassol old port and first began training in 1984. They take safety and the responsibility of their company very seriously. One of the videos the instructor showed us was a simulation of a ship abandonment. I thought their company was very hands on and prepared students for the shipping industry.
Colombia ship management was very impressive of the get go. Their instructors were thorough in answering all of our questions. After the operations manager showed us the room with the image pictured above, I asked him about his recent applications of AI in optimization. He informed me that they just recently incorporated AI into their algorithm and are continuing to update their company. They pride themselves in an eco friendly system. By sea transport is the most eco friendly mode of transport. They are a mostly vertically integrated company, meaning they do a lot of their own work in house. This was my favorite stop of the day and even inspired me to look further into the ship management.
Medochemie was our groups designated assignment. It was interesting to see our research in real life. I asked many questions at this company because I had more prior knowledge going into it. They are a very widespread company with around 140 countries with locations world wide. Customers are all over the world. This piqued my interest in their seasonal inventory department. Because there are many companies in various locations, flu and allergy season differs, so they have to account for this. They are not a vertically integrated company and get a lot of their raw materials from India and china. My favorite part of this site visit was seeing the warehouse. This was described by our tour guide as the heart of the company. They are very fast and effective dispatching around 500 pellets per day!