After a few days of touring this beautiful country, we were able to finally able to visit some businesses that are based in Cyprus! Our first stop was at Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement Training Center, where we were able to learn more about the way students train to become captains and engineers on BSM’s ships and other affiliates. BSM manages around 650 ships ranging from cargo to cruise ships which is very interesting. Another thing that I thought was cool was that dorms and dining were provided to students at the training center. We were able to see some very high end simulators that teachers use to show real world problems that could happen and make sure they know how to fix them for a real issue. They also use different references for coursework such as MARPOL and SOLAS. BSM also has an app called MariApps, which uses Digital Maritime Services and is a chance for BSM to get more involved in IT. Something interesting was that BSM has found more ways to innovate, such as now having a travel network for managing airlines like British Airways and Qatar Airways. BSM was a very cool place to get to visit.
The next place we got to visit was Columbia Shipmanagement. I was able to do research on Columbia before we came to Cyprus so I already knew some things that they did, but was shocked to see how much more they do than I imagined. We got to listen to Henry Webb, a project manager at Columbia, and he showed us how Columbia has expanded their reach but at the same time stick to their values. Columbia is ran out of multiple countries in Europe and Asia, and would like to expand to Africa as well. Just like BSM, Columbia is a vertically integrated company that controls the supply chain, but the clients drive what the company does. They have 450 vessels under management and they own 50 of them. Columbia prides themselves on their vision of being the leading international provider of shipmanagement and maritime services. Webb told us a lot about Columbia’s dive into Cybersecurity and was very interesting that even though they want to jump into it, they make sure it’s not something to drop everything else for. What I found interesting was the fact that we were able to see how they track every vessel and how they can see how fast or slow ships go and tells the ship what they should do from home base. I had a great time at Columbia Shipmanagement.
Our last visit was to Medochemie, which is another supply chain company but instead of shipmanagement was for medicine such as vaccines for COVID 19. Medochemie has 15 manufacturing facilities with over 700 products offered. They have a direct plan in place to make sure everything is on track. The plan includes strategic, tactical and operational steps. The S & OP Process is the way to try and insure profit. This includes projecting customer sales and finding out how demanded products are. My favorite part though way going into the warehouse and seeing where all the product moves from place to place, a direct component of the supply chain. I found the vehicles to be very interesting, and was curious what they ran on whether that was a battery or electric engine, I was told that they were ran on batteries. I had a great time at Medochemie and am super excited for more site visits!
