Today was our first day of company visits! We had the pleasure of receiving presentations from supervisors at Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement Company, Columbia Ship Management, and Medochemie. At Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement Company, we spoke with the head maritime academy instructor who had so much valuable information to share about his time at sea as well as his experience as a training instructor. Along with managing over 650 different vessels, BSM provides a multitude of maritime training courses such as firefighting, security, search & rescue, and on-board catering. We got to watch video examples of some of these trainings and then tour the facility! Walking through the various radar and satellite rooms used to track marine traffic was like being in an interactive museum.
We then spoke with one of the many project coordinators at Columbia Ship Management who gave a detailed explanation on all their maritime operations such as crewing and training, crew wellbeing, cruise and yacht management, and performance optimization. It was interesting to find out that both CSM and BSM are eager to increase partnerships in northern Africa. It was also surprising to learn that while Cyprus is located so close to the conflict in Israel, CSM has not faced any disruptions in their shipping patterns because of this. We were then taken to a satellite room where we learned how certain geographical regions are denoted and what it means for sailors passing through these regions.
Our final visit of the day was to a pharmaceutical company called Medochemie. There, we got an in-depth explanation of many aspects of their supply chain management. It was interesting to learn that pills are actually only composed of a very small percentage of active ingredient, and the majority is inactive ingredients that make the active easier for people to digest. We finished the visit off with a tour of Medochemie’s extensive warehouse.
I can’t wait to see what the next couple days of company visits have in store!