Final Company Visit

Day 10: Tuesday 5/17/2016

After a long 3 hour bus ride we arrived at PPG or Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. It was a bit strange being in Germany and visiting a company that started out in Pittsburgh. It was really interesting to hear about how PPG changed their business model over the years to go from producing mainly glass to producing mostly paints and coatings. I was also blown away by some of the things that PPG coats. I never even thought that some things were coated; for example the rubber around the door frames in cars is coated in something. It was also really cool to have such a high level executive speaking to us; the global supply chain manager. This was especially interesting for me because I am looking into supply chain as a major and got to hear what it is like first-hand. I never realized before how much stuff is involved in a supply chain like PPG’s. It seemed as if there is no scenario where they do not have a backup plan or some measure in place in case of something going wrong. After heading home my group went to Dennis’ flat to work on our project. I was super hungry after going hours without eating so I decided to buy a baked chicken from a food truck even after many recommendations not to. It was probably one of my better decisions this trip. It was so good and it was nice to have a more American food. I even ate two plates of the spaghetti bolognese that Dennis cooked for us just an hour later. We ended up working on our project for at least 5 hours that night. Hopefully it all pays off in the end.