The next day the class heard from Professor Owen Darbishire, from Pembroke College in Oxford, who lectured on different labor and employment models in the US, EU, and Japan with a focus on the different constraints they impose and opportunities they create.  Following Darbishire’s presentation, Jeanny Wildi-Yune, managing director of the recently launched Kuehne Logistics University in Hamburg, provided an overview of the new program.

After two intense days of theory, the class had their first bus trip and site visit to the Rotterdam Port Authority where they received a presentation on intermodal and rail connections and toured the ECT Delta Container Terminal.  On their last day in Cologne, the class visited Kraftverkehr Nagel, a German family-owned food-logistics company.  The company presented on over-the-road transportation and cold chain in Europe. Focusing on the competitive landscape, the presentation included national carriers and European players and the influences of Central and Eastern European (CEE) competitors.

That evening the class flew to Munich, where they met with Norbert Jungmichel from Systain Consulting, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Otto Group, a major German retailer.  Jungmichel discussed environmental issues in the supply chain, such as the extent to which customers are willing to pay more for more sustainable products and services, as well as the lack of a single international standard for measuring carbon footprint and the uncertainty and complexity this imposes on investment and sourcing decisions.

Later that afternoon the class traveled to Audi in Ingolstadt, where they learned about Audi’s order-to-delivery process and were treated to a tour of the plant. Their visit included an open discussion of in-bound logistics with examples from local sequenced suppliers, as well as suppliers in CEE and North Africa and as distant as Asia and America.

Many of the evenings and weekend days were spent watching the World Cup.  This was especially enjoyable with a class from all parts of the world.  After a weekend of soccer, the class traveled to Krakow, Poland, where they re-visited Dr. Staab for a review of their previous session and a discussion of the financial crisis, sovereign debt issues, as well as other political and economic issues.  

From there the class took a bus to Krakowski Park Technologiczny, a company that supports technological and entrepreneurial development of Małopolska Region and promotes innovativeness and new technologies.  While there, the class met with two additional companies: UPM, one of the world’s leading forest products groups, which discussed their business processes for outsourcing, and Sabre Holdings, a merchandising and retailer of travel products that provides distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry, which discussed their latest in research and development.

Their final site visit was taken by train to WSK "PZL – Rzeszów," one of the leading players in the Central Europe aerospace industry. They presented an overview of one of the most remarkable stories of enterprise transformation and leadership – the evolution and restructuring of WSK "PLZ-Rzeszów" S.A from the “Solidarity” movement of 1980 and the subsequent break with Soviet Union through today.   They also discussed the development of the Aviation Valley in southeastern Poland. 

The next destination for the EMIL-SCS Class of 2011 is Residence III in Latin America.  The class will be traveling from September 10 – 24, 2010. 

 For more on the EMIL-SCS Program, contact Erin Howlette at erin.howlette@isye.gatech.edu or visit http://www.emil.gatech.edu/.