This morning we had one of our original visits cancel on us so we were able to set up a factory visit with Caterpillar. We toured one of their processing plants and it was amazing to see how things were shipped in, stored, and then shipped back out. It was really good in being able to view operations management first hand. I found it particularly interesting that all of their products are categorized into short, medium, and long storage life, and how all of the products are even positioned on the shelf based on this category. It was fascinating to see how quickly they could receive and fill orders based on their set up and really helped me to better understand shipping and receiving operations.
After our tour at Catepillar we went to lunch at an Italian Restaurant with several political advisors from NATO, North Atlantic Trade Organization. I sat at a table with their magazine editor Paul and had a great conversation about US/EU Politics and his line of work. It was interesting getting his opinion on NATO as he is more involved with an objective news side of the organization. He said he has gone to individuals who are against NATO and has sat down with them to understand their side and how he tries to portray and address that in their monthly publication. I appreciated his honesty and understanding of how and why people would be opposed to NATO.
I also enjoyed hearing more about the politics and policies of NATO from the other political analysts and the open door policy of NATO as long as countries interested in joining meet the requirements to join. I am once again amazed at how although NATO does not have enforcement power they are able to successfully implement policy and trade negotiations among their member countries and that the US is able to balance negotiations here with all of the other international organizations. I really enjoyed this lunch because of the one on one chance I had to learn more about the organization.
At one point I knocked over my glass of water and thankfully Paul was quick at moving or else he would have been covered in water. I was so embarrassed and he just laughed and laughed about me not liking his opinion on US politics and that he must have said something that offended me. Thankfully he was able to move and it wasn't the red wine that he was drinking.
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