Day 2 – Henkel

So, after the excitement of our morning visit to the LCIT port terminal our group was intrigued to learn what insight we could derive from our next appointment: a visit to one of the world’s largest chemical firms, Henkel. Our host, Erik, spoke with infectious enthusiasm, not only about Henkel’s product range, but also about the South-East Asian region as a whole.

The afternoon covered a broad range of subjects. Interesting conversations were had about the importance of environmental sustainability, the very real problem of traffic in the region’s larger cities and about the opportunities and challenges that regional growth presented. Our cohort found the opportunity to discuss the practical supply chain applications of Industry 4.0 particularly useful.

What followed was a detailed overview of Henkel’s S&OP approach, and on Henkel’s supply chain operations in Thailand. We all agreed that we learned a lot from these sessions, and that the models presented provided useful perspective.

After an afternoon of free flowing conversation and many interesting tangents the time came to interrupt the formal sessions of the afternoon and retreat to an excellent restaurant close to the office. Conversation continued over delicious food and a few Singhas (5% abv pale lager beer), cut short only in anticipation of tomorrow’s visits.