See some more pictures of the trip in our photo gallery.

On 20th October, Mrs White and the year 11 Business Studies class, along with Mr Lister and the year 8 Historians, went on a trip to IDI Composites International at Songjiang Industrial Park in Shanghai. The purpose of this trip was to help us to understand the Human Resources theories that we have been learning recently, by seeing them operating in a real factory setting. We had very warm welcome from Mr Rodriguez, the Vice President of IDI Asia/Pacific. Mr Rodriguez introduced the managers of each department, in particular Mr Chen, the Director of Human Resources. Mr Rodriguez presented some general information about the company, and we were curious to find out what IDI is and what the company does. During the presentation, we found out answers to some of the questions that we had about the company. It is a global company with operations in every part of the world. We learnt that the most important things about a business are that they need people, equipment, material and customers. After the presentation, we had a short break; the company was really thoughtful and had prepared some fruit and drinks for us.

Mr Chen then took us on a tour around the factory. Firstly, we went to the financial department. Mr Chen told us that they have a short meeting every morning to discuss each day’s objectives, then he showed us the certificates that the company got which was really impressive. The company’s policies are also displayed on the walls so that all the workers can see them clearly, along with photos of the employees of the month. Then we moved to the canteen of the company, where there were still workers having their lunch. It was smaller than we expected because there are 151 workers, but Mr. Chen told us that the lunch time is divided into two parts, office staff will have lunch first then the factory workers will have lunch, and then later there is another meal for the evening shift. The factory operates non-stop from 8am till 1.30am each day.

The factory itself was the most interesting part of the tour. When we went into the factory, we could immediately smell the plastic being mixed. We only stayed a short time so we were fine, but the workers all need to wear masks. We were very careful in this potentially hazardous environment, but we still learned the processes of making bulk molding compounds in huge mixing machines and sheet molding compounds which contain fibre glass strands. We found out that the factory is actually run by both machines and workers. After the tour, we were surprised and pleased to receive the gift of a clock radio each as a souvenir of the day. We really appreciate the lengths that Mr Rodriguez and IDI went to; giving us the opportunity to reinforce our knowledge of business theory by seeing what happens in a real life factory.