After meeting in front of the Lido Hotel at 8 o’clock, we were boarding the bus to drive out of the city to visit Franke, where Peter Spirig and his team welcomed us. Firstly, we were allowed to independently walk around the office building, to see the office workers’ working environment. After meeting again at the conference room, we listened to an interesting presentation about “Franke kitchen supply” business model and general tips of how to do business in Asia. We were furthermore able to get an idea about their products, which involves kitchen facilities, mainly sold to McDonalds, Yam Food and Burger King. The division’s responsibility includes also other countries in Asia and the Middle East. Franke is not only selling whole kitchen units to those clients, but furthermore assists them throughout the whole lifecycle of a fast-food kitchen. This involves supplying the clients with spare parts, hard goods and increasingly with energy management solutions. After this insight, with lots of interaction, by asking questions, we were splitting into two groups and went to the workshop, where the kitchen units are being produced. We were shown the production steps from the initial step of cutting the parts out of the steel, to the bending of the parts and later on the assembly stage, where the parts are being put together to the final product. After doing so, it was lunchtime at the company’s own canteen, where we were able to talk with the workers. After lunch, we were given some questions to answer and later on presented our solutions to the plenum. After taking group pictures and thanking Peter Spirig for his interesting insight, we drove to the Haihui temple, which was first built in the Ming Dynasty. It was later on destroyed and rebuilt in 1994 to develop Buddhistical cultural tourism. The temple is situated on the Dayan Hill and gave us a nice view over the valley. Far too early, it was again time to board the coach and drive back to the Lido Hotel, where we started to have a reflection on our trip.
