Today we had the opportunity to travel to a logistics park in Valencia and visit Ramatrans which is a global logistics company. Ramatrans differs from other logistics companies because it is a buffer warehouse. The idea of the buffer warehouse is to keep goods for an extended time not to distribute the goods immediately, like a holding space. Ramatrans grew exponentially after they opened an office in Shanghai. China is very important in the world of global logistics and transportation and Ramatrans is one of the biggest importers from China in Spain. Ramatrans has offices internationally with one location in the US in Miami. 

This visit was unique because we actually got to tour the warehouse and visualize everything we had learned rather than imagine it in our head. I was so excited because we got to wear neon yellow safety vests and I felt like the real deal. The company has two warehouses, one normal and one cold for food and other products that need to stay cool. Ramatrans works with El Mundo, the largest newspaper in Spain. The paper is imported from Canada then held at Ramatrans until it is needed for production. Another major company Ramatrans is associated with is Samsung as well as Bezoya which is a massive water brand like coca cola in the US. While touring, I noticed how organized and clean the warehouse was. The operations were almost seamless, every product was strategically placed to make the distribution process simpler. The warehouse relies on human labor but has different machines that are automated to perform different tasks. Louis our guide told us the company had few plans to fully digitize as human labor is so important in logistics for problem solving. If something goes wrong, there must be human labor to solve the problem. 

Their company is very well connected with the Port of Valencia giving them an edge over competitors. Another way they maintain their competitive edge is by diversifying their services. Ramatrans saw an opportunity with a motorbike company that was struggling to assemble and produce the number of bikes in demand and used it to their advantage. Ramatrans assembles the bikes at the warehouse to be shipped pre-assembled to the retailer. This helps the retailer save time and money. 

Louis shared with me that he had been with the company for five years and it was his first professional job. He said in the last five years there have been many challenges but like everything else in the world, Covid was the largest challenge. The containers kept coming into the port but there was no where to go with them as people could not leave and were not shopping in person. He said you could barely see the ground in the warehouse and they were running out of room so they utilized their area that is subcontracted to Lidl and had to use the cold warehouse. Financially, the company did not struggle due to the rise of e-commerce. 

In this visit I got to visualize what a LEAN warehouse should look like and how important organization of goods, people and services is to the success of global logistics. I did not know before the visit about the customs clearances; green, yellow or red. Green in customs gives the go ahead to move the goods. Yellow flags the container and leads to questions and further investigation. Red at customs means that the container must be opened and the officers have to see the product to ensure it is what it is supposed to be.