Before I proceed, our plant tour was supposed to be in Cebu. However, the opportunity that our class can participate in Ieshikawa conference was there. Since this was a big opportunity for us, our teachers decided it to incorporate this conference to our plant tour. This is why we had our plant tour in Manila and Laguna. I'll explain more about the ieshikawa conference as I go on with this blog.
For those who don't know, Ieshikawa is an annual industrial engineering conference held in University of the Philippines - Diliman Campus and is organized by UPCIEM (UP Circle of Industrial Engineering Majors). This conference includes workshops, talks, and competitions that are related to the roles and duties of industrial engineers in the industry to their curriculum. This is also participated by several schools all over the Philippines that offer industrial engineering. For the name of the conference, "ieshikawa" is a play of two terms: "IE" and "Ishikawa". IE is the abbreviation for industrial engineering while Ishikawa is a reference to the ishikawa diagram (or fish bone diagram), an essential tool used by industrial engineers to determine root causes of the problem.
Day 4 - Ieshikawa Day
We proceed to UP Diliman to attend the Ieshikawa seminar. Actually, this was the 2nd day of the conference. We did not participate in the 1st day as this is reserved for competitions and to schools that send representatives to participate in the said competitions.
Once in UP Diliman, we gathered in the UP Film Center to register for the said event.
inside UP Film Center
outside UP Film Center
The 2nd day of the conference is filled with talks and workshops. The first round of talks took place after registration. During this time, speakers talk about improvement engineers (one function of industrial engineers) in the public and private sector and about IE's role in tracking positive change. Next, we had lunch sponsored by UPCIEM. Afterwards, the workshops started. The workshops include Marketing, Operations Research, Product Packaging, Production Systems Engineering, Social Entrepreneurship, Supply Chain Management, Technopreneurship, and User Interface Ergonomics. Lastly, the 2nd round of talks happened. The second round talks about IE's in the banking and land development sector, and the ASEAN economic community. The conference ended with the presentation of the winners of the IExhibit and IExplore competition that happened on the 1st day.
After the conference, we went to SM North Edsa for some shopping again!
We went back to the hotel after a tiring day.
Day 5 - Last Hooray in Manila
After having breakfast in the hotel, we pack up our things for we were to leave Manila in the afternoon. We checked-out from the hotel and went on a side trip to ABS-CBN studios, one of the biggest television networks in the Philippines. We also stopped by the Pinoy Big Brother House to take pictures.
ABS-CBN studios
Pinoy Big Brother House
We then proceed to Tramway Garden Buffet in Timog Ave. for lunch.
Tramway Garden Buffet, Timog Ave., Quezon City
Our final destination in Metro Manila before we went to the airport was SM Megamall. We did our last-minute shopping for souvenirs and presents ("pasalubong" in Filipino) to be given to our families. Also, we heard that the first H&M store in the Philippines recently opened here. So, as a class, we decided to check it out. The store was so big that it covers 3 floors. It was so big, that they even have a dedicated entrance to the store.
entrance to H&M
I could not take pictures inside as the inside of H&M is hell! It's very crowed and there are very long lines to the counters and fitting rooms. Though it's typical for a newly opened shop to be crowded.
Lastly, we went to NAIA terminal 3 to check-in only to find out our flight was delayed by around 45 to 50 minutes. We departed around 5:30 pm (45 min behind schedule) and arrived at Davao at around 7:15pm.
Sadly, our plant tour comes to an end. Though I had fun and learned a lot from this experience.
Thank you for reading my plant tour blog posts from part 1 to part 4!
There's more coming your way so stay tuned and I'll see you guys later!
See other parts of my plant tour:
