Day 5: PepsiCo Buenos Aires Factory Visit

         At 9:00 this morning, we boarded the bus to visit the PepsiCo production factory in Northern Buenos Aires. Upon entering, we were greeted by two acting managers and a high ranking worker and brought to a presentation room. We were first shown a video of how to stay safe and how we must behave while walking throughout the factory. The video clearly told that we mustn't have any jewelry on and must have our hair tied back or in a net to limit contamination. After the video, we took a small "quiz" to see if we understood the video and knew what their policies were and knew where our meeting locations were. The managers and workers also spoke a lot about what is produced in this specific factory for beverages and where else in Argentina they service the production of beer like Quilmes and other sodas. I thought it was very interesting that Pepsi, a worldwide producer of soda, was also servicing a brewery that mass produces Quilmes, a very popular Argentinian beer. The factory was also heavily focused on the production various flavors of Gatorade, like Grape (Purple) and Apple, which I thought were very interesting. They had a very big system and production line, starting from the small plastic cap being molded into a bottle all the way to it being filled, capped and then wrapped and packaged. In a hot climate like South America, cold Gatorade is often what many people crave to stay hydrated. Their soft drinks are packaged and brought to distribution centers with trucks and then sold and delivered all throughout Argentina and Brasil.

We were provided with non slip shoes, a vest and goggles to wear while walking throughout the factory and seeing the production lines. Photography of any kind was very limited so I could also only snag a photo or two in a designated area. I was confused as to why we didn't get to specifically see Pepsi being produced down a line and we only saw Gatorade, but I'd imagine the process in the production line would be the very similar. It was very interesting to try sodas that they produced here in Buenos Aires with real sugar that are also produced in the United States with different sugar, the taste is noticeably different and much better with real sugar. Their belief of quality over quantity really showed with their amazing taste! Along with their belief of quality over quantity, they have committed a lot of time and attention to their employee safety and satisfaction and their environmental impact on their community. They have whole days where production is stopped to train employees with proper safety skills, running through many situations and giving them all the possible tools to fix the problems without having to be micromanaged. Another whole day is devoted to cleaning up the city and planting trees and plants because they believe they have to clean up their carbon footprint and they have a bigger responsibility as a huge company to clean up their environment.