Factory Visit: Pocari Sweat

On Monday, 15th of May 2017, i went to Batu for my field trip with the whole 2014’s class. The trip took, like 15 hours by bus, and it was freaking tiring – So, we went at 01.45 pm on Monday, and arrived at 6 o’clock am on Tuesday. We had our first breakfast in restaurant, quite decent – this is the most hilarious one – We had to take a bath in the restaurant’s bathroom, i said BATHroom because in each toilet room there is a shower, and also we had to pay like 7,500 rupiahs for just taking a shower, but i didn’t pay any – Shit was crazy, i was so fucking tired didn’t even pay attention to anything but food and taking a hot shower. We had to take a bath, because we had a factory visit to PT. Amerta Indah Otsuka in which Pocari Sweat drinks are produced.

Most of my friend in different faculty actually asked me: “You’re a literature student, why would your field trip is visiting such a factory?” before i go, and each time the question hits me, my answer will always: “Well, fuck i don’t know – There must be something legit there.” In the matter of facts there was something very legit there.

The bus departed from the restaurant at 8.00 am and arrived at 9.25 – more or less. The company greeted us very kindly, they gave us souvenirs even they served us Pocari Sweat  drinks from the their vendor machine. First, they took us on a tour around the factory, and showing us the process of making Pocari Sweat. They show us literally everything, the machines, the workers suits, the sensors camera, the technology, and even the fuckin’ rejected product which not qualified to sell and what they do to such product. Second, they took us to the presentation room, they presented us their marketing strategy, their targets, their histories and their social program. They also opened the questioning session and i gave them four questions to satisfy my curiosity:

1. I’ve heard about rumors that Pocari Sweat was inspired from infusion water used in the Hospital?
2. Why do you prefer oil-based plastic material over biodegradable plastic material?
3. I’ve seen there are rejected product sample, such as Bottle, Cap and Lable – Is there, by any chance, a rejected water solution?
4. How much products are rejected in a month of production?

Their answer was pretty legit though, and somehow triggers another question – but i didn’t ask further as the time limit were on tick.

1. Prof. Harima, one of Otsuka Japan Professor, were visiting Mexico, and got hospitalized for pretty bad diarrhea. Water supply in the hospital was short, and the hospital decided to change mineral water to coke to prevent dehydration. He then remember the infusion water used in the hospital which function is to replace body ions. After he went back to Japan, he then had an idea to create a drinks which provided ion for human body.
2. Since the biodegradable material are biodegradable because of bacteria or other living organism, which means that there are plenty of bacteria or other living organism which are present in the bottle, which indicates unqualified products and not save for consumption.
3. The water solution has been tested in Quality Control before being filled into each bottle produced, and then will be tested again in overall quality control.
4. In percentage, 0,2% – 0,3% rejected product in a single months. We produced 1,200 bottles per minute, and the production is running for 23 hours a day. The production then, having 1 hour of maintenance each day, and 2 days maintenance on the weekend.

I’ve counted a total bottles produced in one month. Approximately 49,680,000 bottles produced in 30 days of work, and Approximately 149,040 bottles are rejected every month. Amazing ain’t it? If my friend asked me again, like “What do you got from field trip?” i’d tell them everything awesome about this shit; even though, i strongly believe that English Literature graduate is not valid for job application in Pharmaceutical Company like Otsuka – We study books, and language arts not a fucking chemistry and physics.