One of the important trends in the cranberry industry is the increasing surplus produced over the utilized berries. This is done by either limiting the crop or destroying some amount of the surplus crop to prevent downward pressures on market prices. Another important trend is the increased mechanization of water harvesting which results in high yield but gives fruit a shortened shelf life. This requires most RP’s to convert their dry holding bins to accommodate wet berries and to purchase dryer units to support processing of wet harvested berries. Currently NCC is subjected to various sources of variability.
Process #1: Process Fruit Receiving It’s the initial step of weighting the truck delivery (gross weight & tare weight), two steps process is running parallel to determine the estimated weight of the clean, dry, usable berries. A third step is carried on as well to classify the berries based on the color as it is considered a very important attribute of both juice and products and whole sauce. This is done manually using color picture, and the finest color (No.3) is paid a premium of $1.50 per barrel. The issues that could be enhanced is 1# scheduling the delivery (knowing the fact that average truck delivery was 75 bbls and by calculating the maximum capacity the plant could deal with and the timing required) to clear up the clutter and unnecessary cost incurred. As this will reduce the waiting time and the amount paid up as overtime.
Problems and Challenges faced by RP1 While there is a stable demand for the cranberries, the production for the cranberries is not stable. The proportion of water harvested cranberries is increasing and likely to stabilize at around 70%. The plant is incurring high overtime cost Long waiting hours to unload the crop for growers/owners of the cooperative Assumptions: Dumping Capacity # Kiwanee dumpers 5 Average time to dump 7.5 minutes (max:10, min:5) Average weight of berries in truck 75 bbls Total Dumping capacity 5 * 75 * 60 / 7.5 = 3000 bbls/hr Holding Capacity Total capacity of bins numbered 1-16 250*16 = 4000 bbls Total capacity of bins numbered 17-24 250*8 = 2000 bbls Total capacity of bins numbered 25,26,27 400 * 3 = 1200 bbls Destoning Capacity Total de-stoning capacity 4500 bbls / hr Dechaffing capacity Total de-chaffing capacity 4500 bbls / hr Jumbo Separator # separator units 3 with avg capacity of 400 bbls/hr perunit Total separator capacity 3 * 400 = 1200 bbls/hr Bagging Station Capacity Max. output per day 8000 bbls Capacity 8000/ 12 = 667 bbls / day Bulk Bin loading capacity # loaders for bulk bin loading 4 Total bulk loading capacity 4 * 200 = 800 bbls / day Bulk Truck loading capacity # loaders of bulk trucks 2 @ a capacity of 1000 bbls/ hr per unit Total bulk truck loading
National Cranberry Cooperative Case Report The National Cranberry Cooperative has to change the operational format of receiving plant #1 to meet production requirements during the high volume period of the cranberry harvest while reducing the costs of trucks waiting, overtime and inaccuracy of the grading process. The two types of harvesting techniques are water(wet) and dry which require different procedures to process them. The specific issues that have to be evaluated are the current maximum capacity the plant can handle at this time, the cost of labour (including overtime), the wait time to unload trucks as well as the benefits/cost of capital investments for the fifth Kiwanee dumper that was installed the past winter, installation of 2 new dryers, conversion of the holding bins to wet/dry units as well as a light meter for color grading. Based on the average “busy” day having 16,700 barrels (bbls) delivered a day, 70% would be wet berries (11,690 bbls) and 30% would be dry berries (5010 bbls). To achieve this operational level the following evaluations were made.
Kevin reports about the $15,000 worth of damage so his supervisor and the chief financial officer both were unhappy with it. After that Phil Bradley called Kevin Pfeiffer to go back to work and haul all the underground wire and the systems prior to the arrival of the insurance adjustor. If Kevin perform this task than it would be damage of more than $500,000 which is beyond the actual estimate damage of $15,00.Kevin refused to perform the task and Matt called up to perform this task for them. Antonio faced dilemma such as what to do in this situation. He has mainly two choices such as a) to take a lawful action or b) compromise with person ethics.
The 50% of berries that was being graded as top quality deserved no premium. The previous attempts to counter the problems were made by installing additional Kiwanee dumpers at the RP1. However even the high cost paid for dumpers didn’t solve the problem. For the improvement of the grading system, installation of a light meter system costing $20000 and an additional fulltime operator was being considered. average time taken to unload=7.5 min per truck Dry Berries Wet Berries Dry or Wet Dry Wet Figure: Process flow diagram of RP1 Capacities: Dumping Capacity = 5 * 75 *
For 1971, yield = 95.1 * 1.13 = 107.463 barrels/acre. Time to service a truck = 5 - 10 min. So average time = 7.5 min. Average barrels/ truck = 75 barrels So capacity = (avg barrels/avg time) = 75/7.5 = 10bbl/min = 600 bbl/hr For 5 dumpers, capacity = 5*600 = 3000bbl/hr = input rate Arrival rate for wet berries = .7*3000 = 2100bbl/hr Considering 18000 bbl/day, wet berries = (.7*18000)/12 = 1050 bbl/hr dry berries = (.3*18000)/12 = 450 bbl/hr Our analysis from the flowchart shows that the bottleneck for process fruit at RP1 is drying process for wet berries at 600 bbl/hrs. Receiving/ testing : No capacity
This variance can be due to the machine that separates and collects the candy that will be deposited into each bag and by the inspections of each bag for defects. MnM Candy Report M and M candies have been around for a long time, almost a century now. Today, almost 1 billion M and M candies are made in a day. According to Monte Brooks, employee of Mars Company,” there are 25% orange, 25% blue and 12.5% of brown, red, yellow and green colors per each bag”. (Food Network, n.d.) In this report, there are statistical analyses used to compare the percentages listed above and the percentages taken from samples.
In 2005, the plant’s overtime costs were high and the trucks spent too much time waiting to unload the process fruit onto the dumpers. The reason was that the plant could process less fruit than it received resulting in holding bins that were always full leading to long waiting time for the trucks. Also, because of the increase in water harvesting of the cranberries, new schedules for operations had to be drawn up. Another issue was the grade selection of the berries. Half the grade 3 berries were actually grade 2B resulting in revenue and time loss.
The way that our crops are transported to a market affects our environment. A product that is grown locally is better for the environment than a product is nonlocal. In the long run non-locally grown food also cost more too. The trucks used to import the nonlocal food to America would use approximately 250 gallons of gas. With the average diesel price today ($4.12) it would cost the U.S $1,030 per trip to import their food to a market4.