National Cranberry Cooperative Case Study

1. How might transport vehicles be utilized more effectively? Should crews be scheduled differently on peak days?
 More crews should be scheduled in the bagging station during peak days
 The fourth bagging station should be utilized during peak hours (instead of just three of the four being used at a given time)
 An additional 2,667 bbls per 12-hour period could be processed with these changes
At receiving plant no. 1 (RP1), trucks would arrive randomly throughout the day, with a random amount of berries, anywhere from 20 to 400 bbls. In order to utilize transport vehicles more effectively, there should be crews scheduled differently on peak days. It only takes 5 to 10 minutes to unload a …show more content…
per hour for berries that are to be loaded into bulk trucks, or 150 bbls. per hour for berries that will be bagged. Installing two new dryers would allow the plant to dry an additional 400 bbls. per hour for berries to be loaded into bulk trucks, or 300 bbls. per hour for berries that will be bagged. Since the percentage of water-harvested berries will increase to 70% from 58% the prior year, the cooperative should install one new dryer at $25,000. With one new dryer, the cooperative can process 33% more wet berries than with just 3 dryers, and that will be able to handle the 12% increase in the percentage of water-harvested berries.
Calculations:
3 dryers times 200 bbls. equals 600 bbls
3 dryers times 150 bbls. equals 450 bbls.
200bbls./600bbls. equals 33%
150 bbls./450 bbls. equals 33%
4. What is the purpose of the storage bins? Why do storage bins need to be converted? How many should be converted?
 The storage bins are used to hold berries between receiving and destining and dechaffing
 There will be more water-harvested berries in the next year, so some of the dry barrels need to be converted to wet barrels.
 A total of 19 (out of 27) wet barrels are needed, since there are currently only 11 barrels that can be used for water-harvested berries that means that 8 of them will need to be converted
The purpose of the