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National Cranberry Cooperative, 1996 Case Study

Presented ByMithilesh Singh RQ1201A04

Introduction
Hugo Schaffer(VP of operations at NCC) Mel OBrien(Assistant) Will Walliston(The superintendent) Growers

Case Bakground
NCC is a cooperative owned by Growers Peak season runs from 1st Sept, to 15th Dec Water Harvesting v/s Dry Harvesting Water Harvested berrries expected to grow from 58% to 70%

Receiving Plant #1

Receiving of berries Temporary Holding Quality Grading Bulking & Bagging

Process Fruit Receiving


Unloading and went through a small version of cleaning & drying Grading was done Recommendation by scaeffer: Installation of light meter system of color grading Requirement of full time skilled operator with a high pay

Temporary Holding
Trucks tilted the content on the five rapidly moving Conveyers Problem Identified: Trucks had to wait for hours since no place for receiving berries for further operations

Destoning, Dechaffing & Drying


1-16= Dry Berries 17-24= Both dry & Wet Berries 25-27= wet Berries Plant had 2 Dechaffing units dedicated to both wet & dry Berries Observation By Will Walliston: Inc. in wet berries coming to plant

Contd
Recommendations by Walliston to OBrien: Coveting 1-16 holding bins of dry berries to wet berries holding bins OR New dryers for the wet berries costing $60,000 each

Quality Grading
Jumbo separators First Quality Berries Potential Second quality Berries Unacceptable Berries Logic Behind: Good Cranberries will bonce higher than poor cranberries

Scheduling The Workforce


Requires 27 members workforce or 53 members depending upon the relative volume Change in shift timings i.e. From 7-3 & 3-11 Implication: Reduce in huge overtime expenditure Limit the extra capital they need to spend

Contd
27 Permanent with $13.00/hr Avg 15 Seasonal workers with $8.00/hr Crew of 8 members worked over night because wet fruit cannot sttay for longer time Plant worked for almost 22 haoue and rest time for maintaience and cleaning purpose

Problems Identified
% of wet berries will continue to rise Trucks are currently not given timetable Very specific data's were not available, averages were used Trucks waiting time Inaccurate Grading

Recommendations
Adding Dryers Bin Conversion Place in receiving plant for temporary storage of berries Start Dechaffing, Destoning, & Drying Earlier

Conclusion
Removing Production Bottlenecks Increase Processing Start Time Cost Reduction

The End

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