National Cranberry Cooperative Case Study Essay examples

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National Cranberry is a cooperative of berry growers around North America that share common production facilities and for the last several years have been experiencing capacity bottlenecks among other issues. After initial analysis, two main factors that contributed to a decrease in production were found. The first issue in the business is that the supply trucks and drivers delivering the harvest were not properly organized and there was not enough space and organization to allow for smooth offloading of several trucks a day. The second major issue is the rampant absenteeism and need for overtime work based on shortage of workers. This has driven the cost of running the business up and drastically reducing profitability. A lesser but …show more content…
If one dryer is added, then the dryer capacity increases to 800bbl/hour, subsequently the separator capacity will need to be relocated to wet berries leaving a capacity of 400bbl/hour for dry berries. Thus, on an 18,000bbl day, wet berries build up at a rate of 250bbl/hour ending in 2500bbl by 7pm and cleared out by 10:45pm. The dry berries build up in excess of 50bbl/hour during the day ending in 600bbl at 7pm leaving them cleared by 8:45pm. Doing this would allow for nearly no truck waiting times.

Additionally, during peak times it would be advised that the crew start at 7:00am instead of the usual 11am with the arrival of the first deliveries to further reduce the stress on the dechaffing/de-stoning/drying machines. This is especially good since all the Kiwanee dumpers and holding tanks are already being brought up to their full capacity by 8:30am while the dryers stay stand idle until 11am.
Furthermore, converting of 2 bins to a wet berry holding for $15,000 will be beneficial to the business. This would lessen truck wait times with wet berries and cut down on receiving crew hours while not affecting the later processing times.

Next, the cooperative needs to identify the best route to its staffing issues. During slow periods of the year, the cooperative can be more flexible with its scheduling but on its peak season days, longer shifts need to be established. Creating two strong shifts with employees that are more
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