Environmental and Root Cause Analysis

Environmental and Root Cause Analysis:

 Long waiting time for Trucks: The absence of a schedule for the arrival of trucks led to huge waiting lines. It usually took 5-10 min to back a truck onto a Kiwanna dumper, empty its contents and leave the platform. At times some trucks had to wait 3 hours before they could empty their contents. This wait occurred when the holding bins became full and there was no place in the receiving plant to temporarily store berries before further operations.

 Overtime issue: This problem is seen in the peak months of September through October. During these months the numbers of workers required are 53 instead of the usual 27. Even though carrying higher number of workers than necessary, the shifts run into overtime because of absenteeism. Also, in order to prevent the wet fruit from getting spoilt the laborers need to work the extra hours in the peak months

 Limited room to process water harvested berries: Water harvesting is the latest method for harvesting cranberries. The bogs are filled with water and then the berries are mechanically shaken from the bushes, the berries then float to the surface. Water harvesting leads to 20% higher yields, however it reduces the shelf life of the fruit. The water harvesting method is being increasingly used thereby increasing the necessity to to increase capacity at NCC. This year too wet harvested berries will form 70% of the total produce.

Alternative and /Or Options:

Installing a Light Grading System

In 1980, total of 450,000 bbls of berries graded as top quality only half were top quality and deserved the 75 cent per bbl premium. The light grading system which would accurately grade the berries would save 4,500.000*0.75/2 = $1,687.500 per season at one time investment of $20,000. Due to Management carry more employees on the Payroll than they really needed, it will be great to train one of this employees or find a new Operator for this duty.

Improve receiving process

Implement a scheduling system, thus every truck has to call in advance to make an appointment and mention its possible capacity. With this possible capacity by day, it will be possible to forecast and manage the holding bin when became full due to not place in the receiving plant.

Increase number of dryers by 2

Converting Dry bin into bins that can be used for both dry and wet bins

Recommendations and Implementation:

 Scheduling needs to be improved. This includes not just the operation but also the delivery time and amount of berries per truck load. A smoother schedule will ensure less waiting time. A standard minimum weight of 80 % (trucks holding up to 400 bbls) will ensure that less number of truck are used to transport the cranberries, thereby further reducing waiting time.

 Introduce 2 working shifts one if from 7am-3pm and the 2nd shift would be from 3pm-11pm during peak season. By doing this working hours of the employees will be reduced and tremendous reduction in OT will be utilized.

 Conversion of some holding bins allotted to dry berries into wet berries. Currently there are 17bins allotted for dry berries. Conversion would result to additional storage for wet berries after receiving.

 Purchase of light meter reading system. This will solve