National Cranberry Cooperative Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

National Cranberry Cooperative Case Solution

Introduction:

This case focuses on National Cranberry Cooperative, which is owned by the farmers and the case analyzes the process of RPI for the cranberry plant. It has peak season of harvesting in between September 1 to first week of December and it has two types of harvests, which are wet and dry.

national cranberry cooperative case solution

national cranberry cooperative case solution

The company was facing the problem of inefficiency in the production process and management, due to which it was decided to invest in the capital funds in order to overcome this problem.However,it did not solve the problem as it wasnot able to identify the bottleneck in the process.

For better supervision of bottleneck option, the process route can be taken by the business. Along with this, the organization should make extra speculation to setthe limit of the procedures. By extending the work hours with extra staff, the company would be able to fulfill the capacity. The adjustment of long term and transient approaches and techniques ought to be encompassed by the senior management for the possibilities of the organization.

Extra shifts of representative in peak season time would be fundamental for the organization so that there is no requirement for extra minutes and extra cost. For long term, capital consumption would be required as the collection of the berries will proceed in not so distant time.

Therefore, the objective of the case is to determine the payback period of the new investment, which would help the company to be efficient in production as well as in reducing the turnover rate.

Problem statement:

The company is facing the problem of:

  • Overtime cost
  • Bottleneck to unload the process plant
  • Inefficiencies in process management
  • Truck waiting time
  • Inaccurate grading system
  • Insufficient holding capacity

Capacity analysis:

The capacity of each output process from simple assumption is necessary. For example, in this case, Kewanee dumper took from 5 to 10 minutes to service a truck.

Taking an average of 7.5 minutes to unload a truck is a reasonable assumption to determine the capacity. It is also assumed that the process will continuously flow at a constant rate due to the inflow of the berries.

The actual processing rate of work station is concluded by the workers’ level at the station and the maximum level of berries being processed at the time. The berries from the receiving flow to the shipping for the order just take few minutes.

Dumping has the capacity of 3000 bbls/hr, which is based on the average time of 7.5 minutes and average weight of berries in a truck. The first capacity of holding bins 1-16 is calculated at 4000 bbls followed by bins 17-24 at 2000 bbls and 25-27 at 1200 bbls.

This indicates that the third part of the holding bin has the highest capacity. After the holding, the berries are sent for drying.

There are three processes available in the company for drying, however the drying capacity of 600 bbls/ hr of the company is relatively low. Lastly,the separator inthe bouncing process categorizes the berries in different classes so that resultant berries will be of high quality. Moreover, the separator has 3 jumbo units which have the capacity of 1200 bbls/hr.........................

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