National Cramberry Case
case
National Cranberry Cooperative
MGT 413 Case Write Up #1
Group 6
Problems facing RP1
The National Cranberry Cooperative faces several challenges with its operations at receiving plant 1 (RP1) in 1970. The primary challenges that RP1 is facing transmits to capacity and efficiency of their cranberry processing. For example, often there are trucks waiting to unload their cranberries because of existing bottlenecks in the processing system. This wait time can reach as long as 3 hours. If there is no processing backup, the trucks can unload within 5 to 10 minutes. The bottlenecks that attribute to the truck backup result from full holding bins or max drier utilization. The reason for the long delays is because RP1 experiences a greater input of cranberries than it can process. Specifically, this backlog of trucks stems from the influx in wet cranberries, which require an additional processing step before bagging and shipping. Recently, RP1 is experiencing a higher percentage of wet berries as a result of its location and the industry trend of harvesting the cranberries wet.
The second key issue at RP1 is the deficiency in quality assurance of cranberry grading. In 1970 alone NCC paid the premium on 450,000 bbls of berries while half of them turned out to be less than grade 3 berries. The imprecision in grading cranberries resulted in a cost overrun of approximately $112,500.
Human Resource Utilization is the last key issue identified for RP1. RP1 has an issue with absenteeism which leads to a greater number of employees on the payroll than necessary for operations. Absenteeism also results in unnecessary overtime pay for those employees that show up, which further increases payroll costs.
Industry trends that may affect cranberry processing
The current industry trend that has the most significant impact on cranberry processing is the wet harvesting method. If the berries are harvested wet
National Cranberry Cooperative
MGT 413 Case Write Up #1
Group 6
Problems facing RP1
The National Cranberry Cooperative faces several challenges with its operations at receiving plant 1 (RP1) in 1970. The primary challenges that RP1 is facing transmits to capacity and efficiency of their cranberry processing. For example, often there are trucks waiting to unload their cranberries because of existing bottlenecks in the processing system. This wait time can reach as long as 3 hours. If there is no processing backup, the trucks can unload within 5 to 10 minutes. The bottlenecks that attribute to the truck backup result from full holding bins or max drier utilization. The reason for the long delays is because RP1 experiences a greater input of cranberries than it can process. Specifically, this backlog of trucks stems from the influx in wet cranberries, which require an additional processing step before bagging and shipping. Recently, RP1 is experiencing a higher percentage of wet berries as a result of its location and the industry trend of harvesting the cranberries wet.
The second key issue at RP1 is the deficiency in quality assurance of cranberry grading. In 1970 alone NCC paid the premium on 450,000 bbls of berries while half of them turned out to be less than grade 3 berries. The imprecision in grading cranberries resulted in a cost overrun of approximately $112,500.
Human Resource Utilization is the last key issue identified for RP1. RP1 has an issue with absenteeism which leads to a greater number of employees on the payroll than necessary for operations. Absenteeism also results in unnecessary overtime pay for those employees that show up, which further increases payroll costs.
Industry trends that may affect cranberry processing
The current industry trend that has the most significant impact on cranberry processing is the wet harvesting method. If the berries are harvested wet