MGMT660: Operations Management

National Cranberry Cooperative

Team Names:

Note: Only one submission per team should be submitted.

Question:

1. What are the problems facing receiving plant No. 1 (RP1)?

Answer:

Question:

2. Draw a process flow chart, focusing on the steps listed in 2(a)-2(f). Then, compute the capacity in
[barrels/hour] for each process step in 2(c)-2(f); for 2(a) and 2(b), calculate the maximum amount the
bins can hold in [barrels]. Consider a peak harvest day (19,000 barrels of berries unloaded with 70%
of them wet harvested). Assume that trucks arrive uniformly over a period of 12 hours.

Flow chart:
MGMT660: Operations Management

Capacity calculation 2(a)-2(f)

2.a Dry Bins

Answer:

2.b Wet Bins

Answer:

2.c Destoning

Answer:

2.d Dechaffing

Answer:

2.e Drying

Answer:

2.f Quality Grading

Answer:
MGMT660: Operations Management

Question:

3. Identify the bottleneck for the process among the following options.

● Destoning
● Dechaffing
● Drying
● Quality Grading

Answer:

Question:

4. Continue with the same assumptions of the process as described in 2. . When would processing be
completed on a peak day? Provide the time of day, e.g. 5:00 PM. Please provide an explanation of
the calculation.

(Hint: think about the inventory build-up plot we learned in the class.)

Answer:
MGMT660: Operations Management

Question:

5.a When would the time the last truck unload? Please provide an explanation of the calculation.

Answer:

Question:

5.b How long would a truck have waited? Please provide an explanation of the calculation.

(Hint: think about which formula connects average inventory with flow time.)

Answer:
MGMT660: Operations Management

Question:

6. If you were Hugh Schaeffer, what changes would you make to improve performance of the
process? Roughly estimate the magnitude of the costs and benefits of these changes.

Answer: