1. What are the sources of variability in the NCC case? Sources of Variability 1.

Trucks arrived at random throughout the day. The absence of a schedule for the arrival of trucks led to huge waiting lines. It usually took 5-10min to back a truck onto a Kiwanna dumper, empty its contents and leave the platform. At times some trucks had to wait up to 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. 2. Bulk trucks were loaded with anywhere between 20 to 400 bbls. There was no minimum load weight for a truck, so trucks came with highly varying weights. Hence the number of trucks carrying the load would increase. Present average weight was 75 bbls. Even if this is increased to 100bbls the number truck reduces by 25%. 3. Employee Absenteeism This problem caused NCC to carry more employees on payroll than really needed. Higher than expected absenteeism often resulted in overtime. For the 1970 season, the process fruit operation at RP1 utilised about 22000 man-hours of straight-time direct labour and about 12000 man-hours of overtime. 4. Colour Grading of Berries At the time the truck was weighed the truckload of berries was grade according to color. Using the color pictures as a guide, the chief berry receiver classified the berries as Nos 1, 2A, 2B or 3 from poorest to best. Whenever any question about whether the or not a truckload was No. 2B or No. 3, the chief berry receiver chose 3. When these berries were used only 50% of them were found to be No. 3's. 2. What are the problems NCC is experiencing that should be addressed? 1. Long Waiting time for Trucks The absence of a schedule for the arrival of trucks led to huge waiting lines. It usually took 5-10min to back a truck onto a Kiwanna dumper, empty its contents and leave the platform. At times some trucks had to wait upto 3 hours before they could empty their contents. This wait occured when the holding bins became full and there was no place in the receiving plant to temporarily store berries before further operations. 2. Overtime This problem is seen in the peak months of September through October. During these months the workers required are 53 instead of the usual 27. However despite 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 labourers need to work the extra hours in the peak months. 3. 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 increase capacity at NCC. This year too wet harvested berries will form 70% of the total produce. Solution 1. Scheduling needs to be improved. This includes not just the operations but also the delivery time and amount of berries. A smoother schedule will ensure less waiting time. A standard minimum weight will ensure that less number of trucks are used to transport the produce, therby further reducing waiting time. 2. The absenteeism is directly related to employee payroll. The management can try to find an optimum pay during the peak months to tempt more seasonal labourers so as to ensure that absenteeism too has minimum effect. 3. Finally, increasing capacity is NOT a solution. The capacity should be increased when present capacity cannot handle the workload after everything has been tried out. The planned capacity increase should be allowed only after everything else has been tried.