cranberries case

1. Identify the bottleneck or bottlenecks in the process.

To identify the bottleneck, we need to find out the process capacity and flow rate.

Process
Num of machine
Capacity per machine
(bbls/hr)
Total capacity
(bbls/hr)
1
Truck arrive
8
75bbls/truck
600
2
Dumping
5
600
3000
3
Dry berry holding
16
250
4000
4
Dry/wet berry holding
8
250
2000
5
Wet berry holding
3
400
1200
6
Destoning
3
1500
4500
7
Dechaffing
3
1500
4500
8
Drying
3
200
600
9
Separating
3
400
1200

During peak period 9/20-10/9
Average daily deliveries = 16,380 bbls/day
Working hours = 12 hr/day
Average hourly deliveries = 16,380/12 = 1,365 bbls/hr

From the above table, Average hourly deliveries (1,365) is larger than Drying capacity (600) and Separating capacity (1,200). Therefore, in general, these two processes are most likely to be the bottlenecks.

Furthermore,
1) If Average hourly deliveries < Separating capacity 1,200, Separating is not bottleneck.
2) If Average hourly deliveries * (wet delivered)% < Drying capacity 600, Drying is not the bottleneck.
3) In coming year, percentage of wet delivered will be up to 70%, around 955.5bbls/hr on average (1,365*70%), so the Drying capacity is too small to answer the need. Drying will be the crucial bottleneck.

During the non-peak period, there’s no bottleneck.

2. Explain why so much overtime is required.

Table 1. Chart A( extended) day total deliveries wet percent wet barrels dry barrels
20-Sep
16014
0.31
4964
11050
21-Sep
17024
0.39
6639
10385
22-Sep
16550
0.39
6455
10096
23-Sep
18340
0.42
7703
10637
24-Sep
18879
0.41
7740
11139
25-Sep
18257
0.36
6573
11684
26-Sep
17905
0.45
8057
9848
27-Sep
16281
0.42
6838
9443
28-Sep
13343
0.38
5070
8273
29-Sep
18717
0.43
8048
10669
30-Sep
18063
0.59
10657
7406
1-Oct
18018
0.69
12432
5586
2-Oct
15195
0.6
9117
6078
3-Oct