What are the major reasons for trucks waiting and excess worker overtime?

III.

MAJOR REASONS FOR DELIVERY TRUCK WAIT TIME & EXCESSIVE OVERTIME

When deliveries are processed at National Cranberry, truckloads of cranberries are initially weighed,
sampled and color-graded as they move through the front-end of the plant. The delivery truck
commences the process by backing up and tilting out its contents onto 5 conveyor belts, which moves
the cranberries up to the second floor to be held in temporary holding bins. From temporary bins, the
cranberries should move into later processes as long as there is no bottleneck issue and there is
space available for transfer. The full procedure of emptying the contents of these trucks onto the
conveyor belts should only take 7-8 minutes to drop-off and depart from the facility, but on occasion
the process is taking several hours.
Currently, the major reasons for excessive wait-times and overtime are the temporary holding bins are
becoming full because of a bottleneck at RP1. Specifically, the delivery trucks have to wait with the
cranberries if the temporary holding bins become full because no portion of the receiving plant is
dedicated to transition cranberries off the first floor if none of the holding bins are available on the
second floor. Thus, trucks are waiting several hours for the back-end of the facility to catch up with
the amount of cranberries already in the temporary holding bins. This type of bottleneck ultimately
holds up the delivery trucks and the entire process unless National Cranberry rethinks and augments
its existing system and strategy.

Assuming:
Input of 1,500 BBLS/hour
Transfer time between phases is negligible
1,500/75 = 20 trucks and 5 kiwanee dumpers. Wed need to unload 4 sequential sets of 5 trucks to
equal 1,500 BBLS.
Ratio of wet: dry of 70:30
Wet: 1050 BBLS/hour or 262.5/load
Dry: 450 BBLS/hour or 112.5/load
Cycle starting 7:00: Throughput: 131.625 minutes
Temp storage: 8 minutes (first transfer from trucks)
Wet track: 44.625 minutes
De-Chaffing: (262.5/3000)*60 minutes = 5.25 minutes
Drying: (262.5/600)*60 minutes = 26.25 minutes
Grading: (262.5/1200)*60 minutes = 13.125 minutes
Dry track: 14.625 minutes
De-Stoning: (112.5/1500)*60 minutes = 4.5 minutes

De-Chaffing: (112.5/1500)*60 minutes = 4.5 minutes

Grading: (112.5/1200)*60 minutes = 5.625 minutes
Temp storage: 8 minutes (Second transfer from trucks)
Wet track: 62.875 minutes
De-Chaffing: (262.5/3000)*60 minutes = 5.25 minutes
Idle: 18.25 (Drying process working on first load)
Drying: (262.5/600)*60 minutes = 26.25 minutes
Grading: (262.5/1200)*60 minutes = 13.125 minutes
Dry track: 14.625 minutes
De-Stoning: (112.5/1500)*60 minutes = 4.5 minutes
De-Chaffing: (112.5/1500)*60 minutes = 4.5 minutes
Grading: (112.5/1200)*60 minutes = 5.625 minutes

IV.

TRUCK WAIT TIME ON A BUSY WORKDAY

The following is applicable to calculate wait time for a busy workday:

Working Hours: from 7am to 11pm

Total working hours: 15 hours

Assume delivery per hour is 1,500 bbls

Wet berry: 70%

Weighted: 1,050 bbls

Capacity of bins for wet berry: 3,200 bbls

Because the capacity is 3,200 bbls, the trucks dont have to wait to load before 1pm.
The time that the trucks need to wait at 1pm is:
(filling + dechaffing + (drying*3))- delivery time = (0.5 +0.4+(1.8*3))-6 = 0.3
The time that the trucks need to wait after 12pm is:
1.8 (0.5 + 0.4) = 0.9 hour

The weighted average waiting time for wet berry is:

(0.3 + (0.9*9) )/16= 0.525
Dry berry: 30%
Weighted: 450 bbls

Capacity of bins for wet berry: 4,000 bbls

Time required processing the one hour delivery:

*hour
Because the high capacity, the trucks for dry berry dont need to wait if they deliver 450 bbls per hour.

The total weighted average waiting time for all trucks is: (0.525*0.7)=0.3675
hour or 22.05 minutes.
V.

BENEFITS OF SHIFTING PROCESS TIME

A significant issue facing the National Cranberry Co-operatives receiving plant #1 is the amount of
time that the trucks are sitting idle waiting to download their product. This issue is further magnified by
the fact that as a cooperative, the costs of the leased trucks and hired drivers increases as the trucks
sit idle which directly impacts the bottom line of our business partners. We need to keep the growers
happy.
Moving the processing time from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. during the peak period is critical to
downloading trucks quickly and avoiding costly idle time. Based on the assumption that we receive
18000bbl on a single day during the peak season, 66% or 12,000bbl is wet and 33% or 6,000bbl is
dry equates to 240 truckloads of berries. Of these truckloads, 160 would be wet berries and 80 would
be dry. It takes trucks 8 minutes to back onto the dumper, empty its contents, and leave the platform.
With additional storage bins to hold berries added to the process, we could keep trucks moving. By
beginning the process at 7:00 a.m., the receiving plant would be able to end operations at 8:00 p.m.
More importantly, these improvements would benefit the growers.
Based on Exhibit 2 total barrels delivered from 9/1 through 12/10 is 610,185. From 9/20 through 10/9
RP#1 receives 327,596 or 54% of the production for the entire season. The 7:00 a.m. start time would
be most critical during these three weeks, but I feel the benefits of keeping the trucks moving makes
this start time a good idea for the entire season.
VI.

PROPOSED CHANGES: COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS

In sum, we propose to start the process at 7:00 a.m., and install 2 dryers and an additional grading
line. This will cut the workday from 7:00 a.m. through 4:00 a.m. (under current capacity) to a workday
of 7:00 a.m. through 8:00 P.M.
Hourly cost of labor:

Length of season: 16 weeks

Workdays per week: 7

Average salary per employee: $10.5 (assuming no overtime)

Average number of employees: 40 (assuming equal time of heavy and light

volume days)
Total Cost per hour of having workforce: $47,040

Past 11 PM:
Total Cost per hour of workforce: $10,584 (only 9 employees are needed beyond

11 p.m.
If we only purchased one Dryer it would reduce the work hours from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. This
would only produce savings of $52,920 and therefore not enough to cover the cost of one dryer.
If we purchased two Dryers it would reduce the work hours from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. this would
produce savings of $99,960 again not enough to cost of this solution ($120,000).
However, if we purchased 2 dryers and added an additional separator line hours of operation would
be reduced from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Savings due to reduced hours:
X = 5 * ($10,584) + 3* (47,040)
X = $52,920 + $141,120 = $194,040
Total Cost of implementing recommended solution:

Total cost of dryers: $120,000

Maximum cost of new separator line to maintain this option as viable: $74,040

VII.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, National Cranberry Cooperative is facing a bottleneck in RP #1 that is causing several

hours of excessive overtime and delivery truck wait-time at the front-end of the facility. Our team
analyzed the data and offered alternative solutions towards correcting the problem that is upsetting
suppliers because of idle time and additional cost burdens. National Cranberry understands that it
must augment its processes to become more efficient or potentially lose business and overall profits.
As discussed in detail above, commencing the process at 7:00 am, installing 2 dryers, and an
additional grading line, will ultimately decrease the amount of hours worked by 8 hours, and National
Cranberry will achieve a savings of $194,040 because of these reduced hours and proposed
recommendations. Our team after reviewing the data believes this proposed solution is the most
proactive, and cost-effective way to reduce the bottleneck issue and excessive wait-times plaguing our
front line. Our team suggests we implement said changes immediately as they are critical to
effectively adjust the efficiency, and overall productivity of National Cranberry Cooperative in the
future.