National Cranberry Cooperative
Cooperative (NCC) faces two primary problems: (1) Trucks and drivers have to spend too much time waiting to unload process fruit into the receiving plant, and (2) Overtime costs are out of control. There is also a secondary problem: Half of the berries graded as top quality, and awarded a fifty cent premium per barrel (bbl.), are not top quality and do not deserve the premium. The NCC’s approach to problem solving is to seek more than one cause, to seek alternative ways to alleviate the problems, and to seek numerical measures to evaluate the alternatives. It also emphasizes looking at the big picture. For example, one possible cause of the buildup, especially as seen by the truck drivers and those in the receiving area, is the limited number of Kiwanee dumpers. So, a fifth Kiwanee dumper was purchased for $75,000. But the analyses in this article reveal that, unless there were good other reasons for buying the additional dumper, the money could have been spent more wisely on other things. The emphasis of NCC’s problem solving twenty to forty years ago was
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Cooperative NCC, cooperative ncc, top quality, receiving plant, money spent, critical path, 2 dryers, cranberry industry, overtime costs,
Approximate Word count = 715
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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