Part $1$: National Cranberry Case $(40\%)$: Read the case in the course pack $$National Cranberry

Cooperative$,$ and answer each of the following questions using the facts and data in the case and the

additional assumptions listed below. This case will be discussed in April $11$s class.

Additional assumptions:

A$.70\%$ of the berries shipped to the plant daily are wet berries. Trucks arrive at the plant evenly over

a $12-$hour period every day.

B$.$ Holding bins $17-24$ are dedicated to wet berries.

Questions:

$1.$ Briefly summarize major trends in the cranberry industry in $1996.$ What are the problems facing

receiving plant #$1($RP$1)?$

$2.$ Draw a flowchart for the current process for handling process fruit at RP$1,$ starting from temporary

holding bins and ending after the separators $($i$.$e$.$ ignore the berry dumping, truck weighing, and berry

grading activities before that, and bagging and bulking process after that. These activities are never a

bottleneck$).$ Draw one flowchart only which shows the flow for both dry and wet berries. Mark the

capacity in barrels per hour of each process activity.

$3.$ Suppose that this process is faced with a constant demand rate of $1000$ bbls$/$hour $($wet and dry

berries together$),$ what is the implied utilization of each activity in the flowchart you draw? Where is

the bottleneck? What is the capacity of the system? Please show necessary analysis.