Alara Agri: Fresh Cherry Production

Alara Agri, based in Bursa, Turkey, is one of the world’s foremost cherry and fig producers. The president and chief executive officer (CEO) was concerned about a recurring capacity problem at the end of the process where cherries were packed. On some of the plant’s conveyor belts, piles of cherries of one size waited to be packed while other belts had too few cherries to keep workers busy, and thus delayed order fulfillment. Diverting excess cherries from a busy line to an underutilized line was not an option as cherries were sorted by size. One solution the CEO had considered was to build another processing line at a cost of US$2 million, although he thought a better solution may be achieved by changing the process or reconfiguring the flow of the machine. The CEO wondered how best to improve capacity with the equipment they already had. To aid in his decision, he examined corporate data with regards to revenues and production figures, incoming cherries received in tonnes, expected size distribution of cherries, and the plant layout and packaging options.