Analysis and Optimization in the Activity of Volteo in Melon, Focusing on Productive Yield Points and Fruit Quality - Success Case Fyffes Group
Meet the company:
Fyffes is an Irish fresh produce company founded by Thomas Fyffe in 1888 under the name of Fyffe & Hudson and the company's headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, the oldest fruit brand in the world.
The company was founded in September 1888 under the name Fyffe & Hudson and in 1969 it was renamed Fyffes. Group Limited in 1990 was renamed Fyffes Plc and has a name to this day.
In October 2005, it acquired the American fruit company Turbana Corp.
It operates in the production, transport, maturation, distribution and marketing of a wide variety of fruits, such as Pineapple, Banana, Melon. Most of its products come from Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Canary Islands and Panama. Fyffes currently sells fruit in Europe and the United States, mainly under the Fyffes and Turbana brands.
In December 2016, it acquired the banana business of Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo for €751 million.
Challenges:
Fyffes Company stands out in the market through its products with high quality requirements, in addition to adopting the philosophy of operational excellence, strong relationships, fast and effective customer service.
In a scenario where the market is increasingly fierce, the need arose to improve its production process, in order to reduce operating costs and implement yield and quality control of melon. Thus, in collaboration with Avilla Consulting, a project was started, with the objective of identifying opportunities for improvement in the process, the studies were carried out on the farms of Santa Rosa (Performance/Personnel) and Suragroh (Fruit Quality), Choluteca - Honduras.
The following steps were performed:
- Study focused on the number of people involved in this activity and Income;
- Study to reduce soil and plastic stains in melon cultivation with practice of placing trays at 35 days and turning;
- Fruit count before flipping;
- Carrying out analyzes in the processes of income, selection (Quality), Packing House and its Income;
- Main fruit defects and Disposal measurement;
- Application of the Standard Operating Procedure - “POP”;
- Results presentation;
Development:
1. Study focused on the number of people involved in this activity and their income:
This work was previously carried out by 2 people per bed, placing one on each side of the bed, each person moving forward turning, but it resulted in an inadequate method, as some fruits were left without turning because there was not good coordination and time adding value to the activity. has been reduced.
Study notes:
1. Conventional method:
- 52 teams with 2 people per bed.
- 6 Tray Loaders.
- Total: 110 people.
- New method:
- 52 people one in each bed.
- 6 Tray Loaders.
- Total: 58 People
- Advantages (50% of people are engaged in another activity).
- Income per person increases by 15%.
- Opportunity for operator distraction is eliminated.
- If there is an opportunity to put these people in another activity.
The process of using only 1 person per bed was proposed and standardized.
Resulting in better productivity, people know how to check all the fruits without a tray, as well as how to turn. With this improvement, it was possible to reduce the number of people assigned to this task.
2. Study to reduce soil and plastic stains in melon cultivation with the practice of placing trays at 35 days and turning.
- Test description
In order to increase the quality of the fruit in the field, a test was proposed in which a tray was placed on the fruit after X days of transplanting, the quality was evaluated in the field and in the packaging to check and guarantee that the rotation generates a reduction in in relation to the disposal of the fruit by soil and plastic stain.
- Goals
- Determine which is the best scenario with vaulting and/or without vaulting
- Evaluated variables
- Number of misplaced fruits
- Number of fruits without tray
- Packaging Yields
- Main fruit defects
- Discharge measurement
3. Counting fruit before vaulting
A preliminary evaluation was carried out before turning to find out the number of fruits that were left without a tray and poorly placed throughout their growth, because on the day X determined by the test there were many small and flowering fruits that can be used. A total of 1000 fruits were evaluated, totaling 10 stations of 100 fruits in the whole lot, only half of the lot was turned over and trays were placed on the fruits that were still missing. The results of this evaluation are shown in the Figure.
The result of this evaluation was (17%) of fruits found without a tray and (7%) of poorly placed fruits. If you decide to carry out this activity of placing plates on (day X), in case it is necessary to enter the lot for the second time to prevent and correct the stain defect since the percentages are quite representative, considering the threat of rains to the harvest in the month April and May, this activity should be more important to guarantee higher quality.
The vaulting was carried out at X days, trays were also placed on the missing fruits and the poorly placed fruits were accommodated. The work was carried out between 3 to 4 days/block to carry out the activity, the vaulting was carried out only in 6 manzanas of the 12 of the total lot to compare the scenarios.
4. Carrying out analyzes in the processes of income, selection (Quality), Packing House and its income;
The fruits of the samples were taken, the lot gave a total of 65 trailers for a distribution of 37 trailers with vaulting and 28 without vaulting, the figure shows the number of boxes that were packed for each of the scenarios to be evaluated.
A higher yield of packed boxes was obtained by making the vaulting, a total of 5,600 boxes, and without the vaulting, with 4,052 boxes, a very important practice that must be taken into account in the next cycles, as it increases the quality, giving better results. packaging performance.
Income:
The table shows the yields in relation to boxes/trailers, the scenario with vaulting being the one that presents the best results with 4% more boxes/trailers compared to the one without vaulting.
When analyzing the number of first and second crates for each scenario as presented, the result was a higher number of first crates without flipping for a total of 732 boxes compared to the flipping with 652 boxes. In the second class cases, the scenario with turning had a greater quantity with 4,948 cases in relation to the ones without turning, which was 2,872 cases.
Performing the vaulting activity, it is possible to obtain 6 more boxes in packaging for each processed trailer compared to without vaulting.
5. Main Fruit Defects and Rejection Measurement
One of the factors that can affect the number of boxes packed in both scenarios is rain, as there is still a certain number of fruits that have stains, the amount of (°) brix in the fruit is also reduced, making it out of season. of cut, but it cannot be packaged for lack of sugar, when this happens, you get coronado fruits of poor quality.
Among the most representative defects in the disposal belt at the time of packaging are shown in the figure, with emphasis on the fruits crowned with (13%) for vaulting, (28%) without vaulting; deformed fruits with (14%) with turning, (5%) without turning; fruits with spots with (2%) with torturing, (19%) without turning; fruits with mechanical damage with (15%) of vaulting, (14%) of vaulting.
In the scenario with vaulting, the spot defect of 2%, while the one without vaulting, reached 19%. With this practice used as prevention, the results were very satisfactory, however, there are still some defects to work on that are not related to the activity of placing plates and that affected the number of first and second boxes for both scenarios.
The experimental test was carried out in two days, the first part was processed from 18:00 to 21:00, it shows the amount of fruit that was rejected on Friday, March 29, from that time on, the amount of fruit that was rejected starts to decrease , reaching a minimum of 8 fruits/minute and a maximum of 24 fruits/minute.
In this period of time, the fruit that was processed was with the voltao scenario, making the comparison with the other times of the day, the objective of reducing the amount of discarded fruit was achieved.
The fruit processed on Saturday, April 30, from 9 am to 11 am, was the one in the no-fly scenario. The figure shows the rejection throughout the day, in these first hours, the peaks remain low with a minimum of 12 fruits/minute and a maximum of 19 fruits/minute.
Although the amount of discard is greater in relation to the previous scenario, in relation to the other hours of work the discard is minimal, if the dishes are placed in X days, and the quality of the fruit is not affected by other problems.
7. Application of the SOP "Standard Operating Procedure"
The volving activity is carried out with the aim of reducing the coloring effect of the fruit due to the soil and plastic. In this work, 1 person is needed per row, who carries a bag with a tray to put in the fruit that is needed and to make the turn. With POP, it will be useful for everyone to perform their high capacity in this activity, always observing how it is done correctly.
Results:
The placement of the melon tray is carried out between X - X days, then the turning is carried out after X-X days, the activities that are carried out consist of placing the tray on the melon and pruning the fruits that have defects or that will not reach the packaging process , and then the vaulting will be carried out.
With the tests carried out, the efficiency of this activity related to quality and the improvement in the performance of the employees who carry out this work was demonstrated, a test was carried out to document the need to turn the fruit, with the objective of reducing the defect stain of soil and plastic in the fruit, it was possible to include the turning activity within the SURAGROH Farm in the planning, since this activity was not carried out there.
In relation to the income of this activity, I obtained a gain of (15%) in the productive progress in linear meters/h per employee, and a reduction of (50%) in the hiring of labor that was previously carried out on other farms that I was already doing. this activity.
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