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case study about Fresh Salads Ltd:The Iceberg lettuce harvest
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Fresh Salads Ltd: The Iceberg lettuce harvest
Introduction
Fresh Salads Ltd is an important division of a privately-owned farming company specialising in vegetable growing and distribution. Its most important customer group is the major UK supermarkets which require fresh produce to be delivered to them 364 days a year. The company has all the staff, expertise and specialised facilities needed to supply these supermarkets throughout the year. One of the most important products of this company is Iceberg lettuce, which is grown in England during the summer and in south-east Spain during the winter. Iceberg lettuces are dense and round, but are easily bruised so have to be harvested with great care, after which they are stored and transported in chilled conditions to avoid deterioration. From the time of cutting, they must be packed quickly to minimise water loss and taken rapidly to a cool store. Market demand varies greatly, dependent on the season and on weather conditions, with demand rising rapidly in periods of hot, dry weather and in the preceding day. Supermarkets rely on weather forecasts to predict demand for salads and fresh sandwiches.
The harvesting rigs
The company has developed specialised machinery to assist in the harvest of millions of Iceberg lettuces every year. Each of the company’s six Iceberg lettuce picking machines (known as ‘rigs’) is a large mobile factory which is mechanically powered to move very slowly across the enormous lettuce fields, at a speed and direction controlled by the supervisor using a simple joystick control. The rig runs on caterpillar tracks which allows it to cross the soft, deep peaty soils on which lettuces thrive. However, in very wet conditions, this very heavy piece of equipment can get stuck and may need assistance from an additional crawler tractor. At the very back of the rig is attached an open- fronted road trailer, into which the trays of packed lettuces are carried and stacked. This trailer can be released when full, and attached to a four-wheel drive tractor for subsequent transportation to the company’s local cold store. Another trailer is then connected in its place to allow picking to continue uninterrupted.
Each crew (picking team) comprises 17 people and a supervisor; there are nine cutters, five packers and three people preparing cardboard trays, labelling the individual supermarket lettuces and
carrying completed trays and crates to the trailers. The supervisor, who is fully responsible for product quality and output of the rig, also provides assistance at any point on the rig to relieve any short-term bottleneck and to cover any short period when an operative need to leave the rig. The crew members are paid piecework, and usually work eight-hour days (plus breaks), although overtime may be necessary on very busy days in mid season. Crew members of the most successful teams can earn more than double the UK hourly minimum wage, but this requires sustained effort and concentration, and cooperative crew behaviour.
The picking process
The nine cutters work on the ground in a wide line just in front of the rig, which slowly moves towards them. They stand astride the rows of lettuce, working slowly backwards. The average cutting speed per person, in good conditions, is eight seconds per iceberg lettuce. Within this cycle time the picker selects and cuts each lettuce using a sharp, slightly hooked knife, trims away the outer leaves (which are often muddy and/or damaged), and the drops the prepared lettuce into a polythene bag pulled from a bundle attached to the cutter’s waist belt. The cutter can choose to leave uncut any lettuces exhibiting defects, for example, under-size, poor shape or damaged, and these are later ploughed back into the soil.
