Step 1. Definition of the master plan

I have participated in several plant and process line designs, sometimes bringing the users' ideas to life from scratch, and other times validating that the proposal they received met their expectations and needs. There are no standard solutions in line design ; each company customizes its line in its own way, and it is through its unique design that the company conveys its values, identity, and corporate culture.

Therefore, to begin designing a product line, it is important to know our client very well, their mission, vision, values, etc., but in particular the actors within the organization that allow us to conceptualize the line, that is, the commercial, agricultural and operations areas.

So, where to begin? No one area is more relevant than another; all will contribute to the design of the line. The information, data, and limitations they provide us on a daily basis will allow us to establish what will become the critical path of the project—that is, the Master Plan .

The Master Plan

It is a detailed roadmap, a guideline resulting from multidisciplinary work that directs the development of a complex project, ensuring that all efforts, resources, stakeholders, and objectives are aligned with a long-term vision. This document must be approved, endorsed, and disseminated by the company's senior management.

It consists of a comprehensive strategic document that defines, for the present and future, the overall vision, objectives, phases, resources, timeline, and technical guidelines necessary to plan, develop, and execute a project in a structured, efficient, and budget-friendly manner. It allows for the estimation of the overall project investment level and that of each of its component stages, and establishes the milestones that must be achieved to conclude one stage and begin the next.

But it's not set in stone. It's a dynamic guideline subject to periodic review, as it must adapt to external factors beyond our control, such as the market, the weather, and others. Therefore, it's a timeline that must be adjusted to the global context and specific situations, validating the established steps or adapting them to lead us to a new direction should it change.

Recent situations that prompted a review of strategic plans include Covid-19, the container crisis, new consumption trends, global price fluctuations, climate change, among others.

Information Gathering

Let's start with the premise that we don't have a packaging line. We need to gather information that will allow us to determine its size. Within each company's cloud , there's a lot of information to be compiled and analyzed, which is often overlooked due to lack of time or personnel dedicated to this analysis. But beyond this data, an important step is face-to-face meetings with the area managers, allowing us to observe the operations and identify opportunities for improvement that day-to-day tasks might otherwise obscure.

Commercial Area

This will allow us to understand market requirements and emerging trends. It will provide us with specific customer needs: presentation formats, requested sizes, product categories, brands to be packaged, etc. The combination of all these variables defines the number of SKUs (stock keeping units) that the future production line (Operations Area) will have to deliver.

And regarding inventory, do we want to be a company with few or many SKUs? From the point of view of costs, efficiency, productivity, logistics and infrastructure, this defines very different contexts.

Let's avoid becoming a fast-food chain , trying to fulfill every type of order at any time. Having too many SKUs will only lead to a high level of operational complexity, sacrificing cost, efficiency, and productivity. A Pareto analysis should allow us to identify and focus on the 20% of our products that generate 80% of the operation's revenue. Companies must be able to eliminate products that only create noise, wear and tear, and additional costs in operations.

Agricultural Area

To sell, you have to produce, and the magic of the process begins in the field. This area carries a heavy responsibility, not only because it must produce the volume of fruit that the Sales Department has committed to its clients, but also because this fruit must meet increasingly demanding standards and conditions.

Each season, the orchard will produce a volume of fruit that will determine the market supply. To achieve this, the farm works with planting programs, varietal evaluation, crop phenological stage, phytosanitary aspects, and other factors. It is the combination of all these variables, managed by the agricultural team, that translates into a yield per hectare and, consequently, an annual harvest projection. This projection, in turn, translates into a weekly harvest schedule, which is the starting point for developing the sales program (Commercial Area) and the packing program (Operations Area). The weekly harvest schedule allows the Operations Area to plan its investments over time.

Operations Area

Using information from the other areas, it is up to the Operations Area to design its packing line, based on the volume of fruit projected by the Agricultural Area and the combinations of kilos of fruit and packing formats that the Commercial Area has offered to its clients.

Therefore, all the data generated so far will allow us to develop the Master Plan for the design and future expansions of the process line. This plan will allow us to schedule all the milestones and activities that must be completed year after year, including:

- Enable the line in year 1 with the necessary processing capacity and packaging formats.

- Increase processing capacity either by expanding the line or via new packaging formats.

- Implement electronic defect sorting to avoid relying on manual selection.

- Develop automation at the end of the line to avoid 100% dependence on manual labor.

- Increase processing capacity by increasing box transport capacity.

- Implement AGV automated systems to move pallets from the line to the warehouses.

In the next installment we will discuss the balance we must have between technology and investment.

Conclusions

The Master Plan, beyond being a written document, is simply about establishing a unified, cross-cutting approach to the work of various departments. It involves having common objectives and ensuring that each department takes responsibility for the impact of its decisions on the others. It is the result of a collaborative effort.

Periodically reviewed and disseminated, it will allow the 3 areas to grow together, adapting to the market context or other factors that affect everyone.

The Master Plan is a commitment to Senior Management; it is to fulfill the improvements, expansions, purchases, etc., that guarantee that the process line has sufficient capacity to absorb the volumes that the field produces, within a rational investment without oversizing the capacity of the equipment.

By clearly defining the investments for each year, we will avoid black boxes or surprises due to a lack of proper planning.

Ricardo Acha, General Manager - PROYECTA associates +51-989177896 ricardo.acha@proyectasociados.com