Gregorio Billikopf
7th February 2006, 12:07 PM
Case 2, Part I
Some weeks ago I received a note from Royal Gala (pseudonym). I have attempted to remove the exact dates so it is not clear what region in Chile this grower has written from. Perhaps it is not necessary to be so cautious. IMPORTANT NOTE: When responding to this and other cases, please assume that the grower or individual involved is subscribed to the forum and will likely read the responses. This is the case with Royal Gala, and I hope he will post directly to the forum. What seem to be the concerns faced by Royal Gala? What advise might we want to give?
Royal Gala. I manage an apple and other fruit tree operation in Chile. As you know, the decrease in the value of the dollar and the increase in the costs of production has made it difficult to continue paying by the hour for the different tasks that are carried out, but it is not easy to find information, save that provided by neighboring growers. How could I establish a pay system based on earnings of the orchard? The whole idea is that the incentive would mean increased productivity and reduced costs.
Gregorio. (I suggested that he read chapter 8 of Agricultural Labor Management, regarding incentives, to give us a basis on which to converse. I was pleased to see that based on the reading he was able to put into play some ideas.)
Royal Gala. I finished the whole chapter and we are putting it into practice. In fact, we carried out the thinning of the kiwis completely on a piece rate basis, and reduced our production costs by 35-40% and at the same time obtained a greater productivity form the workers, in some cases double, but on the average 40-50% more. We are now studying how to apply the same concepts to the harvest, as we are close to begin with Royal Gala, and then Granny, followed by the reds, after. We are fearful of harvesting Granny by piece rate. And in the case of Royal Gala, as we have to look at issues of color and size, y am not sure we can do that on a piece rate. The reds, Red Chief and Scarlett, we expect them to be 100% uniform in terms of color, and we suspect we can harvest these on a piece rate. The whole idea is to do all the harvests on a piece rate, we are seeing how we can do this, it is the first time we have done something like this, but nothing is very clear to me yet, so as soon as I have more details y will outline them and as your opinion.
Some weeks ago I received a note from Royal Gala (pseudonym). I have attempted to remove the exact dates so it is not clear what region in Chile this grower has written from. Perhaps it is not necessary to be so cautious. IMPORTANT NOTE: When responding to this and other cases, please assume that the grower or individual involved is subscribed to the forum and will likely read the responses. This is the case with Royal Gala, and I hope he will post directly to the forum. What seem to be the concerns faced by Royal Gala? What advise might we want to give?
Royal Gala. I manage an apple and other fruit tree operation in Chile. As you know, the decrease in the value of the dollar and the increase in the costs of production has made it difficult to continue paying by the hour for the different tasks that are carried out, but it is not easy to find information, save that provided by neighboring growers. How could I establish a pay system based on earnings of the orchard? The whole idea is that the incentive would mean increased productivity and reduced costs.
Gregorio. (I suggested that he read chapter 8 of Agricultural Labor Management, regarding incentives, to give us a basis on which to converse. I was pleased to see that based on the reading he was able to put into play some ideas.)
Royal Gala. I finished the whole chapter and we are putting it into practice. In fact, we carried out the thinning of the kiwis completely on a piece rate basis, and reduced our production costs by 35-40% and at the same time obtained a greater productivity form the workers, in some cases double, but on the average 40-50% more. We are now studying how to apply the same concepts to the harvest, as we are close to begin with Royal Gala, and then Granny, followed by the reds, after. We are fearful of harvesting Granny by piece rate. And in the case of Royal Gala, as we have to look at issues of color and size, y am not sure we can do that on a piece rate. The reds, Red Chief and Scarlett, we expect them to be 100% uniform in terms of color, and we suspect we can harvest these on a piece rate. The whole idea is to do all the harvests on a piece rate, we are seeing how we can do this, it is the first time we have done something like this, but nothing is very clear to me yet, so as soon as I have more details y will outline them and as your opinion.