Management Science and Productivity Improvement in Irish Milk Cooperatives

Ballyclough Cooperative Creamery, one of Ireland’s largest agribusiness organizations, with an annual turnover approaching IR£130 million, wanted to improve operations in its two major divisions. The milk division’s two key operating parameters, gallons per mile and tanker volumetric efficiency, were both improved using management science procedures. The stores trading division (fertilizer, animal foods, cement) was investigated using large-scale interactive transshipment models. In addition, a new approach to the depot location and sizing problem, employing computer graphics, was used to develop solutions satisfactory to the cooperative’s supplying farmers. The operating performance of the cooperative is expected to improve by about IR£1.5 million annually, once all of the recommendations have been implemented.