The Fresh Produce System
At the most generic level, a system can be described as a group of things that are able to connect and form some kind of "whole" that makes sense. "Making sense" is the glue that ensures that random, ad hoc or accidental connectivity has a chance to develop into a form of regularity. A system is unlikely to evolve and endure unless it satisfies the stakeholders who participate in the connected activity, and within any system there are typically some stakeholders who are able to exercise more influence than others. All of this clearly applies to the Fresh Produce System.
Some systems are more complex than others. As as system evolves in its complexity, segmentation may occur, with specific subsystems developing to ensure specific aspects of the system at large are operating to their own best practice expectations or obligations, in order support the system at large.
That is exactly how the Fresh Produce System is structured. We have production systems, harvest systems, post- harvest systems and so on.
The Fresh Produce System is not unique in this respect. I would like to demonstrate my point with the help of a practical example. In this instance, I am using an example from a related industry, rather than the produce industry itself, as I am able to talk not only from personal experience but also three hundred years worth of history.
Grape Harvest System Example
The photograph to the right depicts my grandfather and his grape harvest crew in the autumn of 1931, on the outskirts of a small village in the Rheinhessen wine region, about 25 km from the River Rhine. The photo was taken during a lunch break.
The young women and girls in the foreground were sitting on the buckets into which they placed the grape bunches they cut from the vines. When their buckets were full, they would call for my grandfather or his nephew to come by. Those two were carrying containers on their back which could hold the content of several buckets filled by the women and girls. (see photo below).
Once these containers, referred to in the local dialect as "butt" (no sensible English translation comes to mind), were filled, the men would walk them to the edge of the vineyard, where one or more large timber barrels had been placed, capable of holding the day's harvest. The grape containing "butt back packs" were emptied into the barrel, and the process of collecting the grapes from the harvest gang started all over.
When the barrels were full, they were moved by horse and cart into the village. The final destination could either the vineyard owner's house in the village, which typically featured a barn or cellar where the grapes would be further processed, or if the grape grower was a member of a growers cooperative, the grapes wold be delivered directly to the common village collection point for all cooperative members.
The photo also shows a portable grape crusher sitting across the barrel. Crushing the grapes is the first step of starting the fermentation process. At times, that already occurred in the vineyard.
Here are the "butt back packs" stored in the farm house attic. They look ready for their next outing, scrubbed clean and standing at attention.
The sad truth though is, no one will come into the attic to bring these "butts" out next autumn for their intended use in the vineyard. They became redundant around twenty years ago , with the introduction of what can be seen in the next photo, an example of a mechanical grape harvester.
System change is not always so drastic. On closer inspection of the attic photo, one can see that the "butt" on the very left is made from plastic. The other two are metallic. A small change, but it certainly had the potential to increase the productivity of the "butt" carrier at the time, as the plastic version was significantly lighter than its metal colleagues.
The grape harvest has changed as new technology has emerged. The mechanical grape harvester is driven across the rows of grapes. The vines are shaken and the ripe grapes fall from their bunches into the containment area of the harvester, leaving the now empty stalks still on vines.
The grape harvest system has come a long way since my ancestors collected their first grape harvest around 1660.
Not only has the grape harvest system changed, but the planting systems for new vineyards have changed as well, based on the mechanical harvesters' needs to have manoeuvring space. The vine pruning system had to be adjusted, too. And these machines are not exactly cheap, so smaller grape growers often take a cooperative approach when purchasing a mechanised harvester.
This means that in additions to needing to keep an eye on grape maturity and weather to determine when the harvest should commence, co-owners of these machines also have to coordinate with each other who gets to use the harvester when, and in which order of priority.
Yet another system change!
The Fresh Produce System
What can be learned from the above grape harvest system example and applied to the wider Fresh Produce System are these realisations:
- Systems are necessary. Managing complex processes without a system is akin to playing Russian Roulette.
- Systems change. They either evolve over time or are changed deliberately through necessity or opportunity.
- Systems can be complex and often contain sub-systems which come with their own unique complexities.
- Changing one part of a system, often necessitates changing other parts or an entire sub-system as well.
- A system change can require workforce skill level changes and/or workforce headcount changes.
- Enduring system change reluctance has the potential to impact entire industries severely.