Master of Agribusiness / Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / The United States was the world’s third largest producer of raspberries (by pounds) in 2013, behind Russia and Poland. Raspberries are the third most popular berry in the United States behind strawberries and blueberries. Most U.S. production of red raspberries occurs in the states of Washington and Oregon during July and August depending on variety. Harvest and production for industrial pack typically runs for five weeks. Sieved red raspberries or single strength red raspberry puree is one of many industrial packs produced in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Sieved red raspberries are produced by forcing fresh, cleaned and sorted red raspberries and red raspberry crumbles and pieces through a mesh screen, collected in drums or pails and stored for use in further processed products such as pies, confectioneries and other consumer food products. For this thesis, sieved berries are packed in 55-gallon steel drums lined with food grade plastic bags. They are shipped from the processing plant to a third party warehouse to be frozen and stored. The final processing plant draws on these stored frozen products for use in the production of the Company’s consumer food products. The purpose of this thesis is to review the Company’s current procurement practices of sieved red raspberries and determine how these practices may be improved to reduce its total delivered cost. We use an optimization modelling approach to assess the procurement process used by the Company. The results indicate that it is possible to reduce procurement costs and improve efficiencies by making changes to the current procurement strategy. By implementing the procurement strategy developed in this study, we show that the Company can save as much as $1.69 million per year, which is equivalent to about 20.3% of the current spend. This would suggest that adopting the optimization strategy could allow the Company to increase its total sieved raspberry utilization by as much as 0.9 million pounds per annum, all other things remaining unchanged.

En una zona tan importante y con gran aporte al PIB del país, como lo es el sector minero, llevar a cabo un modelo de gestión de la oferta que ayude a generar una mayor rentabilidad, es haberse ganado la lotería. Es por ello que dicho modelo de gestión se basa, en primer lugar, en llevar a cabo una matriz kraljic para obtener una estrategia de compras, en segundo lugar, se lleva a cabo una aprobación de los proveedores que están principalmente dispuestos a trabajar con un sistema VMI (Inventario Administrado). por proveedores), este proceso tiene como finalidad reducir el tiempo de demora de la adquisición de los componentes del cargador R1600 con el fin de atender al cliente en 52 días, esta fecha la establece la empresa en estudio, la cual fue referenciada por el sector del mismo artículo que en promedio es de 45 días. Actualmente, el tiempo de entrega del cargador R1600 al cliente es de 72 días, siendo la empresa que más demora en la entrega, este retraso se debe al retraso en la adquisición de partes y piezas. Ante este problema, se propone una técnica innovadora que consiste en llevar a cabo un conjunto de metodologías, la matriz de Kraljic, luego desarrollar la aprobación del proveedor y el software VMI. Lo que generó poder atender al cliente en el tiempo acordado sin generar penalidades contractuales, reduciendo los costos de horas extras por parte de los operadores y aumentando las ganancias de la empresa en estudio. / In such an important area and with great contribution to the GDP of the country, as it is in the mining sector, to carry out a supply management model that helps to generate greater profitability, is to have won the lottery. That is why, said management model is based, firstly, on carrying out a kraljic matrix to obtain a purchasing strategy, secondly, an approval of suppliers who are mainly willing to work with a VMI (Managed Inventory) system is carried out. by suppliers), this process has the purpose of reducing the delay time of acquiring the components of the R1600 charger in order to meet the customer in 52 days, this date is established by the company under study, which was referenced by the sector of the same item that on average is 45 days. Currently, the delivery time of the R1600 charger to the client is 72 days, being the company that delays the longest in delivery, this delay is due to the delay in the acquisition of parts and pieces. Faced with this problem, an innovative technique is proposed that consists of carrying out a set of methodologies, the Kraljic matrix, then developing the supplier approval and VMI software. What generated being able to meet the client in the agreed time without generating contract penalties, reducing the costs of overtime by the operators and increasing the profits of the company under study. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional