Blackberry Hill Farm Case Study: Capacity and Demand Fluctuations

This case study analyzes Blackberry Hill Farm, examining its products, services, and operations management strategies to cope with demand fluctuations. The study assesses the farm's pick-your-own operations, museum, petting zoo, preserving kitchen, and other attractions. It focuses on lean operations, customer-driven strategies, and market research to streamline costs, control inventory, and improve staff performance. The analysis also explores capacity planning for the preserving kitchen and viewing area, emphasizing strategies to maximize utilization, profitability, and effective resource management. The study highlights the importance of continuous improvement, understanding market trends, and employing effective supply chain management to enhance operational growth and efficiency. The farm's use of operational management strategies to synchronize activities, manage resources, and improve customer service is also discussed.

Blackberry hill farm case
study

Table of Contents
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Assessment of how Blackberry Hill Farm's products and services cope up with demand
fluctuations...................................................................................................................................3
2. Assessment of how Blackberry Hill Farm's preserving kitchen and preserving kitchen
viewing area plan their capacity level..........................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

MAIN BODY
1. Assessment of how Blackberry Hill Farm's products and services cope up with demand
fluctuations.
Blackberry Hill Farm's primarily dealt in various products and services such as growing
cereals, fruits and vegetables, small dairy ahead. After various improvements Blackberry Hill
Farm's has effectively introduced pick your own (PYO) operations which in turn results fruit and
vegetable growing into a small profitable business. Blackberry Hill Farm's has created museum
for heritage farming, organized petting zoo, preserved kitchen, small adventure playground,
picnic area and bakery. Blackberry Hill Farm's must focus on lean operations strategy which
serves as a blueprint in order to bring quality improvements in the demand fluctuations of the
products and services. This strategy helps in reducing cost to the company by delivering high
quality products and services to the customers (Reid & Sanders, (2015)). Blackberry Hill Farm's
must focus on improving operations and focus on customer driven strategies in order to evaluate
the changing environment and enhance core competencies. Operations management results in
effectively managing the resources. It must focus on managing quality by effectively meeting the
customer needs and expectations (Fredendall & Hill, (2016)). Proper market research must be
carried out assure quality of the various products and services offered by Blackberry Hill Farm.
It must focus on determining the best strategies in order to streamline the cost and control
inventory. Blackberry Hill Farm's must focus on improved professional staff which in turn
results in minimizing human error and understand the current market trend and preference of
customers (7 Innovative Ways to Improve Capacity Utilization, 2019). This leads to higher
profitability and productivity of the farm. Blackberry Hill Farm's must focus on managing their
inventory which in turn results in coping up with the demand fluctuation by attaining economies
of scale. In order to remain competitive and generate higher profits throughout the year,
Blackberry Hill Farm's must focus on continuous improvement by consistently seeking better
ways of doing certain things. Blackberry Hill Farm's should provide better quality goods and
services in order to attain higher performance, productivity and profitability throughout the year
(Hitt, Xu & Carnes, (2016).). It should also focus on understanding the market by effectively
interacting with customers. Blackberry Hill Farm must focus on close monitoring which in turn
results in evaluating the peak time, number of visitors and most popular attractions. This in turn
helps Blackberry Hill Farm in higher operational growth and efficiency of the farm. It is very

useful in structuring all the activities of the farm in synchronized manner with the help of
operation management strategies.
2. Assessment of how Blackberry Hill Farm's preserving kitchen and preserving kitchen viewing
area plan their capacity level.
Blackberry Hill Farm's must focus on preserving the kitchen by offering more stable
employment at the firm which in turn leads to experienced and professional staff management.
Preserving kitchen is well equipped with jar sterilizing, mixing vats, boiling vats, etc. Large
number of experienced ladies are hired which in turn provides excellent service to the customers.
Blackberry Hill Farm must improve the capacity levels of preserving kitchen by exchanging
token for bags and improving communication. Blackberry Hill Farm must focus on capacity
planning and forecasting in order to improve the capacity level of the farm. Preserving kitchen
viewing area plan can effectively hold 15 people where average length of the stay in off season is
7 minutes and in peak season is 14 minutes. Blackberry Hill Farm must focus on effectively
introducing ways which leads to increased product value and in tun helps in maximizing the
capacity utilization of the farm (Dellaert, Cayiroglu & Jeunet, (2016)). The capacity levels of the
preserving kitchen viewing area plan can be improved by maximizing the utilization and
improving profitability of the business. Bring in innovative ideas to make the most of the
capacity available in the farm. It should effectively manage the resources and improving the
quality of work. Capacity utilization helps Blackberry Hill Farm in yielding maximum potential
output. Effective operation management strategy helps in adequate car parking space, managing
large queues and controlling unacceptable waiting time for customers. An effective supply chain
management strategy must be followed in order to control stock, administration and finance
which in turn results in higher operational growth and efficiency. Effective system operation
strategy is very useful in controlling stock by no over ordering, no under stocking and no
payment for excess storage (Heizer, Render & Munson, (2017)). Employment of full time staff
helps in preserving attractions for the future which in turn results in increasing revenue and
reducing queue time. Blackberry Hill Farm must focus on structured approach by effectively
managing the resources and finances of the various products and services. Operation
management strategy is useful in preserving kitchen and preserving kitchen viewing area plan in
order to maintain a proper capacity level.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Dellaert, N., Cayiroglu, E., & Jeunet, J. (2016). Assessing and controlling the impact of hospital
capacity planning on the waiting time. International Journal of Production
Research. 54(8). 2203-2214.
Fredendall, L. D., & Hill, E. (2016). Basics of supply chain management. CRC Press.
Heizer, J., Render, B., & Munson, C. (2017). Operations management. Pearson Education
Limited.
Hitt, M. A., Xu, K., & Carnes, C. M. (2016). Resource based theory in operations management
research. Journal of Operations Management.41. 77-94.
Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2015). Operations Management, Binder Ready Version: An
Integrated Approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
7 Innovative Ways to Improve Capacity Utilization. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/299560>