The objective of this study was to find where economies in scale lie, and what, if any, would be the preferred or most economical in packing facilities. Data relative to equipment and labor requirements and capabilities and to materials and services were obtained through manufacturers, sales agencies, research studies and case studies. Two computerized programs were developed to select equipment, labor, and facilities which would be most efficient and least-cost and this was done for packing 10-pound bags with potatoes. Ten model lines resulted from the analysis allowing for input rates of 80 to 800 cwt/hr when based on a particular set of variables established as standard . Among the standard variables were 180 working days of 9 hours each, with the equipment operating 80% of the time handling an input flow of potatoes from which 10 percent were removed as undersized and 10 percent were removed as grade defective.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1098/thumbnail.jp
