sizes for the appropriate output rates, and to list equipment requirements.

Labor costs were computed directly from the crew sizes, assuming currently

appropriate wage rates. Fixed and variable equipment costs were calculated

from the equipment requirements, based on replacement cost of the equipment

and electricity requirements. These data provided estimates of annual fixed

and variable costs per unit which were combined to estimate total costs for

a range of annual volume levels.


 FILLING AND WEIGHING BAGS


 Description of Methods

 Fifty- and 100-pound bags of potatoes are filled from a bagging

table after grading. The potatoes move on the table on a wide conveyor belt.

Metal bars are placed at intervals to divert the potatoes to bagging stations

on one or both sides. At the bagging station, the potatoes move down a chute

which has positions for attaching two bags at the bottom. It is equipped with

a device to guide the potatoes into one of the bags. When the bag is filled,

a worker moves the guide to fill the other bags. He then removes the filled

bag, sets it off for subsequent handling operations and places an empty bag

on the chute.

 The alternative method arises not from the layout of the bagging

table, but from the method used to determine the correct weight of potatoes

placed in the bag. The older method is to have a platform scale positioned

behind the worker at each bagging station. The worker fills the bag at the

bagging station and then sets it on the platform scale. A second worker for

each station tends the platform scales, checking the weight and removing or