(Re)Acquinting to a new role

 It's been a busy couple of weeks at work since returning from SG. Being efficient at what I do and being able to speak English well brought about opportunities in other areas at work. For the past week, I have been tasked to manage the operations aspect of where the cherries we pack were headed - and managing the operations aspect also meant that I sort of have to manage the people tasked to my area. 

Would I call it a promotion? Not quite, because while the scope of my work has increased, my pay has not commensurately increased as well. I'll update down the line if I am given a pay raise with the changed jobscope but I doubt it.

What exactly is the 'operations' aspect that I am part of? Basically, after the cherries are packed, they are deployed to various supermarkets, markets, sold in-house, exported to other countries etc. I am involved in the deployment of the cherries that are meant to be sold at supermarkets/ markets in it's loose form (i.e. not in fixed pre-packed bags). That is not to say that the cherries are not packed in plastic bags, they are, it is just that each individual bag will weigh different and you will pay by the weight when you buy them at the supermarkets. Think of how grapes are usually packed at supermarkets in SG - in bunch(es) in a small plastic bag. The bags don't all have the same price because each bunch/(es) weigh differently.

Anyway, how to process go is as such - 

The cherries are sorted by size and type through a machine grader which will then send the cherries on a conveyer belt along different lanes. My area deals with 10 lanes with cherries ranging from 24mm to 34mm in diameter. Since the facility is quite cold, we are all encouraged to wear warm clothes in.

On the conveyer belt, the cherries will be physically sorted by workers who will sort them into 3 categories - good to be packed, 2nd grade, or waste. The waste ones will be disposed - 2nd grade ones will go through another round of sorting at another lane somewhere else.

Each lane will usually have 2 - 4 pax sorting the cherries depending on how crucial the lane is. The picture shows a lane with a below average no. of cherries passing through.

The cherries are then sent to us in 10kg boxes to us using some roller system.

This is where my jobscope begins.

Once sorted, those cherries that make it through will be dropped by the conveyer belt into a box that already has small plastic bags in them. There is some mold that funnels the cherries into these small plastic bags (you don't see them in the picture, but they are essentially in the bigger plastic bags that has been wrapped up in the pic). The bigger bags are then tied up and are stacked in boxes on pallets.

Me and a few other guys will have to tied up these big bags and stack them on the pallets. The location where these cherries are sent to will determine the color of the pallet that they are stacked upon.

Once stacked to a height of 5-7 boxes depending on the orders, I will then scan the barcode labels on the boxes to tag them to the particular pallet, print out some other barcodes and wrap the pallet up in plastic cling wrap. (7 being the max because that is the maximum height the truck can take)

Beyond the menial work that is stacking boxes on pallets with the team, my role requires me to know the orders for the day and where each pallet is going and how many boxes and pallets are going out.The details will be written on a whiteboard at a corner.

There is also the need to problem solve and deal with issues like how certain plastic bags are for certain supermarkets and should not be used for other supermarkets. (For those going out to markets, it doesn't matter the bags we put them in)

Once the order for the day is fulfilled, we will move on to the next day's orders. Packed, they will be place 'in stock' somewhere else in a refrigerated room.

Whilst doing the menial work of loading the pallets and organising the pallets, there is also basic data entry and admin work to be done. So this is basically the screen I look at to ensure everything is logged and things are going kinda smoothly.

So yea, working in a farm does not necessarily mean what everyone is thinking in their head.