Real-Life Decision Making
Viola Simpson has been producing stewed tomatoes from home for several years. The spicy product has been a hit with locals, and Simpson has been encouraged to expand her operation into a medium-sized manufacturing operation. She has asked you, an agricultural engineer, to make the project work.
This switch from small-scale production will mean that the entire way the food is processed will have to change. "When a food company is developing a new process for a food product, the agricultural engineer has to make decisions about the technical aspects of the process," says Loren Bode, an agricultural engineer in Illinois.
While creating the new process, you keep an eye on the bottom line so that Simpson can afford the operation. "We ask the questions: can the product be produced efficiently and economically?" says Bode.
After many weeks of work, you create a system that you believe is efficient, and will jump-start Simpson's business. She tours the plant and is extremely upset about the large covered containers where the spicy tomatoes are collected and mixed.
"It won't do," she says, stamping her foot. "The tomatoes must stew in open containers. It's the secret to the flavor."
You tell her it's unsanitary to have large open containers. You suggest minor alterations to the machinery to make the mechanized process seem more like the process she used at home, but the stewed tomatoes must remain covered to maintain a proper cooking temperature and to protect the product from flies, debris and surface bacteria.
Simpson doesn't want minor changes. She wants the expensive closed containers ripped out and replaced with open containers.
What do you do?