Food Processing -- Crunch Time

Day 4:

For the beginning of the day, the technical team worked to remedy a few production errors that were preventing built machines from being sold to customers. After that, we spent most of the day building a new grater, which we hope to bring with us on our weekend trip to several villages in the area. The manufacturing process was complicated by a number of issues with broken tools, but we were able to get a lot done and are on track to complete the machine in time. We also had a visit from our painter, who put a beautiful coat of black paint on the presses that we have in inventory.

The tech team working on grater parts in the ITTU shop

For the business team the morning started off by talking to Deborah, fighting through the constant banter that came from the technical team who was trying to drag her into the shop. The business team used the time with Deborah to cover necessary items that need to be sorted out before we go visit our clients this weekend in the villages where our machines are deployed. We also took some time to look at our pilot study cash flow, adjusting our pricing and sales & production schedules to fit our current status while taking into account more realistic projections.

Buying cassava from a streetside vendor to test our prototype grater

Trying to push for higher rates of production while our team is in Ghana, the business team jumped into the shop and learned how to make the heads for the graters. Getting out of the sun for a bit, the business team worked with Asante to reach out to a potential partner to help us with importing our motors. Subsequently, the business team had a discussion with Deborah over the M&E plan to look over what work has been done and get her thoughts on the advances. Overall it was a full and productive day, and it looks like we actually have a chance to sleep early tonight.

Day 5:

Today was a very long and hectic day at ITTU. The team rushed to finish our prototype grater so that we could bring it with us on our trip to the villages tomorrow. We needed all hands on deck to complete the necessary parts, so for today our whole team was in the shop. After a flurry of cutting, bending, welding, grinding, and painting, we have an almost-functional machine. We brought most of the parts with us to the SMS guest house for the night and Deborah will pick up a few more from ITTU on her way to meet us tomorrow, so we can finish up assembly in the villages tomorrow night.

Our business team, getting more experience with fabrication

Assembling our prototype, using some new jigs and fixtures

At times when the tech team was figuring out what else needed to be done and how the business team could help, the business team lasered in on the CRM. The main focus in improving our CRM was configuring the interface in order to make it easier for Deborah to interact with. After seeing how the different components of the system relate, the business team linked tables in the system using unique keys and simplified the steps in order to record data taken from our customers.

Our freshly painted prototype, next to an unfinished grater