Carrying out a Feasibility Study
Practical Action
Example: Modified process chart for production of tamarind pickle.
This chart shows the scale of operation and daily requirements for production, including
quantities of raw materials needed, capacity of equipment and number of workers to
complete the required production level in one day.
For the production of approximately 35.6kg pickle, about 45kg tamarind pods are needed.
Modified process chart showing scale of operation and daily requirements for processing of tamarind
pickle:
Processing % Weight Weight of Batch Processing No of Minimum
stage
losses of fruit
other
size
time
workers equipment size
(kg) ingredients (kg) (minutes)
(kg/hr)
(kg)
Tamarind
45
Scale
pods
Crack and
11
40
240 2 Table or canvas
remove
cover for 2 workers,
shells and
plastic bowls,
fibres
containers
Remove
34 26.4
seeds
Add sugar
5 26.4
26.4
50.2
240
1 Scale
Add spice
5 26.4
13.0
60.0
Mortar and pestle
mix
Boil 34
39.6
Cooker or stove, 12-
15l boiling pan,
wooden spoon
Fill and seal 10
35.6
180
2 Table, measuring
jug, jars and lids (or
plastic bags),
capping or sealing
machine
Cool and
35.6
120
1 Labels and label
label
gummers
Store
35.6
Cool, dark room,
shelves
Weight of
35.6
product
Notes on calculations:
Capacity of boiling pan
If each batch takes approximately 30 minutes to boil, 1.5 batches can be prepared per hour. In order to meet the
production target of 60kg raw material, yielding 35.6kg of product every day, 4 hours are needed to prepare 6
batches of 10kg each. The boiling pan should therefore have a capacity of 12-15 litres.
Cracking and removing of shells, fibres and seeds
It requires 8 man-hours to shell and de-seed 45 kg fruit. Two workers are needed to complete this task in 4 hours.
Since tamarind pulp can easily be stoned without deterioration, the cracking and removing of shells, fibres and seeds
could be carried out in advance.
Filling and sealing of bags
Each worker can fill and seal 40 jars or bags of 150g weight per hour. 35.6kg produces 237 bags of jars. Two
workers are needed to complete this activity in 3 hours.
Activity chart used to plan allocations of staff to produce tamarind pickle
Hours during working day
Activity
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Cracking/removing seeds
X, X, X, X, L
YYYY
Mixing/boiling
Z ZUZ Z Z
Filling/sealing
N X, X, X, X,
YYYY
Labelling
ZZ
C
Cleaning
HZ
Store management
ZZ
Distribution
MM
Management
MMMM
MMMM
X,Y,Z = permanent workers; M = manager and owner of the enterprise
Ref: Technical manual for small scale fruit processors, ICUC.
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