Project management - Case of an agricultural cooperative

The CAVE (Coopérative Agricole de la Vallée de l'Espérance) project is based on a real-life situation, deliberately simplified and schematized. No particular technical knowledge is required to deal with the proposed case.

The date is October 1 1999.

The Board of Directors of the CAVE, where you have just been hired, notes that, as every year, Mr. Alain, the director, was obliged to have a large part of the harvest dried, to ensure its preservation. This operation was carried out externally, by an independent company which invoiced 829,500 F. This drying involved the various products harvested successively (oilseeds, cereals, corn), which we have reduced, to simplify the case, to a single equivalent product.

The only alternative would be to build a drying plant, owned by the CAVE, for which Mr. Bernard, the maintenance manager, had consulted SPORT (Société Picarde d'Outillages et Réalisations Techniques). In 1995, Mr. Bernard, the maintenance manager, had consulted SPORT (Société Picarde d'Outillages et de Réalisations Techniques), who had sent him an estimate. However, due to a lack of funds, the project was postponed.

Quantities to be processed this year were 11,850 t, counted in reference dried product equivalent, and are likely to increase by a further 8%/year over the next 7 years (taking into account the switch to more demanding varieties in terms of drying).

Drying must take place between July 1 and October 30 each year, the harvest period.

Today, Crédit Agricole is granting the CAVE a loan repayable over 10 years, with a fixed interest rate of 9% per annum, to enable it to carry out this investment, should it be decided to do so.

Many of the ISO 10006 processes are only mentioned, or summarized at their output; in the case of small projects, this often happens. For this study, please refer to the article "Project management. Processes".