Finding the proper fleet-downsizing strategies for u.s. agricultural cooperatives: a case of growmark. inc

Abstract

U.S. agricultural cooperatives (coops) are facing the need to reduce their fleet sizes. and are interested in knowing the extent to which they should downsize their fleets. The standard fleet- sizing models (mathematical models) that determine the optimal fleet sizes may not be useful for coops. as these models do not consider the performance metric that is deemed most important by coops; i.e.. the customer service quality. This article reports a case study in which we empirically examined the optimal fleet size of an agricultural coop by using customer service quality as the performance metric. We show the method of determining the fleet size and provide managerial implications regarding the extent to which coops may wish to downsize their fleets.