Research paper

1. Technological Institute of the Philippines
College of Business Education
Production and Operations Management(MAN006)
PLANT TOUR:
OBSERVATION and ANALYSIS PAPER
ILOG MARIA HONEY BEE FARM
GROUP MEMBERS: DATE SUBMITTED:
BANCE, CHARLOTTE ANN GRACE SEPTEMBER 26, 2016
DACUTANA, ANGEL RUTH
ELACION, EVELYN
FAUNILLA, PRECIOUS JOY
PANARIGAN, ANGELICA

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ILOG MARIA HONEY BEE FARM
COMPANY BACKGROUND:
Ilog Maria started on 1970’s, when their parents came into keeping bees. It was founded at
Tagaytay wherein the environment there would be gone together with the fresh air. Years passed
by, bee keeping have been passed to their new generation and it was the start of lining their
products. They had built their wooden shop and bee houses through their own table saw. It was a
nameless stream, stacked away a midst dense vegetarian, far from any houses or roads covered
with the pineapple, papaya and coffee plantations of Silang. During 1980’s, they started making
different products and offers it to market. They made it through manual because they started with
no machineries. Ilog Maria fresh bee products are Honey; natural bee Pollen pellets; raw PROPOLIS
soap and shampoos; Honey Cinder Vinegar and many more. Because of adopting new technologies,
they create a website and people would have interests and tries to visit their shop to witness the
unique product of them. Years goes by, they upgraded their manufacturing operation from being
handmade to semi-mechanized. For about 30 years until now, they still are more successful and
improving than what they have before. Here are some of the products of Ilog Maria:
Honey: Honey is best for all types of
wounds: scratches, cuts and even lacerations. It staunches bleeding and promotes fast healing. It is
excellent for burns: first to third degree burns; if applied immediately. It is also good for all kinds of
stomach problems: indigestion, reflux, and diarrhea. We beg for your kind cooperation.

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Bee Pollen: Bee Pollen may well be the
most complete food on earth as it contains all vitamins, minerals and trace elements for life.
Beeswax: This is a special non-toxic, food
grade formulation for kids. Soften with a hair dryer or in direct sunshine, mold or shape it, then
harden in cool air. You can repeat this process indefinitely, providing hours of safe, wholesome fun.
Propolis: Most effective for coughs, colds,
influenza, fever, asthma and rheumatism. 50% solution for super strength. We macerate raw bee
propolis in pure coco brandy for not less than a year and up to 2 years to extract all its natural
healing qualities.

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PRODUCTION/FACILITY CAPACITY:
The bee farm produces honey raw products either daily, weekly or monthly housing over 1,500
colonies of bees and one of their topnotcher “Peter Heiss” of Susana, Heights, San Pedro manages
to harvest 90 kilograms of honey from a single colony. Then once in 11 days, they are always
checking if their bees are okay or have some illness and also they give maintenance inspection in
every hour daily.
CHALLENGES:
Human relation: Ilog Maria is more on man power operation system. From bee keeping to
segregating its hundred number types of process and layout of their products, effort is a must to
every single stage of a process and creating good employee relation/communication to achieve
quality assurance and control to their entire process.
Delivery of their product: there location is far from the city. So, they have to take the long way of
travel almost daily to find near LBC outlet to deliver it to customers’ nationwide.
Colony disorder: one of our professor told us that the last time she visited the Ilog Maria was 6-7
years ago, the bees that time are around 50,000 until now. As I conducted research, I found out
that bees will find a difficulty to expand in the environment has a high temperature, pollution and
has pesticide.
ECOLOGICAL/NATURAL ENVIRONMENT CHALLENGES:
Climate change distorts the natural process of collecting honey and growth of the bee colony.
Bee farming should be sensitive and dependable to natural resources or environment. Where the
bee can extract honey from its natural surroundings and reproduce. Bad weather condition, that
sometimes brings disaster to environment. Which causes the farmer delay in harvesting, pollinating
other crops and insufficient supply of honey that happens only every summer or spring.

5. 5
COMPANY PROCESS:
A. What is the process type they use?
Ilog Maria is an integrated bee farm that produces a wide array of by products like honey,
propolis, royal jelly, pollen, beeswax, and bee venom from their inputs such as the bees, narra tree,
acacia flower, and sunflower which are the other sources of bee products.
Because of the nature of their business in which they keep bees in order to collect their honey
and other products that the hive produces, the processes that they are using for their operations are
hybrid which includes either job shop or batch.
Typically, they use job shop at the first phases of their normal operating cycle where
development of a bee colony follows an annual cycle of growth that begins in spring with a rapid
expansion of the brood nest, as soon as pollen is available for feeding larvae. They need to put extra
responsibility on its maintenance until they are able to harvest. Then at the middle up to the last
phases where they were already able to get the joint products, then they will use batch to separate
their products and get it ready for the production process where in there will be an integration of
technology by using some general purpose equipments and machines to produce a moderate
number of outputs and moderate variety.
B. Is the process automation/technology/innovation base
For the first phases of their operating cycle, there’s no automation involved since that they
naturally produce their products. But when they were already able to harvest, technology will
intervene with the production to separate the honeys from the bee hives and other products to be
able to fit it for merchandising.
C. Describe their process and facilities layout?
While using either a job shop or batch type process, we have observed that the layout being
used by the farm in producing their products was a process layout because of the different
processes that the farm is undertaking.

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Aside from the layout of their production, they are also using another type of layout which fits
the need of their store which is the retail service layout in which the products are displayed
according to its type and purpose and so that the customers won’t find it difficult to choose what
they are looking for and be able to conveniently do shopping.
D. How do they apply line balancing and avoid bottle neck in the process?
They apply line balancing in their operation by using the appropriate type of process types and
layouts needed to produce products and also to avoid bottleneck operations by grouping the
processes’ types that have similar requirements.
TYPICAL BEEKEEPING PROCESS:
Nectar is
collected and
stored in stack
Honey is
pressured
filtered
Honey is
packed and
ready
Frames are put
in extractor
Knives used to
remove wax
covers
Frame removal
Cover
dehydrated
honey w/ wax
Worker bees fan
combs
Nectar
regurgated in
wax combs
Nectar
transported back
to the hive
Nectar is mixed
with enzymes

7. These are some of the machines and equipments that the farm is using: 7
Volumetric Filler: Volumetric filling
machines are based on a self-priming
cylinder. A piston is moving inside this
cylinder and the stroke length and
diameter of the piston determines the
filling volume.
Soap Plodder: This machine is used for
extruding noodles/soap chips into a
compressed bar form.

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Pressurized Mixer: This machine
mixes the honey and other
components or substances used in
creating different bee products.
Wooden Frame: This
frame are used for the
safekeeping of bees and
its honeys.

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT CONDITIONS:
Noise and Noise: Bees cannot hear, but they can sense vibrations extremely well. Much of the
research in the field of occupational health and safety in relation to health impact of
vibration has linked to discussions of exposure limits to vibration and in the case of honey
bee farm, it can hinder their natural production of honeys because, bees feel stressed when
they are being exposed to an unbearable degree or of sounds. Good thing, they are far from
industrialized areas.
Lighting: For workers in the farm, lighting levels need to be appropriate to the task to prevent result
in eyestrain, headaches, irritability and, inevitably, reduced productivity.
Ventilation, air quality and thermal comfort: Exposure to different types of dust can result in
fibrosis of the lung, allergic reactions and asthma attacks for people and animals. Various
vapors, gases and aerosols also have the ability to cause respiratory and skin damage. Lastly,
extremes of heat can reduce concentration and motivation and cause a number of heat-
related illnesses.
7. Why do you think the business decided to locate its operation in the Area?
Natural Resources:
A. Forest Lands: Cavite province lies in the western monsoon forest zone. This location is very
beneficial for the formation of tropical rainforests, which are characteristically made through
natural vegetation. In 2007, the existing forest area within the province totaled only to 8,625
hectares (21,310 acres). These forest areas were categorized as Protected Landscape under
the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) and the rest, unclassified forest (Non-
NIPAS). A total of 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) are located within the Mounts Palay-Palay–
Mataas-na-Gulod Protected Landscape, a protected area in Ternate and Maragondon

10. created by Proclamation Number 1594 on October 26, 1976.
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B. Production land-use: Majority of production land-use is for agriculture. Considering that 50.33%
of the total provincial land area is engaged into agriculture, it can be generalized that in spite of
rapid urbanization in the province, Cavite remains to have an agricultural economy that makes food
for any beings security attainable.
C. Water resources: The hydrological network of the province is composed of seven major rivers
and its tributaries. The river systems generally flow from the highlands of Tagaytay and Maragondon
to Manila Bay. Numerous springs, waterfalls and rivers found in the upland areas of the province,
have been developed for tourism. In the lowland areas, hundreds of artesian wells and deep wells
provide water supply for both residential and irrigation purposes.
D. Soil properties: Cavite is composed of several soil types according to soil surveys conducted by
the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM). Classification of soil types in a specific area is a
very important consideration in identifying its most fitted land-use. This way, utmost productivity
can be achieved.
Accessibility: Cavite is surrounded by Laguna province to the east, Metro Manila to the northeast,
and, Batangas province to the south. It is located within the Greater Manila Area, not to be confused
with adjacent Metro Manila, the defined capital region. Situated just 21 kilometers (13 mi) south of
the capital, it is one of the most industrialized and fastest growing provinces because of its close
proximity to Metro Manila.
Ordinance: Ilog Maria has its own legal requirements given by the municipality of Silang,
Cavite.They have to complied to the requisites that they have been agreed before they build their
business for they safety and the general welfare of the people near to their business establishment.
Space: The province of Cavite where Ilog Maria is located has a number of alienated lands intended
for agriculture, fishery and mining. On the other hand, built-up areas are mainly for residential
areas, commercial, industrial and tourism areas.

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8. Quality and Quality Control
A. What are dimensions of Quality that is visible/associated to their operations/product?
Ilog Maria was doing there products in the very natural ways using people to look over their
products. Every product they have is being processed in a simple way and the provision of the foods
for their bees as well as the conservation of its natural habitats are being well taken care of by
planting more trees to provide flowers that will produce nectars for the bees. And for that the bees
can produce a very sweet honey and they have never used a fertilizer guaranteeing that those are
very healthy and natural.
B. What Quality practices they adopt?
The Philippine beekeeping industry has always been a struggling arena for decades now for
Pinoy beekeepers. With little to no help from the government in terms of funding, trainings and
other necessary laws to help spread the benefits of beekeeping in the Philippines, the industry is still
on its feet. Realizing the need for information dissemination, this page aims to help all interested
parties know that there are still a few people in the field who are constantly working to find a way
to help improve and develop good beekeeping practice in the country.
With the help of DA-BAR (Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Agrarian Reform), the
UPLB Bee Program was made available to all parties interested to know more about local Philippines
beekeeping and bee species native to the country like the Apis Dorsata, Apis Cerana and the
Philippine stingless bee also known in many names by different provinces and parts of the nation
like Trigona Biroi (scientific name), "kiwot", "lukot", "libog", "kiyot", "kalulut" and many other
popular and unpopular names.
This study program is designed to help students have on-site and field experience of taking
care of bees, determining the different diseases and pests, actual capturing of wild feral colony and
hiving of the Apis Cerana and native stingless bees. The first part will also include some very
important studies in how to determine if honey is fake, bee management and practical application
in bee product making (wax foundation making / soap making / candle making), bee genetics, hive

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design and making (langstroth standard hive), different bee food and bee plants and flowers,
bibliography of local bees and more Philippine beekeeping practical maintenance methods.
C. What is the quality philosophy/motto they practice?
Be Local: As much as possible, they source all raw materials locally. However, they source regionally,
when there are no local sources. They have long standing relationships with their sources of non-
tropical natural raw materials, so they always get the best quality and price.
Formulations: All their formulations are about 30 years old. Some are more than 300 years old. They
have learned to adjust formulations to accommodate seasonal variations. They do not and will not
change any of their formulations.
Simplest Operation for Lowest Costs: They are always undermanned. This ensures that everyone
works hard and that our products are always priced low. They operate very simply, always try to
make their operations as simple as possible. When faced with a choice, they favour the simplest
long term solution.
Lowest Prices: They make their products in our house. They have no finished products inventory.
The products do not carry charges for rent, depreciation, inventory carrying costs, transportation,
fuel, utilities, maintenance or security. They also do not advertise and if the prices of the raw
materials will increase, they absorb most of the difference. Therefore, they need to make and sell
more products to be financially sustainable.
D. What,when and where is the Inspections occur in their operations?
There is a push to make beekeeping appear practically hands free. Bee hives should be
inspected approximately every two weeks. This allows proper timing to monitor the ongoing health
of the queen bee. If she should die or become unproductive, then a two week interval inspection
will give you enough time to order or raise a new queen.