How a focus on waste can raise poultry processor margins

Identifying and eliminating waste in the poultry processing plant can contribute to keeping costs down and products competitiveness.

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The delivery of too many broilers to the processing plant can lead to operational issues but also increase the number of dead on arrivals. | (Photo by Eduardo Cervantes López)
The delivery of too many broilers to the processing plant can lead to operational issues but also increase the number of dead on arrivals. | (Photo by Eduardo Cervantes López)

Keeping a close eye on waste and keeping it to a minimum can help to raise poultry processing plants’ profitability. Waste, be it broilers, inputs or time, can have a significant direct and indirect impact on costs, reducing yields and increasing costs. There are a number of areas where waste can all to easily occur and where remedial action can be most beneficial.

Misaligned production

The daily slaughter program should reflect requests from sales teams and farms. However, on occasion, what is processed at the plant may not be what customers have asked for and, to correct this, more birds will have to be slaughtered.

This can result in workers having to work extra hours, processing inputs being used ahead of schedule, and unscheduled use of cold storage facilities so reducing their capacity and increasing costs.

Additionally, the plant may have to stand idle until trucks have arrived with the correct size or weight of birds, and this can have a particularly high cost.

Logjams

In those plants without automatic transfer between the slaughter and evisceration sections, birds can build up in the receiving bins. The problem may be due to a flaw in the design of the plant layout, a lack of workers or due a lack of worker training. Whatever the reason, if shackles on the overhead conveyor are left empty due to workers not filling them in time, the efficiency of evisceration operations will be reduced, as workers will not be able to work continuously.

A similar situation can arise when the flow of carcasses exiting the chiller, the speed of the overhead drip conveyor and the number of workers needed in this section are not fully considered.

Poor logistics

Should broilers arrive at the plant before they are due, there can be a build up of birds waiting to enter the lairage. The areas where loaded trucks wait are waiting will offer the correct conditions for the waiting birds and so the number of dead on arrival birds will increase.

The early arrival of birds can also cause problems further down the line resulting in cold rooms filling to quickly and product spending additional time in storage.

Chicken-reprocessing-line

In some plants, reprocessing operation can be so extensive as to appear to be a separate business. Eduardo Cervantes López

Over, incorrect, processing

Each company will have its quality and yield parameters and it is up to operations and management to ensure that these parameters are adhered to. For example, a minimum or 89% of birds must be stunned, or issues with scalding must be kept to a minimum.

A failure to achieve these standards will result in more work in those sections further down the line and, in some cases, shifts may have to be extended.

If, for example, feathers are still present on the carcass after a broiler has exited the last plucker and are still present prior to entering the chiller, when birds arrive at the packing or cut up sections, time will be lost removing them. The bird’s follicles and muscles will have contracted as the carcass’ temperature drops making feather removal more difficult and time consuming.

Following the removal of the intestinal package time is of the essence in removing bile residues. If more than 20 seconds pass, bile stains become indelible and result in product being downgraded.

In some plants, the reprocessing area has so much work to do as a result of standards not being adhered to that it can take on the appearance of a parallel processing plant due to the number of people employed there.

Inadequate processes

Depending on plant design and infrastructure, many plant workers make numerous short journeys that, with better planning, could be eliminated.

In the hanging area, for example, there will be some dead birds in the crates. There are a variety of approaches to dealing with this problem, some of which are more efficient than others.

In some plants, dead birds are removed and put into plastic boxes. As these boxes fill they are either replaced or another box is added. During breaks, these boxes are temporarily removed, before finally being sent to the waste storage area at the end of the shift.

In other plants, however, dead birds are left in crates. A worker at the end of the hanging area removes them, counts them and then places them into a larger container. When processing is finished, they are dispatched to the appropriate area.

Other plants have a special transporter that removed dead birds in batches, taking them to an exterior bin.

Rejected legs, giblets

Legs are normally removed after the carcass has been plucked. Rejected legs are places into plastic boxes, temporarily stored, and subsequently sent for subproducts processing. To minimize unnecessary movements, systems have been developed that send rejected legs for subproduct processing in batches.

During gizzard, heart or liver harvesting, organs may fall to the floor, making them unsuitable for human consumption. Similar batch systems to those employed in transporting rejected legs have been developed for giblet dispatch.

Ice

In those plants that use water chillers, ice is needed to maintain temperatures at low levels. In some plants ice is produced directly above the chiller, falling to the ground under force of gravity. However, in others, ice machines are placed above dedicated storage rooms. Ice is then supplied to the chiller using a screw conveyor. Should this conveyor be in a poor state of repair, ice will be lost. In smaller plants, ice may be moved using shovels and containers and this basic method also leads to losses.

Backlog-processed-chicken

A failure to match line speeds with adequate numbers of workers or worker ability will inevitably lead to losses. | Photo by Eduardo Cervantes López

Establishing policies to minimize operational waste can not only reduce expenditure but also contribute to reducing the cost per kilo of processed broiler, helping to increase the competitiveness of a plant’s output.

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