The number of man-houro required to talce a hundred pounds of 

 headlcos Ghriinp fi-ora the packing and weighing line &nd load the.n into the 

 freezer vas fairly uniform for five of the six plants inspected, ranging 

 from 0.050 to 0.067 man-hours for processing plants operating idth adjoin- 

 ing freezing facilities and for processing plants using public freezers. 

 For the sixth plant this operation took 0.133 raan-hours. Here, the freez- 

 ing unit was located approximately I50 yai-ds froiti tte processing plant and 

 all handling operations were performed manually (see table V - 50). 



5. Glazing and mastering: Procedures for glazing and packing 

 frozen headless shrimp in master cartons were foimd to be more or less 

 standardized in the six plants surveyed. 



The shrimp are removed from the blast freezer on the rolling 

 racks or pallets on which they were frozen. Each carton lid is opened 

 prior to placement on a conveyor equipped with a water spray. About 

 eight ounces of vrater are added, the lid is closed, the carton is Inverted 

 and then packed top-side do\m, ten five-pound cartons to a master. The 

 master is then sealed and placed in cold storage to await shipment. 



For two of the six plants Inspected, glazing and packing were 

 done at public freezers. The other four plants operated their own freezers, 



The number of man-houry requirr 1 to glaze imd pack a hundred 

 pounds of frozen headless fihrimp in plants operating their oun freezers 

 varied from 0.111 to 0.267. The plant with the lowest man-hours employed 

 a 5-inan crei; for these operations; the other plants used ci'eijs of 11 or 

 12 men. The man-hours reqiu.red for these opei'ations do not appear to 

 have been greatly influenced by the size of the crew performing them. 

 For example, one plant employing a 12-man crew had a man-hour rate only 

 slightly higher than the plant using a 5>-man crevj. 



On the basis of their observations the First Research Corporation 

 engineers concluded that some plants ^rould benefit from more efficient 

 methods of operation which might be developed after "trial and error". 

 By equalization of the workload spotty idling time could be reduced in 

 a mimber of the establishments. 



First Research Corporation recommends that the water glazing 

 process be replaced by overvrapplng the cartons. It was estimated that 

 the adoption of overiirrapping in lieu of glazing, the replacement of the 

 power hoist iri.th a portable poirer conveyor for unloading shrimp and efforts 

 to obtain a more efficient distribution of labor on the production linCj 

 wotild result in a saving of upvrards of i^O percent in the man-hours re- 

 quired to produce a hundred pounds of paclcaged frozen headless shrimp 

 (see tables V - 50 and V - 5l) . 



Based on the assianption that each producer operates his o^m 

 freezing plant First Research Corporation has devised a recommended pro- 

 cedure for procecsors of frozen headless shrimp. Tliis procedui'e v/hich 



259 



