Hand trucks and roller conveyors were commonly used by most plants 

 with a few larger plants using fork-lift trucks and conveyor belts. Other 

 specialized equipment used in a few plants included: turntables for batteries, 

 aligners for shackles to facilitate hanging live birds, cooling tank dumpers, 

 mechanical lifts to facilitate removal of birds from cooling tanks, and 

 mechanical packing-box closers. 



AH medium-sized and large plants which eviscerated had powered over- 

 head lines. Except for very small and small plants selling at the retail 

 level, cutting-up of poultry by processors was confined to a few large plants. 

 Less than half of these large plants had separate cut-up lines. 



Plant Operating Praciices 



Adjustments in Operations 



Considerable flexibility with respect to labor and equipment can be built 

 into a processing plant. With a sustained reduction in volume, a skeleton 

 force can be employed, or the plant can be operated fewer days or hours 

 at "normal" rates of hourly output. With above-normal volume, a limited 

 amount of additional full or part-time help can be added to one shift, a 

 second shift added, or the regular force worked overtime at a higher rate 

 of pay. These alternatives represent important problems requiring addi- 

 tional study in connection with economies of scale. 



Within the framework of a relatively "normal" daily and weekly work 

 load, short-run adjustments can be made. Changes in volume can be met 

 by varying the working speed (changing line speed or skipping shackles), 

 or by minor adjustments in length of work day or labor force. For vari- 

 ations in market classes or condition of birds, scald temperatures can be 

 raised or lowered, internal adjustments made in automatic pickers, side- 

 line machines employed for finishing, or the amount of pinning labor 

 modified. 



Split-phase vs. Continuous Operations 



In very small, small, and many medium-sized plants the same crew per- 

 fonns several functions. At least part of the crew which works on dressing 

 may work on assembling, eviscerating, or packing. Usually, such a plant 

 dresses only a few hours per day (until cooling tanks are full). Then, 

 most of the crew may shift over to packing, while others may clean up the 

 dressing area. Hence, in many plants, either with or without an overhead 

 line, operations are not continuous in the sense that all phases are carried 

 out simultaneously. Operations are split into successive phases on which 

 almost all employees are engaged. In small and very small plants a common 

 area may serve several purposes. 



The implications of split-phase operations in terms of labor efficiency 

 and usage are as follows: 



1. With small volume, a plant can employ a smaller crew full-time 

 rather than a larger crew part-time. 



2. Employees cannot become specialized in any one phase of the oper- 

 ations, and hence, may be less efficient. This also implies a different 

 social structure among plant employees than under conditions of con- 

 tinuous operation where specialization is enhanced. 



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