cial" curves relating percent shrinkage to time. Because broilers are 

 younger in age at selling weight today than in 1950, it was decided to 

 use their high commercial shrinkage curve rather than the average. The 

 curve used is shown in Figure 2. 



Figure 2. Relationship of Shrinkage of Live Birds to Time in Crates. 



2 3 4 



Time in crates- hours 



III. Resources Required in Broiler Assembly 



The Assembly Model 



The objectives of this research are to determine for each of the as- 

 sembly firms under each of the three density conditions (1) the least- 

 cost complement of men and trucks required for each pickup operation 

 and (2) the least-cost number of such complements required for the 

 firm.i 



The basic technical coefficients needed to determine the cost of as- 

 sembly are labor productivity in loading birds, truck and car travel time, 

 truck turn around time at the plant, and live bird shrinkage. These were 



1 Complement is the term applied to the men and trucks that go to each impound 

 point and pickup, load, and transport the hirds to the plant. More specifically it 

 refers to the number of men in a pickup crew and the loads of poultry they handle, 

 rather than trucks, because some trucks will be able to make more than one trip. 



14 



