However, labor productivity rises as crew size increases, so larger 

 crews use less loading time for any given volume of poultry. For the 

 four-man crew (one foreman, two pickup laborers, one truck driver) 

 loading time for a 190 crate truck is 3.4 crew hours or 13.6 man hours. 

 For tlie five-man crew loading time is 2.39 crew hours or 11.95 man 

 hours, and for the six-man crew loading time is 1.86 crew hours or 11.16 

 man hours. 



Because average productivity increases with crew size up to nine 

 men and then starts to decrease, it would be expected that optimum 

 crew size would never be less than nine men. Using less than nine men 

 would ])e irrational whatever the cost of labor and the value of the 

 pickup service. However, crew travel must also be considered in addition 

 to loading. 



Combining both travel time and loading time shows the total use 

 of time by the crew (excluding truck travel time). For complements 

 involving one load the total man hours required for labor and foreman 

 travel and for loading is 24.7 for a three-man crew, 24.1 for a four-man 

 crew, and 26.0 for a five-man crew. The four-man crew uses the least 

 amount of time. As crew size increases beyond four men the man hours 

 of travel time increase faster than the man hours of loading time de- 

 crease. 



As the number of loads per complement increases the crew size at 

 which total man hours is least gets larger. For one load complements 

 the minimum man hours for loading and travel ( excluding driver trav- 

 el) is at a crew size of four; for three load complements it is at a crew 

 size of five, and for five load complements it is six, for this density and 

 distance situation. The travel time has less influence as the number of 

 loads in a complement increases. However, the restriction of a ten hour 

 day must also be considered in selecting the crew size in each column. 

 The effect of this restriction is to force the crew size for the comple- 

 ments with the larger number of loads to much higher crew numbers 

 then is optimum, as indicated in Figure 5. 



3. Assembly Timing 



For the set of crew-load complements tentatively established, it is 

 necessary to set up a time schedule for four purposes: 1) to establish 

 truck size, 2 ) to determine which if any of the trucks can make more 

 than one trip, 3 ) to make sure the unloading of the trucks can be ac- 

 complished within a nine hour period at the plant, and 4 ) to determine 

 if adjustment in crew size can result in fewer trucks without violating 

 the restriction of a 10 hour day. Such a schedule is shown in Table 4 for 

 Supply Band HI, 5,000 pound density level, 190 crate trucks. Other 

 bands will have similar schedules for each truck size and density level. 



The poultry in Supply Band HI will be assembled with one comple- 

 ment of 5.05 loads and nine men. However, it may be possible to use less 

 than six trucks. Reference to Appendix C, Figure C-2 shows that at the 

 5,000 pound density level the impound point for Supply Band HI cannot 

 be serviced twice a day by a 190 crate truck. But since the last load is 

 only .05 load, its loading time is so short that it is possible for Truck 

 No. 1 to return for this second small load. This is indicated in the sched- 

 ule in Table 4. 



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