time for personal needs specified for this study. So 40 minutes a day 

 per man was added to the daily time which reduced productivity to 948 

 pounds per man hour, and is shown in Tahle D-1. 



A final source of information on catching and loading hirds is con- 

 tained in a report hy Jcwett.'' This research used empirical data and 

 reported the amount of time for "loading"' as distinct from travel and 

 waiting as 3.4 man hours per 1.000 hirds. Converted to pounds per man 

 hour this is equivalent to 1.029. As with the Connecticut study, this 

 productivity numher included only actual loading time. Adding time for 

 personal needs for the seven man average crew results in a productivity 

 rate of 919.6 pounds per man hour. This is shown in Tahle D-1. 



In Tal)le D-1 the marginal productivity is shown in terms of pounds 

 per hour. This was derived arithmetically from a function relating total 

 crew productivity per hour to crew size. The marginal productivity drops 

 irregularly from ahout 1,240 pounds per hour at the three to five man 

 crew size and reaches 845 pounds at the nine to ten man crew size. 



If loading time were the only consideration, a firm would not use a 

 crew size smaller than that at which marginal and average productivity 

 in loading are equal. Based on these data this would he nine men. In 

 practice smaller crews are often used, and the crew size selected under 

 some conditions in this study is smaller than nine men. This occurs he- 

 cause time in travel is also considered in selecting the optimum crew size 

 in each situation. 



■^Handling and Processing Broilers in Maine, Part 1. Costs and Efficiencies in 

 Assembling Live Broilers for Processing, Lloyd J. JeweU, Maine Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station Bulletin No. 592, 1960, p. 12. 



54 



