Unfortunately, factories and the machines they house carry the same fundamental weakness in that the bigger they get, and the more moving pieces are involved, the more likely something will break. Even the smallest piece can serve a vital function, and plants that fail to properly maintain their equipment can suffer a catastrophic snowball effect. One malfunction leads to systemic failures in the other processes, and a problem that looks small on the surface can have far-reaching consequences.

No matter the size, no plant is unaffected by breakdowns. Obviously, smaller operations that lose a key machine will be crippled, but even a larger company that can keep chugging in spite of a machine breaking down can still see thousands of dollars a minute squandered in the form of lost production opportunity.

Regardless of the full impact, every minute that a machine is broken is a minute that it’s not making the company money. Maintenance and upkeep are therefore a priority, but even a dedicated and knowledgeable team can only work so quickly.

In recent years, many successful plants are shifting the role of maintenance to the floor workers. By cross-training staff in fundamental maintenance best practices, they will be able to communicate more clearly with the maintenance crew and identify the problem area immediately so that it can be resolved as quickly as possible. Better yet, they may be able to prevent a problem from happening in the first place.

In this ebook, we’ll take a look at the threat that machinery breakdowns poses to a poultry plant, how cross-training can alleviate some of the risks, how to implement a cross-training regimen for your staff, and some major issues to be aware of. Through cross-training, your team will gain the tools and know-how to keep your plant running at full speed.

The Cost of Mechanical Failures

The inherent problem with any given machine is that, the larger and more complicated it becomes, the higher the likelihood of one of its pieces breaking. The smallest pieces of the puzzle are easier to overlook, but they’re no less vital to the final product than the big ones.

Problems like loose bolts or dirty grooves may seem inconsequential to the unaware, but that doesn’t change the fact that they can completely wreck a machine. The failure of one operation causes the failure of all its dependent operations, meaning one small small mishap can easily balloon into a huge mess.

Here are some of the ways the mechanical failures can cost you time and money:

Repair or Replacement

The first and most obvious monetary drain is the cost of repairing or replacing the machine. This will vary widely depending on factors like the size of the machine, the availability of spare parts, time constraints, and so on, but the end result still essentially spending money on the machine instead of it making money for you.

Downtime

Depending on the plant, the biggest long-term cost may come in the form of lost opportunities. Bigger plants might be able to make due, but smaller plants can be decimated by the loss of a single, vital machine. The retailers that supply your product will get those products one way or the other, and if your plant can’t make quota, they may move on to a competitor that can.

Health and Safety

While health and safety are paramount regardless of industry, nowhere is it a bigger concern than in food production. If a broken machine leads to an unhealthy or contaminated product, the resulting negative publicity can turn loyal customers into complete strangers overnight. Even after the appropriate steps have been taken to fix the problem, the stain on the company’s reputation may never wash away.

Manpower

No matter the size of the operation, on a long enough timeline, things will break. While this means the maintenance workers will always have a job, preventable breakdowns can stretch an already-busy team even thinner. Worse, young workers with experience in the field are becoming harder and harder to find, leaving some plants with a perpetually-overworked team that never has enough time to fix one problem before a new one rears its head.

Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail

Workplace accidents and breakdowns always seem to happen at the worst possible times. But it’s not just your imagination. In fact, in a plant that doesn’t make the most of its maintenance efforts, a breakdown is inevitable.

The longer a piece of equipment has to run and the more strain it’s put under, the higher the likelihood that something breaks. Unfortunately, this means that when deadlines are looming and every machine is running overtime to get it all done, the chances are higher than ever for a breakdown. If one breaks down, the other machines are strained even further to make up for the loss of the first, more breakdowns occur, and the process repeats.

Like the machines themselves, one piece of the plant breaking down can quickly snowball. Therefore, the emphasis for plant owners should shift from repair to prevention, stopping any piece from breaking in the first place so that it can’t have any lasting impact on the plant as a whole.

But the maintenance team can only cover so much ground, and managers are finding it more difficult than ever to find trained and experienced maintenance workers that can fill in the gap. Even if the talent is available, hiring new employees carries its own challenges and considerations.

Instead of taking on more employees, modern poultry plants are instead allocating more responsibility to the ones they have already. The answer lies in cross-training.

How Autonomous Maintenance Can Prevent Major Catastrophe and Build a Positive Workplace

Autonomous Maintenance and Why It Works

Managers looking to get the most out of the maintenance budget need to cross-train floor workers on basic maintenance and upkeep of the machines they oversee by adopting the concept of autonomous maintenance.

Autonomous maintenance shifts the focus of the maintenance team from fixing problems as they arise to preventing them from happening in the first place. Under the autonomous maintenance model, individual floor workers at the plant assume responsibility for the general upkeep of the machines they oversee.

Instead of either waiting for scheduled maintenance or running his or her machine until it breaks and then calling the maintenance team to fix it, each individual worker is trained in basic maintenance protocols that boost the machine’s lifespan. Workers are trained on all the specifics of the machine, and take it upon themselves to clean it, lubricate it, and inspect it for things like damages, loose bolts, and common defects.

With floor workers assuming the responsibility of basic repairs and general upkeep, the maintenance team is now free to focus on preventive steps and improvements that can keep each machine running longer and more safely. This in turn allows them to overcome the otherwise unpreventable downtime that would occur during peak periods. When repairs are necessary, preventive maintenance assures that they’re much less costly and result in much less downtime.

In addition, the more people that know the common problems to look out for, the higher the likelihood that they’ll be caught before disaster can strike. The maintenance team will still be there to solve big problems, but will see a smaller overall workload. The individual worker may not be able to solve the problem, but he or she will be able to pass it along to a dedicated maintenance team member who can.

Building Bridges

In many plants, one of the major problems facing the maintenance team is the relationship it has with the production team. All too often, the production team gets the credit when things go right while maintenance gets the blame when things go wrong.

Maintenance finds itself in a lose-lose situation. Beyond the animosity that can develop from this type of situation, it can also lead to a lot more finger pointing when teams blame each other for setbacks instead of working together to find solutions, leading overall workplace morale to suffer.

In addition to plant efficiency, one of the key benefits of autonomous maintenance is that it lays the foundation for a natural partnership between the maintenance and production teams. Through autonomous maintenance, the production team bears part of the responsibility for machinery malfunctions and setbacks, while the maintenance team’s proactive and preventive steps serve as proof that they were just as instrumental in success.

Additionally, autonomous maintenance gives the individual operator a sense of ownership. Instead of simply running their machine until it breaks, they are in charge of taking care of it. Because the operator knows the individual parts of the machine better, safety is improved, and because he or she can better illustrate to the maintenance team exactly what’s broken, downtime is decreased.

When the both teams share accountability both for success and for failure, they are motivated to come together and prevent problems before they happen so that success naturally follows.

Maintenance Issues All Staff
Should Know How to Handle

Once you’ve decided to implement a cross-training regimen at your plant so that you can start using autonomous maintenance, it’s then time to decide what specific areas workers should be cross-trained in.

While every plant will have its own specific needs, here are some great starting points:

Dirt and Grime

Over time, dirt can easily collect in the grooves, sockets, and other nooks and crannies of a machine, causing it to lose efficiency. Over time, if enough dirt is allowed to build up, it can shut down a machine completely when essential processes become impossible due to dirt and grime buildup, to say nothing of the health hazards that dirt can present.

While most plants will already place a heavy stress on the importance of clean equipment, an effective autonomous maintenance regimen will teach in-depth strategies that every worker should know to clean any piece of machinery they interact with. In particular, make sure to emphasize out-of-the-way and hard-to-reach areas that might go unnoticed to the unaware.

Proper cleaning of a machine comes with the added benefit of making other problem areas more easily visible.

Contamination

Cleaning dirt is great, but stopping it from getting inside the machine in the first place is even better. After all, prevention is one of the key concepts of cross-training and autonomous maintenance, and removing or minimizing the sources of contamination can reduce the need for repetitive cleaning.

Have all workers be on the lookout for areas where dirt and contaminants might be getting into the plant. Employees should be on the lookout for cracks in the walls, leaking vents, unsecured windows, and the like, and report any defects to the dedicated maintenance crew to repair.

Loose Nuts and Bolts

As dirt can gradually build up, nuts and bolts can loosen over time, leading to potentially catastrophic breakdowns and health risks.

When cross-training workers, make sure that everyone goes over their machines thoroughly to ensure everything is tight. Instruct workers on the warnings signs of a machine with loose nuts and bolts, and encourage them to take the initiative to keep things running smoothly.

Lubrication

While removing dirt and tightening loose bolts is essential to giving each machine the longest lifespan possible, they won’t be running at maximum efficiency if the pieces aren’t well-lubricated.

Train employees on the different moving parts of their machines, and on proper lubrication procedures. In particular, ensure that employees know the proper amounts of lubricant to use to reach the best effect on each piece, and how often the machine as a whole should be lubricated.

Training Your Poultry Plant Employees & Developing Maintenance Issue Report Protocol

Now that you know some of the importance of employee cross-training and some of the points to emphasize, let’s look at how you can start training your workers to build a better, more autonomous plant.

Employee Training Best Practices:

• Incorporate visual, auditory, and tactile learning processes. Different people learn in different ways. Some learn by reading PowerPoints and informative printouts, others by listening to a lecture, and others by getting to physically touch and hold the equipment and machinery. For the best results, try to incorporate all three learning styles as often as possible, and don’t be afraid to present the same information in multiple ways if necessary.
• Use real case studies. Even if a worker can understand the fundamental principle behind an operation, nothing puts it in perspective like having a real-world example. Don’t stick to positive examples: sometimes, it can be just as important to learn what not to do and some common mistakes that others have made in the past.
• Keep a regular training schedule. People are creatures of habit, and tend to learn better if they can stick to a routine. By scheduling regular training sessions at the start of every month or every quarter, you’ll find your employees will be much more receptive to learning. Holding training sessions at regular intervals can also provide an opportunity to give each employee one-on-one feedback on their progress from last month.
• Vary training topics and formatting when possible. While employees benefit from a regular schedule, if they know that they’re just going to see the same presentation from last month, they’ll immediately turn-off. For the best results, try to vary the topics covered during training sessions, or to switch the way that information is presented. For example, you might provide two different solutions to the same problem, or have workers approach the problem from a different direction.
• Train maintenance and operations workers simultaneously. This is especially important for autonomous maintenance, and will help remove any communication gaps between the two teams. The operators can ask the maintenance team directly about different protocols, and the maintenance team will be given an opportunity to explain first-hand why different procedures are in place and give examples from their own personal experiences. This will also serve to build personal relationships between the members on both teams and grow the sense of unity at the plant.

Training is only part of the battle. After it’s done, ensure that workers are given their own tools and equipment to start maintaining their machines, and conduct regular maintenance reports to track their progress.

Maintenance Reports

Reports are a vital part of continued autonomous maintenance success. After all, how can you know what needs improvement if you don’t know where you stand?

Another key reason why maintenance reports are so important is that it builds accountability on the part of both the maintenance and operations teams. When every potential problem has been duly reported and filed, finger-pointing between teams becomes less of an issue because the proper protocols should already be in place to decide who was responsible.

To get the best, most comprehensive reports possible, it’s essential to make the report as comprehensive as possible. First, it’s important to categorize the types of defects and problems you’re encountering, such as machine downtime, defective products, slow production speed, etc.

Once you’ve found a good way to categorize the problems your plant faces, find out which team should be responsible for which defect. This is an essential aspect, because it removes any of the he-said/she-said problems you might otherwise face. When every fault has to be explicitly written down and employee roles clearly defined, it removes any ambiguity in what the next steps should be and who should be the one to take them.

Keep in mind that every report is a potential new area for training. If you’re seeing a lot of reports that cover the same topic, it might be time to dedicate a training session to it and ensure everyone knows what to do when the problem arises in the future.

Over time, as your workers grow better at identifying exactly what problems are occurring and learning for themselves the best way to solve them, you’ll find your plant seeing more autonomous maintenance, less downtime, and a more streamlined production process.

Now you know some great ways to train your employees to make the most of your plant’s processes. But even a plant with the best maintenance practices in place still needs equipment to make it run.

At Delong’s, we excel in creating, repairing, and replacing the machinery and rollers that make poultry plants thrive. Request a consultation today and find out more about solutions we can provide your plant.

SOURCES:

• http://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/ TechnicalArticles/Details/53635
• http://www.meatpoultry.com/Writers/Other-Contributors/ Partnering-pays-off.aspx?cck=1
• https://www.epa.gov/lean/lean-thinking-and-methodstpm
• https://www.epa.gov/lean/lean-thinking-and-methodstpm
• http://www.meatpoultry.com/Writers/Other-Contributors/ Confidence-and-concerns.aspx
• http://leanmanufacturingtools.org/425/preventivemaintenance/
• http://leanmanufacturingtools.org/427/predictivemaintenance/
• http://leanmanufacturingtools.org/438/autonomousmaintenance/
• http://www.meatpoultry.com/Writers/Other-Contributors/ Confidence-and-concerns.aspx 

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SMP’s allow you optimize and standardize your maintenance tasks to make sure your employees are performing them in the safest, most efficient, and most effective way possible.

Here are some key steps to creating an effective SMP that will help your maintenance technicians to avoid mistakes and save your poultry plant time and money:

1) Include Lists of Tools, Parts, Supplies, and Experts

Your SMPs should have a complete list of all the parts, tools, and supplies needed for every task. It should be extremely specific, down to the numbers and grades of nuts so that no one is without an excuse if something is done wrong.

Make sure to also mention if anyone besides the person performing the maintenance needs to be present. Is there a company, consultant, factory rep, or other employee that needs to be involved in the task?

2) Include Routine Tasks

Your SMP should explain how to do all the routine maintenance tasks that are most frequently performed in your plant. Some of these tasks may include:

• Bearing lubrication
• Gearbox lubrication
• Drive belt tensioning
• Alignments, bearing installation
• Drive chain replacement
• Hydraulic hose construction and replacement

Consult the most experienced members of your maintenance team to come up with a standard way to complete tasks. Your SMP should go into enough detail that someone who has never done these tasks before could perform them without further explanation.

3) Include Safety Concerns

Safety concerns are one of the main things that should be included in an SMP. Being properly equipped and fully aware of the task at hand are crucial in deciding the safest way to perform a task. Some things to include are:
Personal protective equipment required to do the job:

• All safety and environmental hazards to be aware of while doing the job
• A detailed list of steps for performing the job or task
• A complete list of tools and materials for doing the job

Be sure to use the word “Warning” to protect against personal harm and the word “Caution” to protect against equipment harm. Using those words correctly can alert the technician of specific safety concerns and prevent confusion as well.

4) Be Consistent

A standard maintenance procedure should be well-written and specific enough that qualified technicians who have never performed the task before can successfully complete it. Consistent SMPs reduce the variability of the procedures, and in turn, can prevent one from being performed incorrectly.

Just a few things to stay consistent on:

• Don’t change equipment names from step to step
• Begin each step with a verb if possible
• Have the job performer enter quantitative values (qualitative instructions are left up to interpretation, and can leave the details of a task up to a technician’s best guess)

5) Include Visuals

Especially for larger jobs, visuals are a key component for effective SMPs. Things like pictures, drawings, diagrams, and graphics are excellent tools that further explain necessary the steps for an SMP. Often, maintenance tasks are complex and difficult to visualize. Images can speed up tasks, and save your plant thousands of dollars.

6) Train Your Staff On SMPs

In order to make sure maintenance technicians are performing tasks in line with the SMP, everyone must go through training and perform tasks while inspected by a supervisor. These trainings and tests must take place periodically to ensure all maintenance staff are doing tasks correctly.

7) Keep Improving On Your SMP

Your staff will always be finding better ways to do things. Make sure you are recording these new ideas and improvements and are editing your SMP to be up to date. If you don’t do this your SMP will become outdated and fall out of use.

Conclusion

Having an SMP will equip your maintenance team with the tools they need and make it much easier to onboard new maintenance employees quickly and affordably. With standard procedure in place, there will be clear direction on tasks, and rookie employees won’t have to constantly consult more experienced workers.

If your poultry plant doesn’t currently use an SMP, or is using a dated or unclear SMP, you are likely wasting time and money on maintenance tasks. Put the time aside to develop a helpful and complete SMP.

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Properly introducing and training your plant’s employees on new equipment is an essential part of operations. After all, what good is new equipment if none of your employees can use it effectively?

Here are some good strategies you can implement to ease the transition at your poultry production plant:

Know Your Needs

Before you upgrade your plant’s equipment, it’s imperative that you know exactly why you’re making the change in the first place. Afterall, when it comes to workplace safety and productivity, enacting change just for the sake of change is one of the worst mistakes you can make.

As a manager, you should be able to explain in no uncertain terms precisely why you’re introducing the new equipment. If you can’t give an adequate explanation why the existing equipment is suboptimal and which shortcomings the new equipment seeks to eliminate, take a step back to reconsider if the benefits of an upgrade are worth the cost.

Make a Plan, Follow It

So, you’ve discovered a problem and identified a solution in the form of a new piece of equipment. However, you still won’t be able to fully sell your employees on the change if you can’t produce an actionable plan that details exactly how the new equipment will be implemented.

The more detailed the plan, the better. A lot of the resistance people feel when introduced to new things is simply fear of the unknown. By going into fine detail about every part of the new equipment implementation plan, you’ll put your employees’ minds at ease and help make them enthusiastic about the transition.

Minimizing Resistance

Change doesn’t always come easy. Just because a new, more-effective system has been implemented doesn’t mean people will immediately appreciate it. People can be resistant to change, especially when they don’t understand the reason for that change.

When you outline the new plan to your employees, make sure to emphasize that the steps being taken are to create a safer and more-productive workplace. Remind your employees that, while it’s frustrating to adapt to new processes and unfamiliar equipment, this is a change meant to make their lives easier in the long-run.
Most importantly, be patient. Different people adapt to change at different speeds, and getting angry at employees that are struggling to keep up will put more pressure on them and make the situation worse. Instead, take the time to understand where they’re having problems and help them reach a solution. New policies take time to gain acceptance, so give employees a little room to adjust.

For more information about how to equip your plant’s team for success in the changing world of poultry production, download our free informative Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance today!

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The reason for this is that, in many plants, operations sees itself as the customer and maintenance as the service provider. When something goes wrong, maintenance gets called, fixes the problem, and moves on, allowing normal operations to continue. However, the more breakdowns occur, the more work the maintenance team has to fix, and the longer operations goes without suitable equipment. Eventually, this can cause tensions to rise between teams.

Part of this comes from how the teams interact. When deadlines are looming, operations wants to keep equipment running longer to produce a higher yield, keeping maintenance from doing their jobs. This makes an equipment breakdown even more likely, and the resulting downtime makes operations work their machines even harder to compensate.

It’s a vicious cycle, and the only way to stop it is to facilitate proper communication between teams.

If you want less downtime and higher yields, teams at your plant need to support and communicate with each other. Here are some great examples of what you can do to improve communication between the operations and maintenance teams at your plant:

Set Objective Expectations for Everyone

One of the first steps toward ending miscommunications in the workplace is to ensure that everyone on a team knows exactly where their responsibilities end and the other team’s begin. This way, you can cut down on he-said-she-said situations and eliminate any ambiguity about what each team is responsible for.

This concept should be applied within individual teams as well. For instance, by having members of the operations team all agree to set guidelines regarding which work requests get prioritized over others, you’ll make the maintenance team’s job much simpler, allowing them to focus on the most important fixes first before addressing smaller issues.

Share Plans and Schedules

While every individual worker doesn’t need to know what every other worker is doing, the maintenance team should be able to view the operation team’s overall schedule, and vice-versa. Schedule regular meetings with both groups to review each team’s game plan, helping bridge the gap between teams as members from one learn about the unique challenges of the other.

You should also consider creating a joint shutdown schedule emphasizing specific deadlines that both teams must meet. This way, both teams will know exactly what is expected them and why, and there will be fewer occasions when, for example, the operations team overworks their machines to reach a deadline, making life miserable for the maintenance crew.

With shared plan and schedule, both teams will naturally have a better understanding of one another. Instead of working against each other to reach individual team goals, you’ll be facilitating cooperation by reinforcing the idea that everyone at the plant is working toward the same end.

Emphasize Group Accomplishments

Part of the negative relationship between operations and maintenance in many plants comes from how each are treated: when everything goes right, operations takes the credit for delivering on time. But when something goes wrong, maintenance gets the blame for not fixing equipment malfunctions in time.

The way to overcome this is by recognizing accomplishments from workers on both teams. When everything goes right, both teams take credit, and when everything goes wrong, both teams share part of the blame. In addition to boosting morale for the maintenance team, this will also help encourage operations team members to lend a helping hand if something breaks.

In addition to recognizing whole teams, don’t forget to recognize individual accomplishments as well. This will help workers build a sense of pride in their work and loyalty to the team that encourages their success.

Include Operations Members in Maintenance Training

Ultimately, the best step to bridge the divide between operations and maintenance is to teach operations more about maintaining their own machines. This way, operations can deal with day-to-day upkeep, allowing maintenance to focus on big fixes and preventative maintenance.

Through great preventative maintenance training, the plant will last longer, see greater yields, and, most importantly, facilitate a workplace environment based on teamwork, cooperation, and working together toward the big picture.

Interested in learning more about what training the operations team about maintenance best practices can do for your plant? Download our free informative Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance, and take you team to the next level today.

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Good management understands the necessity of keeping employees happy. Here are some ways to build morale on your team:

Recognize Good Employees

If an employee is doing exceptional work, it is important to recognize their effort publicly.

When an employee’s accomplishments are celebrated by management as well as their peers, that person is more likely to continue his or her excellent work. Conversely, if an employee begins to feel that their efforts are going unnoticed, they will quit putting in the extra work, believing that they are underappreciated.

However, it’s equally important to recognize the right employees. Misplaced credit decreases morale significantly faster than uncelebrated effort; after all, while failure to recognize accomplishment leads to demoralized employees, giving the credit to the wrong person can drive a wedge between the team and destroy company cohesiveness.

Show You Care

Show your employees that you care about them as people, not just as employees. Acknowledge birthdays, celebrate work anniversaries, send gifts for weddings or for new babies.

Taking interest in your employees’ personal lives shows you value them as people and not just as instruments to make you money. It also makes the workplace feel more like a family, and makes people more committed to helping their fellow employees and seeing your organization succeed.

Do What’s Best for the Whole Team

While firing employees is a necessary aspect of running a business, that doesn’t make it a pleasant experience. Nevertheless, as a manager you have an obligation to do what’s best for the whole team and for the business.

If a teammate is consistently underperforming, he or she puts extra strain on the rest of the team to pick up the slack. If the team is being held back by one individual, it’s probably best to find someone new so that the rest of the team can focus on their own responsibilities.

Set SMART Goals

SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. In the modern competitive business climate, SMART goals are essential to keeping employees focused, making tight deadlines, and delivering results to the consumer.

For your team, SMART goals give your employees measurable goals to work toward and concrete indicators for success.

When every employee can see the eventual goal they’re working toward and understand how their role contributes to the big picture, even small tasks will make them feel accomplished and their sense of job satisfaction will skyrocket.

Change Your Language

One simple yet effective way to make your company more team-oriented is simply to change up the job titles.

What does it matter what a person’s job title is, if they’re doing the same job? A lot, actually. While every successful business will have some sort of structure and managerial hierarchy, an employee’s title can have a big impact on the way he or she approaches the role.

For instance, a title like “maintenance supervisor” carries with it the implication of overseeing the operation but not necessarily taking a part in it. By contrast, “maintenance team leader” carries two implicit messages: one, that all of your maintenance workers are a cohesive unit, a team, and two, that the individual leading them is still very much a part of that team, not a bystander.

Changing up your language in the workplace can do wonders to increase sense of camaraderie in your plant, both between employees and their managers and between individuals working toward the same goal.

Listen and Respond

Remember that, as a manager, your perspective of the operation might be very different from a floor worker’s.

Allow your employees to feel more valuable by taking their suggestions into consideration. They know their work best, and they may have valuable ideas to improve efficiency or to improve some other aspect of their job.

Not only will employees feel that their concerns are being heard, but they will also feel more important to company. And of course, if their ideas work, the company will be all the better for it.

Of course, this doesn’t mean follow every piece of advice you hear. However, if you choose not to follow an employee’s suggestions, explain your decision. This way, the employee will still know that you were listening and didn’t just reject his or her proposal for no reason, and you’ll prove to the team that your decision is for the good of the company, not for your ego.

Be Genuine

The most important aspect of boosting team morale is that it has to come from a place of honesty. You can’t fake caring: if your heart isn’t in it, people will pick up on it, and they won’t be happy.

When your employees know you care about them, they will always be more responsive to your suggestions and will be much more willing to work with you.Regardless of what methods you use, make a genuine effort, and show everyone on the team that you are committed to building a better, happier team.

Want to learn more about what you can do to take your maintenance team to the next level and build a bigger, better poultry plant? Download our free informative Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance, and take your plant to new heights.

The post How To Build Morale Within the Maintenance Team appeared first on DeLong’s Gizzards & Poultry Processing Equipment.

Provide Protective Equipment
Personal protective equipment is any form of equipment that helps minimize exposure to risk in the workplace.

For meat processing plants, common protective equipment includes basic skin covering (gloves, safety goggles, earplugs, coveralls, vests, hard hats) as well as specialized gear (respirators, full-body suits) designed to protect workers from other hazards, particularly airborne pathogens.

Employers must supply each employee with the necessary equipment for their role so that they can accomplish their everyday tasks as efficiently and safely as possible.

Likewise, managers have a responsibility to teach every worker under their supervision how each piece of equipment works, common mistakes to avoid when using it, and how to properly clean and maintain it.

Create an Effective Ergonomics Program 
Workers in the poultry industry are often assigned tasks that can damage their muscles, nerves, blood vessels, ligaments and tendons.

Employers can manage these risks by outlining and clearly communicating their goals for the ergonomic process and involving their front line employees in identifying the risks they face on the job.

Once risks are outlined and solutions to control all potential hazards are in place, it is then necessary to provide adequate job training to employees, as well as encouragement to report any early symptoms of work-related medical problems they may be experiencing.

The ergonomic process should be ongoing and progress should be evaluated frequently to manage any hazards that may pop up later and to evaluate the effectiveness of measures that have been taken.

Implement an Effective Hearing Conservation Program 
Noise is one of the most common occupational hazards facing industrial workspaces, as extended exposure to loud noises can cause long term damage and even permanent hearing loss.

To keep their workers safe, employers need to monitor all employees exposed to noise levels above 85 decibels for over eight hours a day, and provide them with hearing protection.

Control Hazardous Energy Sources
Hazardous energy sources can include, but are not limited to,electrical, mechanical, chemical, or thermal energy from machinery.

These types of hazards can appear unexpectedly during service and maintenance, particularly when a piece of equipment is first started up, putting unprepared workers at risk.

To help curb potential workplace injuries, workers who perform maintenance and servicing tasks should be instructed to always make certain that all equipment is shut down before performing their tasks.

Create an Accident-Proof Workspace
Beyond special training for workers that regularly operate dangerous machinery while on the job, equipment should also be modified to be as safe as possible for the operator.

Safeguards like a tapered throat or a fixed guard for meat grinders prevent simple solutions to increase the relative safety of the plant without sacrificing overall product yield.

Accident proofing also extends beyond the product itself. Incorporate caution signs, safety instructions, and hazardous materials warnings liberally, and inform all workers about the potential dangers they could face if they choose to ignore these warnings.

Sanitize Everything
In order to protect workers from biological hazards, such as salmonella and other diseases, you’ll need to set and maintain workplace cleanliness standards for each piece of equipment, the processing plant as a whole, and for individual employees.

Proper ventilation must also be in place, both tohelp control airborne contaminants, and to prevent life-threatening accidents like fires and explosions from happening.

Maintain Proper Workplace Safety
All surfaces at the plant should be cleaned and maintained properly. Clean countertops, tables, and shelves lessen the risk of valuable materials being dropped or tipped-over, while clean floors help prevent workers from slipping or falling while on the job.

Likewise, doors and emergency exits should never be blocked. Every employee on the floor should be able to open any exit doors without the need for keys or tools so that they can safely evacuate should a hazardous situation arise.

Want to learn more about how to save money at your plant without sacrificing safety, efficiency, or product yield? Download our free informative Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance, and start taking your plant in a new direction.

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This problem becomes even more apparent in the realm of maintenance. The maintenance team serves a crucial role in keeping the plant up and running, and managers can’t afford to leave their plants in poorly-trained hands.

Here are three common mistakes to avoid while training maintenance employees:

Rushing

Be thorough in your training. Maintenance keeps your business running smoothly, so make sure your maintenance team is prepared for any breakdown, spill, leak, or hazard. Anything can happen, so make sure your team can handle any situation well.

It is important to teach each maintenance employee not only what each machine does, but also its role in the grand scheme of things. That way, if several malfunctions occur at once, your maintenance team will better-equipped to prioritize their task list efficiently.

Do not let your employees feel like they are being left in the dark. Competent employees are often the most motivated, and providing your maintenance team with a comprehensive education about their role will build their confidence in their own abilities.

Neglecting to Record Results

Recording results allows you to see the efficiency of your current training program. By testing and analyzing the results of each training session, you’ll be able to see what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to gradually develop and improve your training program to best suit your team.

First, strict recordkeeping will allow you to measure the efficiency of your training program. By recording the results, you’ll be able to get a bird’s eye view of what went well in training and what needs to be improved. Make sure to set specific, quantifiable benchmarks to effectively measure results.

Second, recording everything allows you to better track the progress of individual employees. In addition to the team as a whole, keep uniform benchmarks that every maintenance employee should be able to meet. These will help you identify which employees need more training, and in what areas.

Lastly, recordkeeping will allow you to oversee the entire maintenance department and identify what is not getting done. For example, by looking through records, you could find that a certain area is always dirty because the maintenance employees were not informed that it needed to be cleaned.

During training, be sure to teach proper recording procedures to each team member, and stress the importance of accurate records.

Making Training a “One and Done” Deal

No matter how great the teacher, a student won’t be able to learn effectively if the information is presented only once. As you teach and train your maintenance team, remember that training is an ongoing process, evolving and changing over time but never stopping.

Maintenance employees should have periodic refresher courses on proper safety practices. This will keep team members keep workers from developing any bad habits and stop them from becoming complacent from doing their procedures so frequently.

In addition, the entire team should be extensively trained any time new equipment is introduced. Leaving an employee to figure out how a machine works without proper guidance is asking for trouble.

Don’t just repeat the same information, though. Change up the topic or present it in a different way. This will help keep employees focused and stop them from tuning out to a lesson they feel like they’ve heard several times before.

Likewise, use past sessions to fine-tune your training regimen. If you are tracking and recording results from each training, you will soon start to see gaps where important information isn’t getting across; those gaps can then be used as the basis for the next training session.

When it comes to training, never assume that your maintenance employees will fill in their knowledge gaps after a single training session. Everyone has different learning styles, and may require different strategies to learn effectively. 

For more information to help you make the most of your plant’s maintenance efforts, download our free informative Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance.

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As a manager of a poultry production plant, it is vitally important to take extensive measures that ensure cleanliness of the facility. Here are some steps you should take in order to avoid contamination mishaps:

1) Train Adequately

Employers have an obligation to properly train their employees on all necessary sanitation practices. The public puts trust in the food industry to prepare food in a safe and clean environment, and the best way to live up to those standards is by ensuring every member of the team is following all proper procedures to the letter.

Be thorough in training. Ignorance is no excuse, and no employee should ever be able to blame a contamination mishap on poor training. Constantly bring up sanitary practices during training so that employees never have a question as to where they fit into their daily tasks and the process as a whole.

2) Explicitly Assign Cleaning Tasks

Failure to explicitly assign cleaning tasks can lead to tasks being ignored. All too often, if a task isn’t clearly assigned, people will simply tell themselves that someone else will do it, and the task never ends up getting done.

Cleaning is not anyone’s favorite task, but it is not an option. Whether you have a designated cleaning crew or have all employees participate in cleaning practices as they work, include the following in each assignment:

• Who is responsible
• What equipment to use
• Proper procedure
• How often the task is to be done

3) Don’t Cut Corners

It can be tempting to ignore minor messes that don’t seem like a big deal, but this sort of careless behavior can quickly turn into a habit. Before long, small messes build up into huge problems that take much more time and money to deal with properly.

As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Bacteria can grow quickly, so it is important to be proactive: when you see a mess or identify something dirty, no matter how small, clean the area thoroughly.

4) Stress Personal Hygiene

Any training regimen should include an explanation of employee personal hygiene expectations, but those expectations should be addressed continually. The importance of maintaining good personal hygiene cannot be stressed enough to your employees.

As with cleaning practices, improper procedures that are allowed to become bad habits are certain to result in costly mistakes at some point in the future, so create good habits in your workers instead. Remind employees that personal hygiene begins at home, and only continues while in the workplace.

Outline proper handwashing techniques as well as expectations on attire, jewelry, nails, hair, and eyewear. Employees with contagious diseases or those showing symptoms of a food-borne illness should not be allowed to work until they are healthy enough to guarantee that they will not spread any diseases.

5) Clean Areas Other Than Food Processing Equipment

Even with clean equipment, without proper containment methods in place, bacteria can enter the processing area through other means. Smart managers need to keep all company areas clean, not just the main processing area.

Lobbies, bathrooms, locker rooms, storage areas, and break rooms should all be cleaned regularly. Beyond acting as another layer of defense from bacteria entering into food and machinery, thoroughly cleaning these areas can stop bacteria from propagating in the first place.

6) Keep Foods In Different Stages Separated

From raw, to cooked, to packaged, foods should be separated at every stage of processing. Segregating foods at different stages will help prevent raw and unprocessed foods from contaminating foods further along in processing.

As an added precaution, keep employees from different stages of processing from interacting during shifts. Employees can unintentionally carry bacteria from the foods they are working with and pass that bacteria to other employees, who could turn contaminate more food.

7) Supervise And Monitor

It is important for supervisors to continually monitor the sanitation practices of employees. Do not consider it micromanaging – safety is too important to ignore. As a supervisor, make sure not only company cleanliness procedures are being properly executed, but also be on the lookout for areas that can be improved upon.

One of the best ways you to boost your plant’s safety and improve its production ability is to cross-train all of your employees in different aspects of equipment safety and maintenance.

Want to learn more about what you can do to run a better, safer, and more effective poultry production plant through employee cross-training? Download our free informative Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance, and take your plant to the next level.

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Here are a few best practices for keeping machines clean, healthy, and running at maximum efficiency.

Seals, Filters, and Breathers

Most heavy machinery is comprised of a number of moving parts and sections. These sections are segmented from one another with seals and filters designed to keep contaminants from moving from one part of the machine to another.

As part of regular scheduled maintenance, place particular emphasis on your machines’ seals, filters, and breathers (Apriso). Inspect seals regularly to ensure they’re in proper working order, change filters at regular intervals to mitigate any dirt or contaminant buildup, and keep breathers clean to avoid creating a vacuum that can suck contaminants into the vulnerable inner workings of the machine.

Machinery Dismantlement

The bigger the machine, and the more moving parts, the higher the probability that a once-over with a pressure washer just won’t cut it. There are often parts hidden from view that can’t be reached while the machine is assembled, meaning that a conventional cleaning will only allow grime to build up in its inner gears and parts.

While it may not be necessary for every piece in your plant, don’t be afraid to dismantle one of your machines in order to deep clean and inspect every last moving piece (Daimer) . For the best results, stagger machinery dismantlement so that other machines can make up for the lost productivity of the one being deep-cleaned.

Gear Lubrication

Unlike friction materials, seals, and gaskets, gears and shafts do not break down as often and can go for a much longer period of time before being replaced. However, just because they’re still working doesn’t mean they’re not collecting contaminants that can clog up other processes.

As another method of protecting yourself from breakdowns, ensure that all the gears on your machines are well-lubricated so that they can move without grinding or snagging on other parts of the machine. Lubricated gears present less potential for parts to get caught or for dirt and dust to settle, meaning that the machine as a whole will be at less risk for an accident. The same holds true for bearings and shafts.

Contamination Prevention

There’s a reason why car enthusiasts keep their cars in the garage or under a cover: nature is a brutal thing to machines. It may take time, but any machine exposed to heat, rain, wind, and other weather will eventually have its parts rust, rot, and break down, so it pays to keep your equipment as insulated as possible.

The less your equipment is exposed to the elements, the better. In addition to the seals on the machine itself, check the seals on the doors, windows, and other openings that exist on your factory floor. The more airtight you can make your factory, the longer your machines will last.

For more great strategies you can use to push your machinery further, download our free Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance, and take your poultry plant to the next level today.

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Components Of An Energy Bill

Energy prices are derived from two factors: consumption and demand.

• Consumption is the amount of energy that you use in your day-to-day operations.
• Demand charges are determined by recording the highest 15-minute average of energy usage in a particular month. Your facility will be largely impacted by demand costs if you use large amounts of power over short bursts of time. These costs are meant to encourage users to minimize usage during peak hours, as well as to disperse their operations over the course of the work day (Stem).

Factors Affecting Energy Consumption

Energy usage in poultry processing plants has increased over time, as new processes have been implemented to maximize efficiency, profitability, and minimize labor.

In addition to increased mechanization, sanitation standards have also driven energy costs up, as many sanitation methods require substantial resources. Variations in energy consumption can be broken down into two groups: unexplained and explained (tandfonline).

Unexplained Factors

Unexplained factors are immeasurable and must be constantly assessed for efficiency and effectiveness.

• Technical design and plant layout:  Certain plant designs and layouts might lead to inefficient operations, resulting in comparatively  higher energy costs than a fully-optimized facility.
• Age/condition of equipment: Outdated or malfunctioning equipment will inherently operate at substandard efficiency, increasing the energy cost to keep them up and running. Check out our replacement guide if you’re unsure whether your equipment needs replacement.
• Operating practices: Energy costs can be reduced through the proper operation and maintenance of equipment, as well as the adoption of newer and better technology. Costs can also be reduced by considering energy demand, and operating high-output machinery at alternating times.

If you’re unsure about the output of some of your machinery’s individual processes, you can hire someone to audit your facility. He or she will help you get a better understanding of your production equipment, and advise steps you can take to reduce energy use without sacrificing plant output.

Explained Factors

Explained factors are quantifiable, and can be measured and reduced through careful assessment.

• Volume: Production volume is the most important factor in electrical and total energy output. Output volume varies with your plant size, and accounts for 23.7% of the variation in energy consumption in a poultry processing plant (ageconsearch).
• Capacity: Capacity is the degree to which your plant is not using its maximum plant and equipment capacity. This must be carefully monitored, and it’s important to know that operating at maximum capacity can significantly impact energy demand.
• Temperature: Temperature is the most important factor impacting fuel consumption. Seasonal patterns greatly impact energy usage, and lead to fluctuations in costs.
• Fuel price: Fuel is commonly used in heating for steam and hot water, which is essential in a poultry processing plant for a number of processes. Fuel prices commonly fluctuate, and will substantially affect the size of your monthly bill.
• Electricity price: Electricity is used for ventilation, cooling/refrigeration, machinery operation, lighting, and supplemental heat. As previously mentioned, electricity prices are affected by energy consumption and demand, and can be manipulation through careful usage and operating during periods with low demand.

Overall, poultry processing is very energy-intensive, making it essential to consider your the energy usage of individual processes, assess your facility, and ensure that you’re taking measures to reduce consumption and increase overall efficiency.

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