For Immediate Release
International Poultry Expo
Tucker, Ga. – January 26, 2023

Contacts:Gwen Venable, 678.514.1971, gvenable@uspoultry.org, (USPOULTRY)
Victoria Broehm, 703.558.3579, vbroehm@afia.org, (AFIA)
Sarah Little, 202.587.4263, slittle@meatinstitute.org, (NAMI)

The 2023 IPPE has been a successful trade show with strong crowds, busy exhibitors and great energy evident throughout the trade show floor. This year, IPPE has approximately 28,000 attendees, 533,000 square feet of exhibit space and 1,180-plus exhibitors. Attendee numbers will be released after the registration database has been audited for duplications. Sponsored by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, American Feed Industry Association and the North American Meat Institute, IPPE is the world’s largest annual poultry and egg, meat and animal food industry event of its kind.

“We are really pleased with the enthusiasm displayed by this year’s attendees and exhibitors and their excitement in connecting with their colleagues from around the world. The attendee and exhibitor numbers and trade show floor continue to complement IPPE’s unparalleled education sessions, invaluable networking opportunities and extensive exhibits highlighting the latest innovative technology, equipment and services for our industries,” remarked the three organizations.

The large trade show floor remains the central attraction. Numerous companies are showcasing their new products at IPPE, with all phases of the animal food, meat, and poultry and egg industries represented, from live production and processing to further processing and packaging.

The comprehensive education program schedule complements the exhibits by informing industry management about the newest issues affecting the industries. The 2023 line-up includes more than 80 hours of education sessions, ranging from animal agriculture sustainability to biosecurity as it pertains to foreign animal disease, to facility inspection package training.

Other featured events include the International Poultry Scientific Forum, the Latin American Poultry Summit, Pet Food Conference, Foreign Material Prevention & Control Workshop, TECHTalks program, New Product Showcase and publisher-sponsored programs, all of which have been great contributions to the 2023 IPPE.

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About IPPE
The International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) is a collaboration of three shows – International Feed Expo, International Meat Expo and the International Poultry Expo – representing the entire chain of protein production and processing. The event is sponsored by the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY).

About AFIA
Founded in 1909, the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), based in Arlington, Va., is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to representing the business, legislative and regulatory interests of the U.S. animal food industry and its suppliers. The organization’s membership is comprised of more than 650 domestic and international companies that represent the total feed industry-manufacturers of commercial and integrated feed and pet food, ingredient suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, industry support and equipment manufacturers. AFIA members manufacture more than 75% of the feed and 70% of the non-grain ingredients used in the country. AFIA is also recognized as the leader on international industry developments and holds membership in the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF).

About NAMI
The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) is the leading voice for the meat and poultry industry. Formed from the 2015 merger of the American Meat Institute (AMI) and North American Meat Association (NAMA), the Institute has a rich, century-long history and provides essential member services including legislative, regulatory, scientific, international and public affairs representation. NAMI’s mission is to shape a public policy environment in which the meat and poultry industry can produce wholesome products safely, efficiently and profitably. Together, the Institute’s members produce the vast majority of U.S. beef, pork, lamb and poultry and the equipment, ingredients and services needed for the highest quality products.

About USPOULTRY
U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) is the All Feather Association progressively serving its poultry and egg members through research, education, communications and technical services. Founded in 1947, USPOULTRY is based in Tucker, Georgia.

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1. Consider a Multi-Purpose Solution

Multi-Purpose machinery offers a range of benefits to poultry processors. This chapter will look into how multi-purpose machinery can:

• Lower factory footprint and increase floor space
• Lower machinery costs
• Reduce human error
• Decrease downtime

Facing machinery clutter?

Having lots of machines clutter your facility means:

• Less space
• More money spent purchasing unique equipment
• Less efficient workflow
• More frequent maintenance
• More spare parts needed

Implementing multi-purpose machinery is a great way to combat all these problems.

Lower factory footprint and increase floor space

Floor space is integral to a safe, clean, and efficient plant. Increased floor space allows for:

• Reduced chance for worker injury – workers are able to keep a safe distance from dangerous machinery more easily
• Increased mobility – workers are able to move freely throughout the plant
• Increased cleanability – sanitation crews can access all parts of the plant and machinery, giving them the ability to clean more quickly and efficiently
• Make repairs and replacements easier – with more space around machinery, it’s easier for personnel to work on machinery and replace parts without having to move and/or disassemble equipment.

Lower machinery costs

Both manual and automated processing lines have weaknesses that increase costs and lower yield. Automated lines have more downtime, while manual lines are more hazardous and require higher worker compensation.

Multipurpose machinery allows you to automate processing lines while reducing downtime caused by mechanical errors. Multipurpose machinery reduces the number of machines that can malfunction, and reduces the amount of replacement parts needed. For these reasons, multipurpose machinery can be a more cost effective option.

Less human interaction required

Human interaction inevitably leads to human error, and human error can result in harm to workers, products, and overall productivity.

The CDC estimates that 128,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 die every year from foodborne illnesses of all causes. A study from 2015 found that meat recalls cost a food processing company an average of $109 million in the first 5 days after the announcement.

Automating your processes can create a safer and cleaner environment and reduce the chances of contaminated product.

Automation can also:

• Cut down on labor costs
• Increase processing speeds
• Achieve more predictable yield
• Reduce water and energy expenses

Decrease downtime during equipment failure

Having machines that can do each other’s job, and having backup machines on hand can reduce downtime considerably during equipment failure.

2. Do a Spare Parts Analysis

The number of parts a machine has, their price, the time it takes to replace a part, and the importance of those parts in a machine’s productivity should always be considered when purchasing new equipment. This chapter will walk you through how to assess a machine’s parts and how to use that information to inform your buying decision.

Assessing Parts

While considering the purchase of a new machine, it’s important to understand how many parts that machine has. Is this new machine replacing existing machinery? If so, consider if this new machine has more or less parts than the machine it will replace.

The fewer parts a machine contains, the fewer parts you need to have on hand in case of mechanical failure, and the more money you can save.

Think about how the hardware you are considering compares to other on-hand equipment.

• Ensure it uses the same measurement system. Does the machine you’re considering use metric or imperial system for measurements? If possible, you want all of your machinery to use the same measurement to reduce the amount of tools and spare parts needed.
• Does it use similar nuts, bolts and other fasteners to your current machines? Machinery with the same pieces will allow you to cut costs on spare parts.

Assessing Risk

Perform a Critical spare parts analysis to determine a risk based strategy that will allow you to take into account the risk of a part breaking, the cost of the machine, and the cost of downtime.

In order to properly manage risk, you must consider:

• What equipment failure risks are there?
• What are the results of an equipment failure? (injury to workers and other equipment, cost of repair, downtime to make repairs)
• What is the probability that equipment failure will happen? (Manufacturer warnings, statistics, etc.)
• How can you prepare for or eliminate the risk of equipment failure? (Having parts on hand, buying insurance, etc.)
• Are there any additional risks when equipment takes longer to repair than expected?

Use the following charts to determines if a part needs to be kept in stock:

Probability Score Matrix

Decision Matrix

Bringing it all together

The objective is to have equipment that is:

• As cheap as possible to buy
• Features cheap replacement parts
• Has the fewest spare parts
• Has a high likelihood of functioning for a long time without requiring maintenance
• Doesn’t take long to repair

Avoid equipment that:

• Is unnecessarily expensive to buy
• Has lots of parts
• Has expensive parts
• Has a high likelihood of malfunctioning
• Takes a long time to repair

You want to make sure you have precisely the right kind and amount of parts you need to properly handle equipment malfunctions in a way that reduces downtime as much as possible, and ensures the highest yield and safest environment.

3. Consider a Simpler Machine

The most high-tech machinery isn’t always the best option. Complex machinery is:

• More difficult for personnel to operate properly (requires more training)
• Is more time-consuming to repair
• Is more difficult to clean

This section will explain how simple machinery can help you save cost in a number of areas and will give some key traits that cost effective machinery should have.

Ease of Use

In some cases complex machinery is unavoidable. But, the more complex a machine is, the more training staff will have to have in order to properly use it.

The more training that staff have to have in order to properly use a machine, the more money that machine will cost you in hours of training. Also, if a machine is new, training may be difficult to find and expensive. Higher turnover rates can also drive up the frequency of required training.

Ease of Repair

How easy is it to repair a machine? Do you have to disassemble the whole thing just to perform a simple scheduled maintenance? Equipment should be easy to quickly disassemble and reassemble in order to minimize downtime.

While demoing equipment, it’s important to ask what regular maintenance entails, and how long regular maintenance should take.

Consider the downtime necessary for repairs when looking at the overall cost of competing machines. A cheaper option that takes longer to repair or maintain may have a greater negative impact on your bottom line than a more expensive option that can be quickly repaired.

Ease of Sanitation

Ensure the machine isn’t too complicated for maintenance crews to effectively sanitize. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

• Validated cleaning and sanitation protocols – Make sure machinery has validated protocols that your staff won’t have any problem following.
• Water and cleaning resistant – Sanitation in a processing plant usually involves everything being sprayed down. Will the new machine handle this without failure? Does it rely heavily on electronics like touch screens that may be damaged by sanitation?
• Stainless steel surfaces – Any surface that is in contact with product should be stainless steel.
• Easily accessible – Make sure that all the surfaces that are in contact with food are easily accessible and cleanable (unless they have a CIP).
• Joints and fittings – Any joints and fittings should be designed for easy sanitation.

Does it come with a Clean-in-place system (CIP)? Some machines are built with self-cleaning high-pressure pumps that shoot water and cleaning solutions through equipment for easy cleaning.

4. Consider All the Available Options

When looking for the best equipment, it’s important to check online directories for all available options. There are a lot of industrial manufacturing directories out there, some better than others. Here are a few good ones to start with:

Thomasnet.com – Thomasnet is an incredibly in-depth and user-friendly free directory for industrial manufacturers. The website includes detailed company profiles and is easily searchable, featuring a total of 660,000 OEMs, industrial custom manufacturers, distributors, and service companies.

Search by product or service category, location, UNSPSC commodity code, ownership, quality certification, or company type.

Thomasnet claims to have consolidated 100 million items from 200 thousand catalogues into a single, searchable database.

World of Manufacturers – Not quite as comprehensive as Thomasnet, but free and useful none-the-less, worldofmanufacturers.com allows you to search thousands of companies for the perfect product to meet your manufacturing needs.

More directories worth checking:

• manufacturerusa.com/
• manufacturersupplier.com
• industrialquicksearch.com/
• manufacturing.net/

SOURCES

• http://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/TechnicalArticles/ Details/53147
• https://www.lce.com/The-Role-of-Critical-Spares-Analysis-inValidating-Spare-Parts-Recommendations-1364.html
• https://www.technologyreview.com/s/537646/robots-start-tograsp-food-processing/
• http://www.agmanager.info/costs-meat-and-poultry-recallsfood-firms
• http://reliabilityweb.com/articles/entry/spare_parts_ inventory_an_exercise_in_risk_management
• http://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/TechnicalArticles/ Details/60404
• http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/ augustseptember-2005/top-7-processing-and-foodserviceequipment-standards/ 

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1) Lean Manufacturing

Some key elements of wasteful manufacturing are defects, overproduction, waiting, unnecessary movement, and over-processing. Multi-function processing equipment significantly improves the productivity and efficiency for manufacturing lines by eliminating waste (time, effort, resources), and making processes leaner.

These advantages also help you operate under the guidelines of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). With fewer machines, employees are more able to understand the equipment and work to prevent breakdowns, enhancing overall equipment effectiveness, and minimizing losses.

2) Reduced Clutter/Increased Floor Space

Machine clutter in your facility means less space, less efficient workflow, and more frequent maintenance. Implementing multi-purpose machinery will help combat these issues and increase floor space. This will allow you to improve the design of your facility, minimize wasted movement, increase mobility, and reduce the chances for workers injury. A poorly designed layout can also increase space requirements leading to increased fixed costs. Lastly, an increase in open floor space will make it easier to clean and repair your equipment.

3) Lower Machinery Costs

Manufacturers can spend up to 40% of their operating costs on maintaining factory equipment. Using multi-function equipment will reduce the number of different machines that you need on hand, thus reducing the number of machines that can malfunction.

This will also lower the amount of replacement parts needed because you’re stocking for fewer types of machines. Having machines that do each other’s job and having backups on hand can reduce downtime, and the costs associated with production loss.

4) Less Human Interaction Required

Human interaction leads to human error, which harms workers, products, and overall productivity. Multi-purpose machinery allows you to automate processing lines. This can create a safer and cleaner working environment, and reduce the chances of contamination. It can also cut down labor costs while increasing processing speed, and achieve a more predictable yield.

5) Sustainability

Having an automated process is more sustainable and will reduce water and energy expenses by producing a more prdictable, consistent product. With more consistency, there are fewer defects in the product, thus reducing the amount of raw materials, energy, and waste associated with with fixing/replacing a defected product.

Overall, multi-function processing equipment can help eliminate inefficiencies, while improving the overall functionality of your processing plant. It provides the opportunity to streamline your processes, making things safer, simpler, and cost effective. This is why multi-function processing equipment is the next big thing.

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But what about economic sustainability? In years past, saving the trees meant cutting the profits, so many managers found themselves in a conundrum.

However, managers should no longer ask themselves this question: these days, sustainability is so important not only because it’s become a hot-button issue in general, but also because it saves plants money. Sustainability means better profit and better environment, so conservation is ALWAYS the right answer.

Here are some important factors to keep in mind for poultry production managers looking to create more economically-sustainable facilities:

Audits

You won’t be able to make any meaningful gains to sustainability if you can’t first determine exactly how much energy you’re already using. Resources like running water and electric lighting are now so cheap and so commonplace that many of us don’t think about the cost of using them – until the power bill shows up at the end of the month.

In the business realm nothing comes for free, and even cheaply-available resources can still come with a high price tagwhen used by an entire poultry production plant. That’s why, before you take any action, you should perform an audit of your entire facility to see exactly how much water, electricity, and other resources you’re currently using.

After a facility-wide audit has been performed, it’s time to start looking at the budget and seeing where gains can be made.

Waste Reduction

Once you have a good picture of your plant’s current energy consumption, the first course of action should be finding any and all ways you can cut down on waste. Unfortunately, no system is perfect, meaning some waste will be inevitable; however, by making a conscious effort to eliminate waste as much as possible can still result in big savings over time.

Some simple and easy steps you can take include installing guard rails on conveyors to ensure that proteins and animal parts don’t drop on the floor. Likewise, by installing drip buckets underneath conveyors and machinery, you can harvest some of the water that spills over during these process it and re-use it as red water for the chiller.

As you’re making your audit and re-examining your budget, look for any areas such as these where you can reduce waste and reuse materials without sacrificing the quality of the finished product.

Energy-Efficient Systems

If you’ve taken all the right steps toward waste reduction but still aren’t where you want to be, it might be time to consider investing in more energy-efficient systems throughout your facility. With the right energy- saving equipment in place, environmental stewardship, water conservation, and a better bottom line can all go hand-in-hand.

When it comes to electricity, try switching your plant’s existing light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), which last longer than traditional incandescent bulbs while using about 70% less energy. Also consider LED lights, which are slightly less energy-efficient than CFLs but make up for it by lasting roughly three times longer.

Water is another waste-heavy area in many food production plants, so in addition to the reduction methods mentioned in the previous section you may also want to consider upgrading your existing systems. Just switching your manual faucets and flushers can save 50-70% of the water that they use, and increased public interest has made water-saving equipment much more widely available.

Looking for more strategies you can use to build a better, more efficient poultry plant? Look no further. Download our free informative guide, How to Find Efficient Poultry Processing Equipment, and get started today!

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For poultry production plants with temperature-critical processes, this becomes an even bigger issue. In addition to creating an uncomfortable atmosphere for workers, the presence of excess heat or cold can put the product at risk. If a high energy bill isn’t enough to make you reconsider your plant’s weather preparedness, the potential for lost sales and recalls certainly should be.

Whether for the winter freeze or the summer heatwave, read on for some important things to consider when prepping your plant.

Cold Weather

Doors and Windows

The best way to save money on heating is to ensure that the heat you’re paying for only heats the facility, nothing outside it. Every door or window throughout your facility that doesn’t close properly presents an area where warm air can escape and cold air can enter, along with rain, snow, dirt, and other contaminants, wasting energy and making a mess.

Both for quality concerns and your heating bill, make sure every door or window opens and closes as it should, and that all cracks or openings in windows have been sealed. Consider investing in adhesive foam weather stripping or a commercial-grade window insulator kit.

Insulation

While doors and windows are generally the biggest areas for heat loss in a given facility, they’re not the only areas of consideration. Any crack, tear, or hole in your facility’s walls presents an area that cold air can get in, mitigating the warm air you’re paying for and making your heaters work that much harder to compensate.

Good insulation is the key. Beyond a lower energy bill and a smaller environmental footprint, proper insulation will also limit the plant’s acoustic impact and make it more sustainable overall. Be sure to thoroughly inspect the entire plant for any potential problem areas, and have any gaps professionally sealed as quickly as possible.

Roofing

In addition to the walls around you, you’ll also need to ensure that the roof around you is free of any leaks or problem areas that might create complications due to cold weather. Roof leaks can be caused by any number of factors, and every leak presents huge potential for damage to the products, equipment, and people inside your plant.

For the best protection, have your business’s roof inspected twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring, by a licensed and certified roofing professional.

Heating System

After you’ve gone over the plant to ensure heat has no avenues of escape, it’s time to take a look at your heating system itself.

When inspecting your plant, inspect your heating system thoroughly to confirm that it is up to date and working as intended. This includes checking that all pipes are functioning correctly and are free of any leaks, ensuring that all traps are closing properly, and conducting routine inspections of the entire system throughout the year to keep it working at maximum efficiency.

Warm Weather

Doors and Windows

Just as doors and windows provide an entry point for cold air during winter, they can also be an entry point for warm air during summer. However, heat will also enter your facility in the form of sunlight, so in addition to proper insulation and sealant, energy-conscious managers need to find something that can keep out the sun.

Consider investing in window films, transparent, metalized sheets that can reflect much of the heat that would otherwise get trapped inside the facility. The lighter the color on the screen, the more light it will reflect, so look for whites, light blues, and other bright colors when making your decision.

You might also look into solar screens, which carry a higher price tag but are incredibly efficient, blocking as much as 70% of solar rays from entering your facility.

Cooling

While you can do a lot to keep heat from the sun out of your plant, ultimately you’ll have to invest in a cooling system to meet the temperature requirements that many of the processes at your plant require. Having the right cooling system in place can result in drastic savings on energy expenses, but it may need some help from you to get there.

As with your heating system, you’ll want to perform a thorough inspection to check that no part of your facility’s cooling system is broken, malfunctioning, or leaking. Consider automating where possible; for instance, you can make big gains simply by implementing a programmable thermostat to ensure that you don’t waste time cooling uninhabited areas of the plant.

For more information about how to keep things cool, take a look at our blog on how you can save on refrigeration and freezing costs throughout your plant.

Insulation

Your plant’s insulation needs shouldn’t only be a concern during the colder months. The same gaps in coverage that allow cold air in during winter also let in heat during the summer, so unless you want a significant portion of your budget spent cooling hot air that shouldn’t be there in the first place, proper insulation should always be a priority.

For more ways you can create a better, more efficient poultry production plant, check out our free informative guide, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance, and take your plant to new heights today!

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If you’re a poultry production plant manager and have found yourself in a similar situation, a potential solution exists in the form of a warehouse management system. What is a warehouse management system, and how can it help managers at their plants? Read on for more information.

What is a Warehouse Management System?

A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software-based system designed to help managers as they oversee the logistics and day-to-day operations of their facilities. As the name implies, warehouse management systems see heaviest use in the warehouses and distribution systems of the companies that employ them.

The Association of German Engineers defines a warehouse management system as, “…the management, control and optimization of storage and distribution using a software system (including storage and storage management, as well as the management and administration of the equipment), with extensive methods and means for checking the system conditions and with a selection of operational and optimization strategies. The task of a warehouse management system (WMS) is to manage and optimize in-house storage and transport systems.”

After installation, the WMS takes over the responsibility of controlling and optimizing all of the complex warehouse and distribution systems that keep the plant up and running. Managers can then monitor their facilities’ entire material flow all from one central display, boosting their productivity and allowing them to move from task to task more quickly.

However, while even the basic core functions like volume and stock management can be godsends to deadline-driven managers, the real strength of a warehouse management system comes from its more-complex processes. Subcontracting, shipping, and picking can also be streamlined through a WMS, simplifying processes that were once logistical nightmares.

How a Warehouse Management System Works

A properly-integrated warehouse management system will act as the central unit in the facility’s software structure. After receiving orders from the overlying host system, the WMS enters these orders into a database, organizes them, optimizes each process, and then sends each order to the appropriate conveyor system.

A modern WMS oversees all intralogistic processes going on throughout the plant, all the way from initial raw material delivery all the way to shipping the finished product. Every process is documented and catalogued so that managers can fix problems as quickly as they arise and gradually tweak their processes until peak efficiency is achieved.

WMS optimization allows poultry plants to operate closer to peak efficiency. With everything optimized, fewer products sit in storage, fewer resources are required to get a bird fully processed, and fewer personnel are needed to deliver finished goods to customers.

Four Key Ways Warehouse Management Saves Money

Better Productivity

According to a report published by Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Industrial Systems Engineering, distribution centers spend about 50% of their labor hours traveling between transactions, about 30% completing paperwork, and only about 20% of their time actually handling materials.

With a WMS, these wasted hours are a thing of the past. Task prioritization can drastically reduce employee travel time and paperwork, giving them more time to focus on the bottom line. A WMS can also be used to predict how many employees will be required to complete a given task, allowing managers to save on labor and allocate their human resources more effectively.

Fewer Mistakes

WMS incorporates scan confirmation, significantly cutting down on the types of careless mistakes that result in huge losses due to downtime or product recalls. Because it records every process that goes on throughout the plant, a WMS gives managers the ability to automate their filing system and reduce their paper use – or eliminate it entirely.

WMS means fewer mistakes get made, and fewer mistakes means more customers leave satisfied and confident to buy your product in the future.

Detailed Analysis

With detailed records of the past comes detailed analysis so that you can prepare for the future. Reporting tools display which areas of the plant are performing to standard, which ones are outperforming expectations, and which ones need immediate attention, allowing managers to react accordingly.

Among other benefits, detailed analysis takes a lot of the guesswork out of a manager’s job, especially in the realm of business development. If you’ve been considering expanding your operation or changing stocking practices, now you’ll have concrete data to help you decide the best next step.

Increased ROI

Of course, no other benefit matters in the long run if it doesn’t extend the bottom line. Fortunately, a well-implemented warehouse management system presents ample opportunities for managers to save money and increase their ROI as they streamline their plant’s processes.

Naturally, more productive employees making fewer mistakes results in better returns, while detailed metrics allow managers to tweak their processes to emphasize their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. The bigger the operation, the more pronounced the effect, and bigger plants with larger inventories will see huge cuts to travel time and other waste.

If you’re interested in getting a WMS for your plant and want to explore your options, search around for comparison sites for warehouse management system buyer’s guides.

And if you want to revitalize your poultry plant by implementing better, more efficient systems, you can learn more about how to do just that by downloading our free informative guide, How to Find Efficient Poultry Processing Equipment. Take your plant to the next level today!

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However, while we may often take it for granted in our personal lives, in an industrial setting, water is a cost consideration like any other. This is especially true for poultry production plants, given how much water is needed to take each bird from raw material to finished product.

According to the EPA, it takes about nine gallons of water to slaughter one bird, so plants running at high efficiency will quickly start to see their water bills add up. With both environmental conservation and your wallet in mind, here are three key strategies you can use to save water at your poultry production plant:

Performing a Water Audit

It’s practically impossible to cut down your water expenses if you can’t be certain precisely how much you’re using in a given month. However, as issues like population growth, economic development, and regional droughts continue to impact water consumption and availability, it becomes more and more important to know exactly where you stand.

As facility managers continue to face rising rates and water use restrictions, it pays to have a concrete idea of exactly how far you’ll be able to stretch your budget. This has risen to the increasingly common practice of getting a plant-wide water audit.

Water audit is specifically designed to measure and calculate exactly how much water each of your plant’s processes is using, whether it be for the poultry production process itself or for sanitation, maintenance, irrigation, or any other area. A proper water audit traces every drop of water that enters your plant all the way from first entry to eventual discharge into the sewer.

Beyond giving you solid numbers for exactly how much water your plant is using, a water audit will also help you identify any potential leaks and quantify how much previously-unaccountable water your plant is wasting. With this in hand, you’re free to build an effective water management plan for your entire plant.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

Once you know exactly what your budget entails, it’s time to start finding ways to push it further. Of course, no matter your budget, your water bill will always be smaller if you use less water, so one of the best next steps is to look into ways you can reduce the water that goes to waste at your plant and recycle as much leftover water as possible into other processes.

One of the more manageable steps toward water efficiency is simply to ensure that all water-carrying pipes and hoses throughout the plant are free of any leaks and carrying out any necessary repairs as breakages happen. Your water audit will help you in this area by outlining your current problem areas and helping you identify the leaks causing them.

In poultry plants, a lot of spillage tends to occur as birds enter the scalder and the blowers start up, so a simple solution might be to install bigger, deeper tank scalders to reduce the amount of water that splashes over. You can also try using less water in the scalder overall if your plant can manage it without sacrificing product quality.

Some overflow and dripping is inevitable, but smart managers can turn this waste back into usable water by adding drip pans to some of the plant’s most water-heavy equipment. While this is “red water,” meaning it has biological components in it and thus can’t be used for sanitation or any process that needs clean water, it can be reused for process such as the chiller.

Eliminating the Human Aspect

While a significant portion of the water your plant uses will go toward the birds you’re producing, don’t forget about the human aspect. Remember that the primary production of the plant isn’t the only place where water gets wasted. Pay particular attention to your plant’s secondary areas, like kitchens and bathrooms, which can really rack up water expenses.

One problem is that people make mistakes, simply forgetting to turn things off or leaving faucets running. By incorporating electronic faucets and automatic shutoff valves in kitchens and bathrooms, you can save 50-80% of the water currently being used in these areas. Touchless operation through motion sensors also means that fewer germs and pathogens are spread.

For even more information about how you can make the most out of your plant’s processes and build a strategy for success, download our free informative guide, How to Find Efficient Poultry Processing Equipment and take your plant to the next level today!

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While lighting is one of the many necessary expenses that come with running a poultry plant, that doesn’t mean it has to be an exorbitant one. With energy-savings in mind, here are four easy ways you as a manager can start reducing the money you spend on lighting at a poultry plant:

Keep Them Clean

Over time, lights at your facility will naturally accumulate dust and dirt. Since most factory floors are deep-cleaned every day, this may seem like a non-issue, but it gives way to another problem: bulb corrosion.

Unfortunately, in many plants, the chemicals used to clean equipment corrode the plastic covers surrounding the lights, irreparably degrading their quality over time.

Be aware of bulb corrosion, and regularly check and replace any corroded bulbs during scheduled cleaning. If possible, keep cleaning chemicals away from factory lights and instead shut them off, go over them thoroughly with a duster, scrub them thoroughly with soap and water, then dry with a microfiber cloth.

Choose the Right Bulbs

While keeping your existing bulbs clean can help conserve some power, if you want to see real savings, you may have to upgrade. According to the National Provisioner, many plants can cut their lighting costs by up to 30% simply be introducing a more energy-efficient lighting system.

Fluorescent bulbs present a great opportunity for savings. Beyond lasting longer than traditional bulbs, they also use about 75% less energy. They also bring indirect savings: fluorescent bulbs are actually brighter than traditional bulbs, so by incorporating a more efficient bulb, you’ll be able to achieve the same level of lighting at a fraction of the energy consumption.

Likewise, consider upgrading to light-emitting diode (LED) lighting. LEDs last about 10 times longer than compact fluorescent lights and a whopping 60 times longer than traditional incandescent lights. As with fluorescent bulbs, in combination with a strategic use of LED lighting can create a lighting situation that’s both longer-lasting and drastically cheaper.

Zoning

As the saying goes, why work harder when you can work smarter? One great way to push your lighting budget to its limits is by creating lighting zones throughout the facility.

Different tasks throughout the facility will require different levels of lighting to accomplish. High-traffic areas like the factory floor necessitate the need for bright lighting both to help workers do their jobs and to avoid accidents. But what about bathrooms, break rooms, kitchens, closets, and other secondary areas?

Don’t waste money by covering every inch of the facility in bright light. Organize areas and rooms within the plant so that areas with similar lighting demands are grouped together. In addition to the saved energy, with some strategic bulb placement, you can use one bulb to help illuminate several rooms within a zone at once.

Turn It Off

It goes without saying that the less time your lights are on, the lower your power bill will be. However, while it sounds like obvious advice, managers can see big cost savings over time simply by making a conscious effort to monitor the facility and ensure all lights are off in any areas of the plant that aren’t in use.

One way many plants are saving on lighting is by installing industrial skylights. In combination with LED bulbs, skylights are a great tool that can supplement artificial lighting with free sunlight. As an added bonus, a number of studies have shown that exposure to natural lighting improves workplace performance, meaning that skylights both save money and improve morale.

Of course, your lights can’t be off all the time, and plants that operate overnight have no choice but to rely solely on artificial lighting. However, by creating an “economy” mode for nighttime when the plant is generally less-populated, you can still squeeze out some savings.

By installing motion-detectors or automatic-cutoff timers in some rooms, you can partially automate this process.

Interested in learning more about how to find great equipment and use it efficiently to take your poultry plant to new heights? Download our free informative guide, How to Find Efficient Poultry Processing Equipment, and start improving your plant today!

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Luckily, while you’ll never be able to eliminate your refrigeration and freezing costs entirely, there are a number of small steps you can take to make the most efficiency out of your plant’s refrigerators and freezers. Over time, taking these small steps can result in drastically-reduced energy costs over time.

Here are some great ways you can start cutting freezing and refrigeration costs at your poultry production plant:

Audits & Budgeting

The first step toward energy savings is to first find out how much energy you’re using in the first place. People don’t often think of air as a resource to be bought and sold, but in the realm of food production, maintaining a cool air flow is absolutely a price consideration and the amount you buy will be directly reflected by the energy bill at the end of the month.

By creating a refrigeration budget for your plant, you’ll be able to get an objective look at exactly how much you’re spending to keep things cool.

An essential step toward creating an accurate and effective refrigeration budget is to get an energy audit done on your plant. An audit will give you concrete numbers on how much energy you are using overall, as well as the breakdown of how much is being used by each individual process throughout the plant.

With the audit results, you’ll be able to get a bird’s-eye view of your plant’s energy expenditures so that you can identify problem areas and start looking at solutions. Now that you have concrete numbers on your current expenses, it’s time to start finding ways to save.

Location, Location, Location

One of the best ways to save money on cooling is by placing all of your refrigerators and freezers in the same general location.

As effective as it may be, no refrigerator is 100% efficient. Naturally, some cool air will escape every time the door is opened, but the problem is magnified as the refrigerator’s insulation naturally degrades over time, leaving you spending thousands on cool air that doesn’t actually keep the products inside the refrigerator cold.

One great workaround is simply to put all of your plant’s refrigeration equipment in one central area surrounded by insulating curtains or other heat-capturing devices. This way, whatever cold air does escape from a refrigeration unit can still be used to help keep cold air circulating in the general area instead of going to waste.

Note: while it pays to keep all your cooling units in the same general area, don’t place them too close together. Otherwise, you risk restricting the airflow and inadvertently building heat between units. Keep each unit a few inches apart to make their jobs as easy as possible.

Temperature

For maximum refrigeration efficiency, maintaining the perfect temperature and humidity level is essential. At a certain point, setting the temperature too low can drastically increase your energy costs while providing little noticeable benefit, effectively wasting your money.

For the best results, keep refrigerators at 37-40°F and freezers at 0-5°, which will preserve any food products stored inside safe at a reasonable cost.

Humidity

Humidity can be a big snag for refrigeration units because it forces the compressors to work twice as hard to achieve the same amount of cool air. If you want to keep things cold for less, you’ll also need to keep them dry.

Desiccant dehumidifiers offer an elegant solution to this problem. These dehumidifiers work by utilizing chemical attraction instead of condensation to remove water from the air. In addition to producing the lowest vapor pressure of any type of dehumidifier, desiccant are also relatively cheap to operate, costing you less to operate than leaving the condensation to the refrigerator.

Looking for more great tips and strategies to take your poultry production plant to the next level? Check out our free informative guide, How to Find Efficient Poultry Processing Equipment, and take your plant to the next level of efficiency today!

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While a great maintenance team can be instrumental in decreasing plant downtime and increasing overall productivity, there are a number of steps managers can take to keep their plants running longer and more effectively. Most of these steps are not mutually exclusive, and combining them effectively will allow you to identify any issues, create a plan of action, and implement it quickly.

Motivate Your Maintenance Team

Maintenance can be a tough job. Oftentimes, the production team gets the credit when things go right, while the maintenance team takes the blame for anything that goes wrong. This can lead to low morale and, consequently, an unmotivated and apathetic maintenance team.

Keeping maintenance team morale and motivation high can go a long way in keeping your plant moving at maximum efficiency. Having motivated maintenance workers that take pride and ownership in their work, and who are rewarded for their efforts, will go the extra mile to keep problems from happening. Before you take care of your equipment, take care of your team.

Remember that motivation can take many forms, and that it’s your responsibility as a manager to instill a sense of purpose in your team. Start by setting realistic and obtainable goals, giving individual praise for good work, offering bonuses for reaching certain goals, and using any other methods you can think of to incentivize, rather than punish, each member of your maintenance team.

Keeping morality high is a challenge for any manager, but those that can inspire their maintenance workers to give 100% will see better, more productive plants in the long run than any new machine or equipment can provide.

Track And Categorize Downtime

Be aware of where in the production process your plant is experiencing downtime. Once you’ve identified problem areas where your plant could be more productive, you may realize that what appears to be a big problem has a simple fix.

Even if there are several difficult steps to decrease downtime in a specific area, knowing how to quickly identify and localize an issue is the a key step in keeping the process of fixing it manageable.

Once you have identified your plant’s key areas of downtime, categorize your downtime issues by the cause. In addition to keeping things more manageable for the maintenance team, categorizing issues that arise can both help you uncover some larger issues within production as well as implement plant-wide fixes that can potentially alleviate multiple problems simultaneously.

Keep Your Maintenance Team On A Schedule

Even the smallest issue, such as dirt in the grooves of a machine, can cause a costly breakdown. With so much at stake, having strictly-scheduled regular maintenance is a necessity.

Give your maintenance team a schedule that breaks down specific tasks and timelines of the general maintenance procedures needed to keep your equipment moving. Be sure to assign specific team members to specific tasks to avoid any “I thought someone else was going to do it” situations.

A scheduled general maintenance routine can also give you the benefit of identifying potential problems before they start. After all, it is much easier to predict a problem when your maintenance team is familiar with your equipment and regularly working with it.

Encourage Communication

Open communication across teams can make it easier for downtime to be quickly identified and fixed.

Encourage your operations team to talk directly to your operations team about any malfunctions or potential problems the equipment may be facing. With proper two-way communication in place, the essential messages get to the problem-solvers and nothing is lost in translation between the two teams.

Open communication between maintenance and management should be encouraged as well. When something goes wrong, managers and maintenance should feel comfortable to discuss the problem and decide the best course of action. Keep the maintenance team involved in the decision process will also make them feel valued and encourage their active involvement.

Conduct Regular Employee Evaluations

If you believe that most of your downtime stems from your employees, conducting regular employee evaluations can identify those who are using improper procedures, falling behind, or not using their time efficiently.

One effective method of evaluating employees is a 360° Performance Evaluation. This method of evaluation requires every person or department that the employee interacts with to submit reviews on their performance, including management, operations, and other maintenance workers.

The 360° Performance Evaluation can be effective for decreasing downtime in maintenance because it can bring up issues that management would not normally see. Having workers from other departments comment on what they see can give management a better, fuller of each employee’s capabilities, what they bring to the plant, their strengths, and what needs improvement.

The maintenance team keeps poultry plants up and running, and the best maintenance workers need the right training, motivation, and oversight from management to reach their full potential. For more information about training your workers can lead to better yields and more efficient processes, download our free Ebook, Why and How to Cross-Train in Maintenance.

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