Case – Shiny Hill Farms
Shiny Hill Farms is a major meat processor, specializing in smoked meats, sausages, and luncheon meats. The firm’s largest facility slaughters more than 5,000 hogs each day.
Throughout the food industry, quality is a high priority, and Shiny Hill Farms is no exception.
The quality assurance department (QA) seeks to prevent any defective products from reaching the consumer. QA’s primary concern is for controlling product weight, appearance, and shelf life throughout the manufacturing operations. Production operators are held accountable for their cuts on specific meat products. The cuts must be performed according to quality assurance specifications in order to obtain high yields. (Yield is the percentage of the live weight of the hog that can be sold.)
Quality assurance monitors all operations, from the killing of hogs through packaging. QA
personnel inspect incoming animals, work with USDA inspectors, and monitor cooking
temperatures. They check scales daily to ensure they are providing correct weights. If products fall outside specifications, it is the responsibility of QA personnel to notify operators that changes need to be made to bring quality up to standard. Many QA personnel monitor weights of packaged boxes continuously to ensure that they conform to weight specifications. They open boxes and weigh the packages as well as checking them for defects such as rips, leaks, and pinholes. Weights of packages near the bottom, mid and top of each skid (pallet) are inspected.
If these packages conform to weight specifications, then the entire skid is accepted and sent to the warehouse. If not, the skid is tagged for 100 percent in on, and the process is studied to
determine why the variations occurred. QA personnel analyze graphs of yields and packaging
waste weekly. Other functions throughout the company focus on quality. The sanitation department, for example, sanitizes all manufacturing machines and work surfaces before initial production runs each day. The research and development department plays an important role in improving quality. For example, it is continually seeking out and testing new methods of curing meat and of killing bacteria more effectively and efficiently. R