In April 2003 Hønseslakt AS installed the first poultry deboning flowline in Europe at its facility in Nærbø, Norway.
Off The Bone
Production increases as individual performance improves with new deboning flowline
In April 2003 Hønseslakt AS installed the first poultry deboning flowline in Europe at its facility in Nærbø, Norway. The plant processes over 1 million hens a year with 50 employees. Both slaughtering and processing take place at the plant.
The line simply sold itself
As layer hen bones are brittle, the bird needs manual deboning and Hønseslakt AS wanted a deboning flowline that would maintain quality while increasing productivity and yields. In 2002 the company started looking into deboning lines and spoke with several equipment manufacturers for that purpose. After looking into the Marel flowline technology the managers at Hönseslagt visited poultry companies in the US to see the Marel equipment in operation. “Needless to say the line simply sold itself,” says Erling Olason, Production Manager at Hønseslakt AS. “We looked at flowline set-ups in several places in the US and came away not only impressed but determined to go with Marel on this big changeover for us.”
No more lugging and lifting
The line was installed and up and running in less than a week. The change was immense as the employees moved from static manual deboning that involved lifting and carrying heavy boxes onto a single deboning table to automatic flowline technology where each worker has an individual, ergonomically designed workstation. Gone is the lugging and lifting of boxes and instead the chicken in automatically delivered to each worker who then debones it. The meat is put into separate chutes and conveyed to a discharge that separates product into different categories.
Performance improves
“The change in working methods was welcomed by the deboners,” says Perdy Frøyland, line leader who has worked with the line from the beginning. “We have eliminated all the heavy lifting and can now concentrate on the cutting. This has been a tremendous relief as our work conditions have improved dramatically with the adjustable workstations. Individual performance has improved as a result.”
Production increases 30%
Not only does the line make a difference to the cutters but the management has also seen an impressive increase in productivity. “We saw an immediate increase in productivity and the numbers have exceeded the managements’ expectations with a steady 30% increase in production with the same number of people,” says Olason. “I had seen the same thing happening in fish processing in Iceland when the flowline technology was introduced there. At that time, back in the early nineties, fish processors saw an average increase in productivity in the range of 25 – 30%. I knew we would be looking at similar numbers here and am very happy that my expectations have been met.”