Blends Meat Stick Length Optimization

Abstract

Deli meat production is a continuous process which has more than one hundred variables that can affect the product. Through the implementation of Lean Six Sigma’s Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control methodology, helped understand the interaction of variables to optimize the length of blends deli meat stick and reduce meat rework. Particularly, the data collected benefit from the use of statistical process control tools to identify variation in the stuffing production line and predict the performance of the slice production line. As a metric of success, the results display how the slice production line improve the process capability index from 1.13 to the global baseline of 1.33 using three factors: temperature, time, and length in the stuffing production area. Finally, a new factor, “the position of the slide blade”, that can be evaluated to gain more efficiency in the slice production lines was introduced, Key Terms ⎯ deli meat slice production line, deli meat stick length, Lean Six Sigma methodology, process capability index.