Independant Consultants to the Meat Processing Industries

Coping with Highly Fluctuating Demand - Iceland Case Study

Every year the abattoirs in Iceland must process 500,000 sheep in just 3 months. During the rest of the year no live animals are processed.

Since 2002 the Icelandic abattoirs have been relying on Lee Booth Partners to ensure that they are ready to satisfy this demand. The plant, machinery, processes and people must all be 100% operational. They need to get up to full capacity delivering the quality and consistency of product required for optimum sale price whilst maintaining high product and personal safety throughout this intensive period.
Lee Booth Partners help the abattoirs achieve this through a range of activities. This usually starts with an equipment survey and readiness review report being produced. This highlights any potential changes and categorises them under the headings of essential, highly beneficial and nice to have. Once the facilities are in order the staffing is then addressed. Lee Booth Partners supplies some key core operatives but more importantly ensures that all staff are trained to deliver the product quality in the quantities required whilst maintaining the essential safety criteria.
This straight forward approach has delivered exceptional results in reducing damage and contamination rates from as high as 23% before the readiness review to as little as 3% after the new procedures have been introduced.

This incredibly low rate is then maintainable with the production changes for the duration of the processing activities.

The results for the Icelandic abattoirs has not just been more efficient and effective meat processing but an improved product quality. With less carcass damage and improved hygiene standards the benefits to the abattoirs are longer product shelf life and better skin quality. This has led to the abattoirs having reduced assistance from regulatory bodies and a better end product. This enables them to sell their products easier and maximise the return on investment.
Abattoir Modernisation - Greenland Case Study

After many years of man intensive meat processing operations Neqi A/S of Greenland decided that they needed to modernise their abattoir. To understand the current technology options and how they could be used in their particular facility they contacted Lee Booth Partners.

The first activity undertaken was for Lee Booth himself to visit the abattoir in Greenland and conduct a complete professional assessment of their current operations. Observations of the meat processing, informal discussions with the operatives and detailed measurements all formed part of a formal requirements capture process that fully involved the abattoir's management team.
It would have been easy at that stages to install a few machines and Neqi A/S would have seen a marked improvement in productivity and quality. But in consultation with the management team it was decided to investigate a step change at the abattoir.

Lee Booth Partners then pulled together a team of specialists to specifically address the Neqi A/S requirements. They then looked at every aspect of the abattoir from the initial livestock handling, abattoir design/layout, slaughter line operations, by-product/waste removal and the entire infrastructure required to support abattoir from basic utilities to heating and incineration.
By breaking down the requirements of Neqi A/S into these separate elements they were able to optimise the abattoir design to come up with the most cost effective solution to efficiently satisfy the requirements of the customer.

Once completed the detailed design, plans and programme schedule were taken back to the customer where Lee Booth personally took the management team through the proposed solution. The management team at Neqi A/S were amazed at the detailed nature of the proposal and extremely happy with the price which worked out not much more than to ship and install a few new machines.
On confirmation of the instruction to proceed Lee Booth Partners fully managed the complete project. The project plans identified all of the long lead time items which were ordered and came together with the line manufacture for factory testing. Lee Booth Partners performed all of the testing in accordance with the formal test schedules agreed with the customer. The complete line and ancillary equipment was then shipped to site. Lee Booth Partners then worked in conjunction with the Neqi A/S management team to install the new system and set it to work. Once fully operational the final task was to train the operatives in the use of the new line. Particular attention was made to train the staff on how to ensure the inverted sheep dressing system worked to ensure the highest product quality was achieved.

Once the whole, fully modernised, meat processing capability was in place the final acceptance and formal handover of the facility was performed. On completion Neqi A/S Managing Director commented on what a fantastic service Lee Booth Partners had provided. The abattoir had been able to maximise its capital investment and had a facility that would provide high quality and highly productive meat processing for the next 20 years. By taking a complete capability approach Lee Booth Partners has transformed meat processing in the abattoir and I would recommend them to anyone wishing to modernise their abattoir facilities?.
New Build Abattoir - UK Case Study

In today's UK meat processing climate the decision to build a new abattoir must be based on sound business advice. It is no good finding out after construction that the facility will not process enough livestock to be profitable. Neither is it any good on completion to find out that it does not satisfy current or soon to be introduced legislation. For this reason the owners of Laverstoke Park abattoir employed the services of Lee Booth Partners at the preliminary stage of the project.
In today's UK meat processing climate the decision to build a new abattoir must be based on sound business advice. It is no good finding out after construction that the facility will not process enough livestock to be profitable. Neither is it any good on completion to find out that it does not satisfy current or soon to be introduced legislation. For this reason the owners of Laverstoke Park abattoir employed the services of Lee Booth Partners at the preliminary stage of the project.
The first activity undertaken by Lee Booth Partners was to review the business plan. From this the specialists were able to identify the scale of the operations being undertaken and the proposed capital expenditure. The team then pulled together figures for the capacity planning forecasts including the costs of operating the facility, staffing requirement, by-product/waste disposal and the forecasted income generated from the final meat products. This provided the forecasted capacity of livestock that would be required to be processed to satisfy the proposed Return on Investment.
The Lee Booth Partners team then took the Laverstock Park owners through the complete breakdown of figures covering all aspects of the meat processing. A number of recommendations were made at these stages to ensure the owners maximised the earning potential of the abattoir and maintained options for future changes depending on the developing economic climate. Using the sophisticated models the Laverstoke Park owners were able to optimise their business planning to ensure new abattoir delivered a long-term viable business opportunity.

Having agreed the new abattoirs forecast capacity Lee Booth Partners quickly turned this into a fully design abattoir to cope with the numbers of livestock agreed. By bringing together a team of subject matter experts the process of design is fast but also it is extremely effective. No aspect of the operation is left out but most importantly it is specifically designed in. Lee Booth Partners has a policy of never leaving an aspect of the project to be agreed later. The issues are always worked through before the final design review. Therefore the final detailed design covered the complete meat processing operation for Laverstock Park.

At this point Lee Booth himself returned to the Laverstock Park owners to take them through the completed detailed design, plans and programme schedule. Using the forecast capacity Lee explained the complete overall abattoir design from livestock handling, slaughter line operation, by-product/waste disposal through to the refrigeration control systems. As well as the floor plan layout all of the utility requirements were specified along with the equipment quotations covering all aspects of setting the abattoir to work. Nothing is left out at this stage so the owners had a complete breakdown from line/equipment costs to the cost of consumables and operator training.

On receipt of the instruction to proceed the Lee Booth Partners team immediately initiated the programme schedule. The long lead time items were ordered and the process of line construction initiated. Lee Booth Partners then monitored progress to the schedule to ensure that the completion dates agreed were met.

As well as bring together all of the physical abattoir equipment Lee Booth Partners needed to satisfy all of the legislative requirements for the Laverstock Park abattoir. This started off with the Planning Permission submission but also goes onto the provision of documenting the meat processing stages through detailed procedures and work instructions for the operators. The culmination of this activity is the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) which is required in order to become a licensed premise.

To ensure no problems occurred during the abattoir construction Lee Booth Partners review each stage of the process prior to the next stage being initiated. Any outstanding work that is carried forwards is recorded to ensure it does not affect the final stages.