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Bus 5910 Discussion Assignment Unit 5-10

Beothic Fish Processors Ltd. is a fish processing company in Newfoundland that specializes in pelagic fish like capelin. There are issues with the capelin processing facility including a crowded workspace, fish loss in the infeed system, and weighing and packaging areas that are far from freezing. To resolve these problems and improve production, a DMAIC quality management process should be implemented, which would involve redesigning the facility layout, automating processes, and adding conveyor systems to streamline the flow from infeed to freezing.

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53 views3 pages

Bus 5910 Discussion Assignment Unit 5-10

Beothic Fish Processors Ltd. is a fish processing company in Newfoundland that specializes in pelagic fish like capelin. There are issues with the capelin processing facility including a crowded workspace, fish loss in the infeed system, and weighing and packaging areas that are far from freezing. To resolve these problems and improve production, a DMAIC quality management process should be implemented, which would involve redesigning the facility layout, automating processes, and adding conveyor systems to streamline the flow from infeed to freezing.

Uploaded by

Sheu Basharu
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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In this case study we find a fish processing company called Beothic Fish Processors Ltd.

(Beothic)
situated in Newfoundland and specialized in the large scale processing of pelagic fish species.
(King & Stapleton, 1993) Their most profitable species is capelin and in the following I will
shortly resume the problems and causes in the processing facility before I get deeper into
possible alternatives and a specific plan of action in order to resolve the problem and create a
smoother and more performant production process.
In the case study there were already four areas mentioned which are particularly problematic.
But before we go into the detail it is important to note that the fishing season for capelin is
extremely short and consists of only three weeks a year where the fish has to be processed.
Therefore we need to identify possible bottlenecks in the production chain and automated as
many elements as possible in order to guarantee the best overall performance.
The space issues like a crowded production area and many steps for the overall processing.
The infeed system showing loss via the surveyor.
A weighing system which is far from the previous blast freezing zone and not inline with the
packaging tables.
Long distribution tables bringing up the need to push the capelin manually to the other end
after processing.

This non closing list of problems in the processing area brings us to the causes. The whole
production cycles consists of processes which have to work depending on each other, but also
be fluent and resilient against risks and errors.
The space issue could be resolved with a better and more efficient organization of the
processing steps, but also a higher level of automation to reduce the total amount of workers
need at the same time at the distribution tables.
The infeed system seems to far away and this enhances the chance of the fish to fall of the
surveyor line. Also the weighing system should be closer to the freezers and at best between
those and the following process of packaging to reduce the time and distance for transport and
even transport associated risks with the forklifter.

The alternatives are either small adaptations in each zone like the already mentioned parts of
a closer situated infeed system, a dislocated weighing system or an additional conveyor belt for
the distribution tables, but in general this setup and performance issue can only effectively be
solved with the right process and quality management in place.

The plan-do-study-act cycle (PDSA) is a first approach, but the six sigma DMAIC model often
more used and shall be the concept for the plan of action in case of Beothic. (Knowles, 2011)
The DMAIC cycle starts with a definition stage where the project is defined, clarified and
oriented at the strategic outline and the general process framework in place has to be assessed.
This part is mostly done by Beothic and they underlined that capelin has the highest probability
and should be treated with the highest importance and there also the processes adapted to the
capelin production. A general overview about weak spots has been created as well and the
performance shall be increased as a major outcome.
But already at this point and certainly while entering the measure stage we find that key
parameters aren’t defined yet and only the overall throughput of the production line is probably
be measured at the moment. In order to understand the bottle necks it will be necessary to run
regularly time measurements for a fish entering the process and then broken down for each part
of the production. With these we can define specifications of how the process should run and
also use process capability analysis to adapt to current changes. (Knowles, 2011)
In the analysis stage we should clarify the key value steps for the customer and we saw that
Beothic hasn’t always been able to process capelin. Only from 1979 when they had the
necessary equipment with high performance freezing.
Very important for the customer is of course a fresh and high quality product which brings
the focus also to the freezing and the distribution line. Every process should therefore be
optimize to bring the fish as fast as possible at first to the distribution table and then directly to
the freezers. Once the fish is frozen there is time to weight and package it as long as it doesn’t
block or jam the freezers.
With this in mind we need a new plan for the production facility moving the infeed hopper
closer to the Petco separator. The distribution tables should have enough space around them
and a new automatic conveyor band to transport processed fish directly into boxes and them
automated into the freezer. At the end of the freezers needs to be the weighing system which
free space close to the distribution tables and reduce the way to the packing tables.
In general a global conveyor line could be imaginable.

In conclusion we see how important operations management is also for an effective financial
management and that this can have a crucial impact on the overall profitability of a business.
In the case of Beothic it would need the adoption of a DMAIC model to implement this process
and quality management permanently into their business activity and avoid bottlenecks in their
time sensitive production line.

References:

King, W. & Stapleton, D. (1993). Improving production at bioethic fish processors, Ltd. Acadia
Institute for Case Studies. Acadia University. Retrieved
from https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1600690/mod_book/chapter/359498/
U5%20beothic_fish.pdf

Knowles, G. (2011). Quality management. (Bookboon.com.) Retrieved


from https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1600690/mod_book/chapter/359498/quality-
management.pdf?time=1633550137762
Knowles, G. (2011). Six sigma. (Bookboon.com.) Retrieved
from https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1600690/mod_book/chapter/359498/six-
sigma.pdf?time=1633550176627

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