Challenge:Chicken size/variation is among the top 3 yearly complaints from consumers. A portion of these consumers will not buy product in the future. The amount of waste from the meat dicing operation averages .48% of sales.

Outcome: The percent of small pieces less than one inch decreased from an average of 14.5% to less than 4.2%- an overall reduction of 71%! Consumer complaints dropped dramatically

The Process
The Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) project model was followed. First, a project charter with mission, business case and timelines was created. Top management approved the charter and a team was formed.

Define Phase: The existing conditions were analyzed, documented and understood.

Measure Phase: The Design of Experiment (DOE) tool was selected as the best method to solve this problem due to the number of factors and interaction effects of the different machine settings. An experiment was set up with different settings and data was collected. The output response was the percent of small pieces less than 1".

Analyze Phase: After all the runs were complete (16) and data collected, Minitab Software was used to analyze the results. The software predicted that by optimizing the various factor settings, a 67% improvement would be realized.

Improve Phase: The machines were set to the optimum settings as determined by the software and a confirmation run was conducted and the predicted improvement was verified.

Control Phase: The machine was set to the new settings and over 71% improvement was realized. A control plan to ensure the new settings would be sustained was also put in place.

The Results: The percent of small pieces less than 1" was dramatically reduced. Most pieces were large enough to be sold resulting in virtually no waste from the cutting process. The consumer complaints also dropped dramatically.