The throughput of the plant, the kind of equipment installed, the organization of work, the efficiency of its execution and, finally, the discipline of the staff are factors affecting the amount of labour required for packaging liquid milk. An attempt has been made to choose uniform levels of organization and efficiency in order to arrive at comparable data. Those chosen are not necessarily the most effective as allowance has been made to take account of the difficulties in obtaining the required skills at both managerial and professional levels in developing countries. On the other hand overmanning caused by general unemployment in an area has been excluded.
Table 11 shows the incidence of labour requirements for liquid milk packaging which, for this purpose, is divided into seven sections.
Table 11 Incidence of labour requirements for packaging
Returnable containers | Single-Service Containers | Bulk Vending Machines | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Glass Bottles | Cans | Cartons | Plastic Sachets | ||||
Pasteur. | Steriliz. | Pasteur. | Pasteur. | UHT | Pasteur. | ||
1. Special Heat Treatment | 0 | + | 0 | 0 | + | 0 | 0 |
2. Unloading of empties | + | + | + | + | 0 | + | 0 |
3. Decrating/washing of empties | + | + | + | + | 0 | + | 0 |
4. Filling | + | + | + | + | + | + | 0 |
5. Crating/wrapping of filled containers | + | + | 0 | + | + | + | 0 |
6. Product store operations | + | + | + | + | + | + | 0 |
7. Product dispatch | + | + | + | + | + | + | + |
0 - not applicable
+ - applicable
Note Operation 2 and 3 for pasteurized milk in cartons and sachets apply only to crates
Table 12 shows the total labour requirements expressed in man-hours per day and the specific labour requirements in man-hours per 1 000 litres. The figures have been calculated with the following assumptions:
The number of shifts in any section depends basically on the operation time of the packaging machines and the timing of transport.
Except for some lower capacities, the majority of plants have a nominal operation time (tf) for the packaging machines longer than five hours, i.e. a total working time longer than eight hours. Whenever tf was longer than five, the full two-shift (16 hours) working time of this and of the dependent sections has been calculated.
The number of posts is considered as the decisive factor in calculating the labour. Even in instances where only part-time employment was required for a post, a full shift (shifts) labour requirement has been calculated.
For loading and unloading, the labour requirements shown exclude loading/unloading work on the platforms of the transport vehicles (see Chapter 6).
In cases where the same staff operates in two sections (as is the case for some systems with crating/wrapping of filled containers and adjacent store operations), the required labour was attributed in total to one section.
The labour requirements shown in Table 12 appear rather high compared with what is achieved in milk plants in countries having a long tradition in industrialized dairying, but in developing countries many milk plants may find the figures low. However, they have been estimated as a compromise which, it is believed, affects uniformly the various milk packaging and distribution systems considered, thus permitting valid comparisons. The comparisons of specific labour requirements are presented graphically in Fig. 45.
Table 12 Direct labour requirement - man-hours
RETURNABLE CONTAINERS | GLASS BOTTLES - 1/2 LITRE | MILK CANS - 40 LITRES | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pasteurized | Sterilized | Pasteurized | |||||||||||||
Plant throughput 000 1/day | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 250 |
Special heat treatment | - | - | - | - | - | 16 | 32 | 48 | 48 | 96 | - | - | - | - | - |
Unloading of empties | 16 | 24 | 80 | 128 | 192 | 32 | 48 | 80 | 128 | 192 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 64 |
Decrating, washing of empties | 32 | 48 | 96 | 192 | 96 | 32 | 48 | 96 | 192 | 96 | 32 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 96 |
Filling | 16 | 48 | 32 | 64 | 64 | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 96 | 16 | 32 | 48 | 48 | 96 |
Crating | 16 | 48 | 32 | 64 | 64 | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 96 | - | - | - | - | - |
Product store operations | 32 | 48 | 80 | 128 | 256 | 32 | 48 | 80 | 128 | 256 | 8 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 32 |
Product dispatch | 32 | 48 | 64 | 128 | 320 | 32 | 32 | 64 | 128 | 320 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 64 | 128 |
Total man-hours per day | 144 | 264 | 384 | 604 | 992 | 176 | 272 | 416 | 752 | 1152 | 88 | 120 | 160 | 240 | 416 |
Specific requirement man-hours/1000 1 | 14.4 | 10.6 | 7.7 | 6.0 | 4.0 | 17.6 | 10.7 | 8.3 | 7.5 | 4.6 | 8.8 | 4.8 | 3.2 | 2.4 | 1.7 |
SINGLE-SERVICE CONTAINERS | CARTONS -1/2 LITRE | PLASTIC SACHETS - 1/2 LITRE | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pasteurized in returnable crates | UHT-aseptic in non-returnable wraps | Pasteurized in returnable crates | |||||||||||||
10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 250 | |
Special heat treatment | - | - | - | - | - | 16 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | - | - | - | - | - |
Unloading of empties | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 128 | - | - | - | - | - | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 128 |
Decrating, washing of empties | 16 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 64 | - | - | - | - | - | 16 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 64 |
Filling | 8 | 32 | 48 | 96 | 224 | 8 | 32 | 48 | 96 | 224 | 8 | 32 | 48 | 96 | 224 |
Crating, wrapping of filled containers | 8 | 32 | 48 | 96 | 224 | 48 | 96 | 160 | 288 | 656 | 8 | 32 | 48 | 96 | 224 |
Product store operations | 16 | 32 | 64 | 128 | 240 | 16 | 32 | 64 | 128 | 240 | |||||
Product dispatch | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 128 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 48 | 80 | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 128 |
Total man-hours per day | 80 | 192 | 288 | 480 | 1008 | 88 | 184 | 272 | 464 | 992 | 80 | 192 | 288 | 480 | 1008 |
Specific requirement man - hours/1000 1 | 8.0 | 7.7 | 5.7 | 4.8 | 4.0 | 8.8 | 7.2 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 4.0 | 8.0 | 7.7 | 5.7 | 4.8 | 4.0 |
SALES THROUGH VENDING MACHINES
Product dispatch | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 120 |
Total man-hours per day | 16 | 32 | 48 | 0.6 | 120 |
Specific requirement man - hours/1000 1 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
Fig. 45 Specific labour requirements