In food manufacturing, the staff are the most important resource in the production process. This is equally true of home and small-scale industrial processing operations, in spite of the fact that they are essentially self-managed.
When speaking of home processing, it is immediately assumed that none of the staff are hired on the basis of regular employment conditions. The situation thus must be analyzed from a different perspective than that normally adopted for an activity of this kind.
The purpose of these considerations is to stress that even in home or small-scale industrial processing operations, or in the case of a small group of people, there is a value that must be duly assessed, namely the labour involved in the process. It should be borne in mind that even in the case of small businesses, there may be the traditional division between temporary and permanent staff. The permanent staff will undoubtedly comprise the entrepreneurs, those who are financially responsible and have set up the small or very small firm. The temporary staff will comprise workers hired on a provisional basis, as a result of a seasonal surplus of raw material, who will come to be part of a process that does not involve them financially or emotionally.
The permanent staff are responsible for the business, and have the greatest interest in the production activity. They are usually involved in the enterprise on both an emotional and financial level. In this type of firm, the permanent staff generally include the owners, those who conceived the idea of setting up the business, the developers, the sales people and the innovators. It is extremely important for this staff to receive training in the area of management as well as technology, although emphasis should be placed on management.
The training of temporary workers should especially focus on technology, it should be demonstrated to them how important it is to do things right from the beginning. It should be borne in mind that in a home or small-scale industrial processing system, the incidence of labour is of vital importance in the enterprise's financial position.
