In 2024, China was the largest producer of pork globally, accounting for 48.4% of production with 55.9 million metric tons.* We’ll look at discussions of Lean and Six Sigma in swine production and finish with a video of a breeding farm.
Managing Swine Production Processes
In a report titled “Managing complex processes in agricultural production” the UK Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) looks at factors affecting swine gilt* and weaner weights.
*Note: A gilt is a female that has not reproduced.
The report mentions the increased use of continuous improvement tools.
“Increasingly, we are seeing elements of ‘process control’, be that officially Lean management or Six
Sigma, creep into common practice on our pig units. This can be simple methods such as standard
ways of working, checklists or visual controls that mark which equipment and personnel should
enter which buildings for biosecurity.”
The report includes the details of Total Productive Maintenance.
Lean concept called total productive maintenance (TPM), in which the ‘machinery’ of any process is maintained as part of the typical routine, not as an additional task.
The report includes:
- Factors Affecting Sow and Gilt Retention
- Factors Affecting Average Weaner Weight
“In the introduction, mention was made of Lean management and Six Sigma. Lean in particular aims
to maximise the value in production through process control and minimisation of ‘waste’, i.e.
increase the KPIs, such as % retention in gilts and weaner weights, while minimising those animals
that fail to meet these standards. It is built around a cycle of plan, do, check and act (PDCA), which
leads production teams through a cyclical journey of embedding change to thoroughly reviewed
processes and checking that they are making significant differences. In simple terms, Lean is often
referred to as continuous improvement as this is the ultimate goal”
In conclusion, the AHDB said they will “… fund a Lean management coach to support the business in reviewing either gilt or weaner management and as the business identifies changes they wish to make, the Lean coach will help embed these changes as part of the usual routine.”
You can read the report here
Reducing Pig Production Costs Through Lean and Six Sigma
In pages 1 – 12 in a technical report titled “Precision Production” authors Ben Williams and others address the challenge of reducing pig production costs across the European Union. According to the authors “there is a need for management methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma in agriculture in general to provide a template or road map as to how farmers can achieve a system of marginal gains.
As part of the report, the authors conducted the European Union Pig Best Practice Evaluation.
“In order to identify the top five best practices for ‘reducing costs’ a series of criteria aiming at
measuring the effectiveness of the collected practices to match the specific challenge were
defined”
For the challenge of reducing costs, there were 23 entries across 8 countries with a heavy bias
towards countries from Western and Northern Europe.
The top program chosen was “5S Lean Programme to Improve Work Efficiency” from Teagasc in Ireland.
After describing the winning program, the report briefly covers the other top programs.
In conclusion the authors state:
“From the entries to the challenges and across the top 5, there is increasing evidence that
management techniques such as Lean management and Six Sigma, not only are applicable
on pig farms, but also have significant potential to increase efficiency.”
You access the report here
Data and the Management of People in Swine Production
In a paper titled “Management of People in Swine Production; What Data Says” authors Carlos Piñeiro and Dámaso Alonso discuss the use of data in swine production.
“Farms’ operations must be performed every day more with a higher degree of accuracy to ensure expected results. Generating the expected number of pigs of a certain quality is a consequence of a good number of ordered actions adequately performed. Most of those tasks are performed by people and, generally, little is known about how it is really performed beyond of reports or checklists normally filled by farm staff or managers despite is not common yet in pig production, some companies are starting to use some techniques coming from other sectors to meet these objectives, including LEAN methodology, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Hoshin Planning or Balanced Scorecard in order to meet operational excellence.
You can access the paper here
Growing Breeding Sows for Other Farms
See swine from birth to finish in this video from Agriculture in the Classroom Manitoba.
You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7CEm6d8l4A
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