ABSTRACT

I. INTRODUCTION The past century witnessed the evolution of slaughtering methods from solo butchering, where each man or small team performed all unit operations, to powered rail and chain systems manned by many slaughtermen, each specializing in one or few unit operations. Whatever the technology employed, we can be sure that a high throughput of animals per day has always been an industry focus, because it minimizes costs per unit value of meat. From an accountant’s perspective that outcome is ideal, but it overlooks quality problems that can and frequently do arise when the focus is on throughput alone.