Introduction

Beothic Fish Processors Ltd. (Beothic) is a processor of pelagic fish species in Labrador
and Newfoundland established in 1967. The advancement in technology led to the focus
on capelin species which became the most profitable product of Beothic in 1989.
Beothic having created a niche for its business is challenged to increase profitability by
lowering costs and maximizing the capelin season (King & Stapleton, 1993).

The Root of the problem

Beothic depends on capeline as the primary revenue source though the capelin
season is short and the company needs to maximise its production to remain
competitive. The company incurred a loss in the last capelin season and it is imperative
that they avert any loss in the coming season ensuring total quality management of
their entire capelin production line. The lack of proper structure and arrangement of the
capelin factory layout affected the profitability of capelin in Beothic. It created a need to
lower production costs and increase profit. Beothic was facing wastage and needed to
further improve process automation by using machines to reduce crowds and labourers
on the production floor (King & Stapleton, 1993).

Causes
Beothic Fish Processors company needed to improve the capelin production process
due to the shortness of capelin season. The capelin production process was broken
down into different spaced systems such as; the infeed system, the distribution system,
the weighing system, etc. Beothic incurs high labour costs in manufacturing caused by
disorganized equipment, congested employees on the production floor, and numerous
steps in handling capelin production. Capelin was wasted in the infeed system from the
raw materials falling off. Capelin was manually shoved to the distribution tables at the
inclined conveyor, the female capelin is picked up at the end of the table which
increases labour, operation costs and waste time. The inability of employees to move
freely without bumping into one another in the production line. The stress of taking the
packaged capelin to the forklift due to safety reasons affects the workers (King &
Stapleton, 1993). The company needs to deploy lean manufacturing principles rather
than the current manufacturing process (Knowles, 2011, p. 16).

Recommendation on Reorganising the Floor Plan

Beothic should strategise a new factory layout based on raw materials, work in
process, finished products, consumables, movements in the factory, directives for
production, waste reduction and management plan (Chittenden, 2022). The efficiency of
a production floor is connected to the production process and equipment layout from
the planning phase. The company should consider safety and the need to properly set
up the plant based on the production process of its product. every step required in all
the four stages of manufacturing capelin should be rehearsed while setting up a new
plant layout. The planning of the new layout should consider the storage of the raw
materials and finished product in a cost-effective manner. It is essential to separate dry
and wet materials and maintain a hygienic working environment on the production
floor. The type of equipment, type of goods produced and its process affect the spacing
of the production floor layout (Account Learning, n.d.).
Beothic needs to adopt a spacing strategy while creating the layout to address the
safety issues associated with the forklift. Using straight line plant laying to improve the
ease of movement, safety and cleanliness of the factory. Elimination of the conveyor in
the infeed system will reduce raw material wastage if the hopper is set up next to the
separator. Straightening the inclined conveyor will reduce the deposit of the female
caplin at the end of the table. The distance between the table and separator should be
eliminated to allow the fish to be seamlessly pushed into the table from the splitter
without human intervention. Set up the roller conveyor closer to the table for ease of
weighing the product. The finished products should be stored outside the main factory
floor to increase space in the factory to reduce the crowd in the capelin production line.
Avoid the use of plate freezing and its processes as it is costly, and damages the
product. Also, invest in the Blast Freezers to maintain a quality product.

Metric to Determine the Effectiveness of the Reorganized Floor Plan

The managers and supervisors of Beothic can measure the success of the new layout
by comparing the raw materials wastage, cost of labour, the number of
incidents/accidents recorded, and quantity of finished product in line with the cost of
production, with the records of the former layout. the effect of this will be seen in the
reduction of variable cost in contribution margin and how low operation cost increases
working capital for Beothic. Overall profitability of the company is expected to increase
as capelin is a major source of income for the company as capelin waste is reduced in
the cause of production with the use of the new layout. Staff safety and a good working
environment will definitely increase productivity and morale in the factory. Request for
feedback from factory workers to ensure that changes made had a great impact on their
work and evaluate other ways to improve their working experience in the new layout.
DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control approach) methodology can
be deployed to attain total quality management at Beothic. The issues were out rightly
defined by the company, after the implementation of the new layout, the
aforementioned metric will help measure the progress and impact of the new layout on
productivity levels through excellent analysis. Further improvement can be done to
eliminate any rising issues in the new layout using a control approach (Knowles, 2011).

Conclusion
 Beothic’s ability to identify its problem and spot the areas that need modification
shows that its management pays attention to the production processes. The
implementation of the new plant layout will be costly at first as they might need to
invest more in machinery but in the long run, it will prove to be cost-effective and help
Beothic maintain total quality management of their production process.

References
Account Learning. (n.d.). Top 10 Factors influencing design of plant layout. Account
Learning . Retrieved from https://accountlearning.com/top-10-factors-influencing-
design-of-plant-layout/

Chittenden, R. (2022, August 5). 7 flows to consider with your factory layout design. TXM
Lean Solutions. Retrieved from https://txm.com/7-flows-consider-factory-layout/

King, W. & Stapleton, D. (1993). Improving production at bioethic fish processors, Ltd.
Acadia Institute for Case Studies. Acadia
University. https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1600690/mod_book/chapter/
359498/U5%20beothic_fish.pdf

Knowles, G. (2011). Six sigma.

Bookboon.com. https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1600690/mod_book/chapter/
359498/six-sigma.pdf?time=1633550176627