Implementing control charts within a meat processing plant

This paper presents a review of a quality improvement project within a meat processing plant. The manufacturing process converts ground meat into cook ed patties through a multi-step process. The goal of the project was to red uce the variability in the cooked (finished) meat patty weight. An engineer ing analysis indicated that the ground meat temperature was a key contribut or to the variability in the final weight of the patty. Initial efforts to implement a control chart failed due to the presence of autocorrelation in the data. Advanced control charting techniques were successfully applied to the data.