While many chicken processors continue to concentrate on only one type of product, others are diversifying. Such facilities ensure their competitiveness, growth and business success with effective food processing lines that not only maximize uptime but also support product diversity and minimize inefficiencies. For these processors, equipment flexibility, reduced changeover time, ease of use and reliable service support are the key factors that define line effectiveness. 

Typically, a chicken processing facility might produce breaded chicken tenders that require a drum-type breading system and use flour that creates a textured coating. After which, that same facility may need to run flat chicken fillets for sandwiches that require a flatbed-type breading system and a completely different flour application method.

When product variations require different batters, coatings and processing techniques, most processors physically swap out the necessary equipment for each variation, removing one machine from the line, bringing in another, reconnecting utilities and restarting production. While this approach works, it comes at a cost — lost production time during changeovers, additional labor for moving and setting up equipment and the storage and maintenance for idle equipment, not to mention the higher capital investment of multiple machines.

More Products, Less Equipment

Today’s food processing industry consists of an equipment-swap-out methodology that can hinder a facility’s speed and competitiveness. Rather, the key is to process multiple product types on a single line with the goal of reducing changeover time while increasing overall throughput.

This is where flexible processing systems come into play. Such technology allows processors to switch between multiple breading modes with the same piece of equipment. As opposed to reconfiguring lines, operators simply change out components (flour, batter or coatings), adjust production settings, select the appropriate mode and run.

As a result, changeovers that once took hours now happen within minutes, production lines stay running and facilities can respond quickly to evolving industry demand. This multi-operational equipment also conserves valuable production floorspace, because one piece of equipment takes up less room than several pieces of equipment.

Keep It Simple and Easy to Use

Food processing plant environments are often cold and wet, and the work is physically demanding. This makes recruiting and retaining workers difficult, so turnover rates tend to run high, and processors can no longer rely on highly skilled operators to manage complex machines.

This is why food processing line equipment must be easy to use with simplified operational requirements. When equipment is complicated, operators hesitate, mistakes happen and downtime increases.

To prevent this, processing equipment OEMs outfit their machines with intuitive controls, touchscreen interfaces, pre-programmed product settings and automated adjustments that allow operators to switch between products without extensive training or supervision. This represents a significant shift from older systems where changing product settings often required manual adjustments, such as turning hydraulic knobs or even calling in OEM technicians to fine-tune machine parameters.

OEM Service and Support Keep Lines Running

The most flexible and easy-to-use food processing equipment delivers value only when it’s running. Particularly in chicken processing facilities, equipment downtime carries an especially high cost because of the perishable nature of the products involved. Every minute a line is down translates into lost revenue and potential waste.

This is why service and support are critical, and an increasing number of processors turn to their equipment partners for ongoing maintenance and operational support. Effective OEM service and support programs typically include scheduled preventative maintenance visits, replacement of wear components before failure and performance optimization checks. 

Such programs are invaluable when downtime costs can escalate by the minute, so preventing problems before they occur is far more cost-effective than reacting after the fact. Service programs also free up internal maintenance teams for higher-priority tasks.

Safety and ease of use go hand in hand. When equipment is intuitive and well-designed, operators are less likely to make mistakes that could lead to injury or downtime.

For food processors, particularly those in the chicken processing sector, the demand for product variety isn’t going away. Production schedules will continue to tighten, and labor challenges will persist. To stay competitive, these facilities need processing line equipment that delivers flexibility to handle multiple products, simplicity to support a less-skilled workforce and service support to maximize uptime. Together, these capabilities create processing lines that are not only effective but also sustainable in a challenging industry environment.