Plant floor work can be monotonous. Even simple changes, from comfortable chairs or rails for plant workers to lean on to colorful belts to enhance visuals, can make a huge difference in productivity.
According to Scott Sechler, CEO of the Bell & Evans poultry processing plant (Food Engineering's 2005 Plant of the Year award winner), production workers' eyes can get very tired looking at chicken on white belts all day long. Sechler introduced blue conveyor belts to ease tired eyes, but he got a few added advantages: one is that his workers can see the product much better on the blue background. Sechler anticipates that the addition of worker-friendly ideas with recent automation updates will increase yields in some areas of his plant by 30 percent (see page 79).