• Home

• About Us

• Recent Pig News

• History

• Farmer Spotlight

• Contact Us

Identifying opportunities for improvement is important for any business hoping to stay competitive in today’s global economy. Companies that don’t strive to improve fade away or end up on the acquisition list of more aggressive and better-capitalized organizations.

Although opportunities to improve occasionally hide in new technology not yet adopted, it’s more likely to find a weakness in the current business model or in poor execution of existing protocols.

Of course, there are resource limitations, too. A company doesn’t always have the ability to address all opportunities. Ask yourself what can and should be done first. For example, if an energy source such as white grease becomes cost-prohibitive, it isn’t difficult to alter diets. On the other hand, if a certain genetic combination becomes less attractive to the marketplace, it may be difficult to change genetics soon enough to make an impact.

Start with the big issues
Think about the macroeconomics of raising a pig from weaning to 270 pounds. You have to consider four broad categories: the feed, the pig, the facility, and everything else.

Table 1 breaks down costs of raising that pig. Investigate each category so you can identify specific opportunities. With more details, you’ll discover better answers. While this table assigns numbers to major production components, it does not consider other critical factors that are important but less quantifiable—location, people, pig flow, health, and communication.   

You’re more likely to identify opportunities when you have a data collection system that is reliable, efficient, and able to accurately distribute data. Today’s information center needs to be web-based, accessible, and user-friendly. It should have the capability to import electronic data from packing plants, feed suppliers, and accounting programs. (Widely available public programs do a very nice job of handling data.)

With data in hand, you can generate and distribute basic financial and production reports to the right people. Those who need to be informed can also help your company using solid information. Success generally means more people in the loop—not fewer. Provide reports regularly and schedule discussion of the results. In addition to basic report generation, it is essential your information system allows data to be easily extracted and made available to other computer programs. Access facilitates more intense analysis.

Just remember, nothing can salvage data from three common mistakes that blunt the value of information: 1) data collected is incomplete or inaccurate, 2) information isn’t available to those who need it and can make an impact using it, and 3) information isn’t discussed by those who can institute change. The more information is shared, the more help you’ll get identifying opportunities to improve.

Factor in the people
While data identifies opportunities, it is also critical to understand a company’s processes. Yet it’s difficult to assign monetary values to processes, even though those activities are critical day to day.

To influence processes, bring employees into the loop. Provide respect and feedback and tell them how their operation is performing. Everyone likes to be part of a winning team. If your people are well-informed, they’re also equipped to identify ways your business can improve. More importantly, if they feel included they’re more likely to give 100%. Their efforts will help make up for some missed opportunities.

Identifying opportunities for improvement requires you to review information, understand your processes, and gather input from the people involved at all levels. While new technology contributes to processes, in most cases there’s no silver bullet enabling one swine operation to succeed when another doesn’t. The fate of the company more often depends on how managers identify opportunities.