Poultry Tops 2021 Annual TRIUMPH Award | For winning three out of the seven core values, the Poultry Operations Department was voted the over-all winner of the annual TRIUMPH Award for 2021.
The team led by Dr. Fabienne Balucas bagged the awards for Responsibility with Accountability, Mindset of an Entrepreneur and Pioneering and Innovative.
The other core value winners are: Management Information System for Total Quality and Excellence, FO Region B and Swine Operations for Integrity of Character, Central Depot for Unity in Diversity and M&E/Engineering and Technical Department for Heart of A True Service. In addition, the Poultry Operations Department was the recipient of “The COO Award” for its initiatives in preventing the spread of the ASF virus.
The Over-all winner was awarded P30,000 cash and a plaque. Each core value winner received P10,000 cash and a plaque. On the other hand, the COO Award winner took home P15,000 cash and a plaque.
In 2018, the Poultry Operations was also the TRIUMPH Award Over-all winner
The TRIUMPH Award is a project of the Corporate Planning Department, which recognizes departments that have outstanding programs for the company’s seven core values. The award is held every quarter. The head of the Corporate Planning Department is Dr. Joy Michelle Literato.
About the winning entries
- Total Quality and Excellence – “Project FEDORA,” by Management Information System
The team was successful in its objectives of increasing work productivity and operations efficiency, which proved to be advantageous and beneficial to the Feedmill operations. By using the FEDORA system, it eliminated manual tasks (i.e., encoding, checklist, printing of reports, etc.), reduced spoilage of raw materials and allowed real time monitoring of inventory through scale and barcode technology, among others. The monitoring reports and control measures that were prepared by MIS for various departments have helped management to make faster and strategic decisions based on actual and accurate data.
- Responsibility with Accountability – “Poultry Farm Efficiency” by Poultry Operations
Broiler performance index is a measure of production efficiency. From 2017 to 2020, the broiler performance index fluctuated because of disease challenges that hit our farms such as New Castle disease, avian encephalomyelitis and astrovirus. This posed a major concern to the Poultry Operations group. After a thorough review of all aspects of farm management, nutrition and medication, the group implemented a two-pronged strategy that strengthened biosecurity and enhanced animal health program in all farms. These measures resulted to a broiler performance index of 3.8 points, the highest ever recorded in 5 years and a net income that is 70% higher than the 2021 budget. The success of this program was attributed to the group’s responsiveness, strong leadership and commitment of all members to achieve their targets.
- Integrity of Character – 2 winners
“Doing It Right” by FO Region B.
Having shortages or overages in cash is a sign of poor cash management or manipulation of the cash operation and theft.
During the second quarter of the year, FO Region B had high cases of discrepancy on cashier balancing. After conducting a thorough investigation of the problem, the team was able to strengthen its internal process because of the implementation of the following activities:
- Proper procedures were established.
- Store policies were reviewed.
- Work performance was evaluated.
“Doing It Right” means that sound policies and procedures are essential to a successful cash management program. It has also instilled in every member of the team the importance of transparency, fairness, honesty, trust, respect and responsibility in achieving objectives.
“Oplan: Mission Possible- San Jose Gestation 3, ASF Containment”
by Swine Operations
When San Jose Gestation 3 was hit by the African Swine Fever, two contractual employees were ready to do the work that tested their patience, perseverance and loyalty under high-stress conditions. For seven months, Ruel de los Reyes and Rey Boquiron, stayed inside the farm facility and performed a variety of tasks such as collecting blood samples, conducting oral and environmental swabbing, feeding and looking after the health status of sows, and cleaning and disinfecting the affected areas. By providing their supervisors with regular feedback of the real crisis situation, the two all-around crew displayed dependability, trustworthiness and honesty that contributed to the successful eradication of the ASF in their assigned farms.
- Unity in Diversity – “Central Depot Covid Response Team” by Health and Safety
All eight departments of the Central Depot worked hard and cooperated to protect each other from contracting the covid virus. Through the supervision of the company nurse, the Covid Response team designed and implemented a strategic preparedness and response plan for the central depot in March 2020. Key to this plan was the information dissemination campaign that helped employees understand covid better. And to reduce congestion in the workplace, preventive measures such as staggered shifts and clustering of offices were put into place. All these activities resulted to zero covid cases and no work disruption from March 2020 to the second quarter of 2021.
- Mindset of An Entrepreneur-“ Medicine Vaccine Program” by Poultry Operations
The goal of every business owner is to have an impressive revenue growth and proper cost management is necessary to attain this. This is exactly what the Poultry Operations did.
Faced with over-usage of supplements and high cost of medicines, the Poultry Operations re-evaluated and customized their old medication and disinfection programs according to the disease prevalence and specific conditions of each farm. The current medication program is composed only of antibiotics and basic supplements, which is relatively simple but effective. Also, the team has devised a cost monitoring scheme that is based on the recommendations of the epidemiologist for medicines and vaccines use. On the other hand, supervisors have been tasked to ensure the strict management of disinfection and cleaning materials for their assigned farms. All these initiatives resulted to 45% reduction in cost of medicines and vaccines.
- Pioneering and Innovative – “CCS 6 Brooding System in Pulungsantol” by Poultry Operations
To be innovative is to create something new.
Shifting from floor-type (CCS3) to cage-type (CCS6) tunnel ventilation housing system, the Poultry Operations was beset with two challenges – how to operate it and how to create and operate a brooding system without using heater and litter materials. By undertaking a series of trial run for ventilation, customizing setting for brooding ventilation, bird colony size and other brooding activities; and strict implementation and monitoring of results, there was a reduction in cost to produce by 11 centavos per bird and significant improvements in all performance indeces in July 2021. Also, new features of the CCS6 were added such as variable speed fan, small capacity cage (at 20 birds per cage), plastic cool pads, etc.
- Heart of A True Service-“RESPONDE” by M&E, Engineering and Technical Department
The African Swine Fever (ASF) hit the provinces of Rizal, Bulacan and Pampanga in September 2019. It is a viral disease that has caused culling and mortality of millions of pigs worldwide. There are no treatments or vaccines available yet to treat the virus. Until an effective vaccine is developed, ASF will continue to be the number one threat of RDF’s hog business. This was the tough problem encountered by the Swine Operations during the second quarter of 2021. Notwithstanding the pandemic, the quick response team of Engineering’s Machinery & Equipment, through its program, “RESPONDE,” joined forces and collaborated with the Swine Operations. In Ayala, Florida, Lara and San Jose farms, they conducted clearing operations, lockdown, extraction and disinfection activities around-the-clock. As a result of their combined efforts, all four farms were spared from the ASF virus, the repopulation program of the swine operations proceeded and no single employee was laid off.
“RESPONDE” exemplifies service excellence and highlights the values of helping one another, working hard and taking action in a timely manner, especially in crisis situations, like the ASF outbreak.