Sep 062017
 

Written on: 9/5/17

Today was my second sausage making and I felt more confident in knowing what to bring with me; I had everything ready to go when Constantine asked me if I had checked the sausage making supplies checklist; I had not.

I did remember that Con had the box the night before as he was sewing more sausage bags, but this was no guarantee that the box was ready to go with me to make sausage. This got me thinking about assumptions. How many assumptions do we make every day? How many assumptions do we make subconsciously? How much risk is involved in all of these assumptions? Some food for thought.

Getting back to the food for survival I was making, sausage making was both more and less efficient today.

The session was more efficient in that there were more skilled hands on deck. Since this was not my first time at the rodeo, I was a much better assistant when it came to helping others, and I was better prepared to work independently, which increased my efficiency.

 

One area of improvement that reduced the efficiency of the process was the sausage bags. Based off feedback from the previous round of sausage making, we noted that we needed to increase the weight of our sausages pre-smoking so that the product would have the appropriate weight after it had been smoked. While the amount of meat I added to the bags increased, the size of the bags stayed the same; this led to many of the sausage bags being hard to seal as there was not much material left at the end of the bag.

 

Aside from this issue, the rest of the production went smoothly.

 

To sum the day up, I continued to improve my sausage making skills and general knowledge of meat processing. I recognize my need for better organizational skills and becoming more aware of the assumptions I make so that I can better assess them and reduce the number of high risk assumptions that I make. “Make no assumptions” is one of the 4 agreements of working with Athens’ Own, and it is something that takes continual improvement, as do most things in life.

 

  3 Responses to “9/5/17 – My 2nd Sausage Making Session at Dick’s Packing Plant”

  1. Thanks again Paul; your log helps me perceive the world of AO better and in a different light.

    Nice job on improvement processes considerations.

    Have you spoken with Constantine about the unintended consequence of bag size and amount of meat?

    Also great reflections pertaining to assumptions; I think it is one of the root causes of some of our communication and group process challenges.

    “The Four Agreements” are actually a tool offered forth via Miguel Ruiz from the Toltec Wisdom Way.

    I read the book many years ago but I could use a refresher and I think it would be helpful on our team journey.

    I’m wondering if we could collectively decide to watch this 50 min video during our tv time:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBwY1YHMZr4

    Disclaimer: I have not watched it yet, don’t know anything about the fellow who created the presentation.

    • Kathy,

      I have spoken with Con about the bag size and amount of meat and we resolved the issue by using bags that were 1″ longer.

      Thanks for digging up that video. If we do not get around to watching it during tv time, I hope to watch it myself and will give you update if I do.

  2. Great!

    Thanks for letting me know of your interest in the video. I still want to watch it as well.
    Look forward to hearing any thoughts you might have regarding the video, “The Four Agreements”.

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