Below are Food Collobarative’s pre-packed eggs, where the eggs will be distributed, consumed and the packaging just tossed away. Do most people appreciate the amount of work behind the scene to arrive at this simple packaging?
Whoever breaks any eggs during packing have to unofficially pay the “established fines”. We have been privileged to have the hands-on support of Mr. Ahmed Hussein, the real TNO CEO, and he also had been “fined” initially and now he’s an egg packing pro.
A few days ago, some of us had training from Josie, our “CEO Lead” (who “designed” this simple process, which proves to be very efficient, and she has been doing this hard task on her own, for the most part). First, the 2 sides of a regular egg carton have to be cut off (one needs strong fingers and sharp blades).
The sides are then ripped off. It then goes through a 2nd cutting where it has to be carefully cut into compartments of 3 and 2 rows respectively. Another cutting to mark 6-egg cartons (no day dreaming, otherwise the compartment counts will be incorrect).
Another ripping process which results in 6-egg cartons that are ready for packing. Cartons cutting is indeed painstaking and strains/exercises/strengthens the hands. Imagine cutting ~1500
cartons in preparation for the following week’s packaging!
This prep work is the secret of the egg assembly line’s speed. On average 900 cut cartons and prepared bags are required for Monday deliveries (~ 30 boxes of eggs) and slightly less for Thursday deliveries (~17-20 boxes).
The eggs are individually sorted into 6-egg cartons, wrapped, the packages are then carefully packed back into the boxes, lifted and stored for clients’ days. At another table, the other assembly line takes place – i.e. opening bags. Again, approximately 1500 bags have to be prepared each week.
