The trees are brought to the loading area on an overhead conveyor. Hams are brought to the station on a standard conveyor, are manually fed into a loader which automatically pushes the ham into a permeable bag which has been placed over the machines nozzle and held in place by another employee. The permeable bag is stapled shut by an employee stationed at the side of the conveyor after which a mesh bag soaked in liquid smoke is placed over the entire ham. This bag is also stapled shut by an employee at the side of the conveyor, and finally is hung on a tree for smoking. After all bars have been filled the tree is moved to the smoker.
Employees stand for the entire period of the task and rotate between positions on the line.
The Packing Line Hams are removed from trees, taken to band saws and are cut into two pieces which are either packaged as is or are further cut into slices or smaller whole hams. Packaging whole hams consists of placing the ham into a bag and feeding it into a heat sealing machine. Sliced sections of ham are placed on a pocket conveyor with about 2 to 3 slices being placed in each pocket. This conveyor also feeds to a heat sealer. After packages have been sealed they are taken by conveyor to an area where a label is affixed to the ham after which the conveyor removes it to a packaging area where they are packed into a box for shipment.