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The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the fibers obtained from chicken feathers have a possibility to be used or not used in Winter outerwears as a filling material in terms of thermal insulation parameters.

In the study, thermal properties of the heat-resistant interlining samples produced from the chicken feathers fibers were analyzed in comparison with the samples produced from the industrial filling materials.

In the study, it was revealed that the use of chicken feathers fibers as filling material in Winter outerwears was possible.

The use of chicken feather fibers in Winter outerwears as a filling material will be an extremely low-cost alternative to pile flies of water birds which are sufficiently expensive filling materials.

A significant portion of the chicken feather, which is released as a by-product in the production of chicken meat, is destroyed as industrial waste by digging or burning. Some of this product is used in the production of such cheap products as poultry feed. In the case of the production of fibers from the chicken feather, the use of these fibers as a filler in Winter clothing along with environmental protection will allow the use of this product for the production of products of higher cost.

The use of feathers’ material as a filling material in Winter outerwears has been known since ancient times. Due to the rough structure and low elasticity of chicken feathers, chicken feathers are not the best raw material for this purpose. This study revealed that it is possible to use chicken feathers as a filling material in terms of heat protection. The study is original in this respect.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

Bibliography of Agriculture with Subject Index. Vol. 1‐ ; 1942‐ . Monthly. Annual subscription rate: $245.00 for 12 issues, plus postage ($12.00 U.S., all others $14.50); individual issue, $20.00, plus $ 1.25 for postage and handling. Data provided by National Agricultural Library; Published by Oryx Press, 3930 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix, Arizona 85018. LC 63–24851. Coden: BAGRA. ISSN 0006–1530.

This paper aims to use the solvent–casting–evaporation method to prepare new bio-composites with thermoplastic poly(ether urethane) (TPU-polyether) as the polymer matrix and reinforced with natural chicken feather fibre (CFF).

To produce the bio-composites, 0 to 60 per cent·w/w of fibres in steps of 30 per cent·w/w were added to the polymer matrix. The uniformity of distribution of the keratin fibres in the polymer matrix was investigated via scanning electron microscopy, and the results suggested compatibility of the TPU-polyether matrix with the CFFs, thereby implying effective fibre–polymer interactions.

Addition of natural fibres to the polymer was found to decrease the mass loss of the composites at higher temperatures and decrease the glass transition temperature, as well as the storage and loss modulus, at lower temperatures, while increasing the remaining char ratio, storage modulus and loss modulus at higher temperatures.

The investigation confirmed that waste keratin CFF can improve the thermo-mechanical properties of composites, simply and cheaply, with potentially large environmental and economic benefits.

In recent years, halal food industries are facing a high level of competition. The growing demand for halal food means firms are working hard to improve quality and reduce halal food defects. The purpose of this study is to propose a halal-based six sigma (SS) framework that could be used to reduce halal food defects and improve compliance.

The proposed halal six sigma (HSS) framework has five phases based on the define-measure-analyse-improve-control (DMAIC) approach. The proposed framework also integrates halal assurance system requirements into HSS to ensure compliance. Tools used in the proposed model include SIPOC tools, Pareto diagram, root cause analysis and the improvement process flows. A case study in a chicken meat company is used to test and validate the proposed framework. In case of study research, brainstorming was used to review an initial proposed framework and focus group discussions were used to determine feasible improvement actions.

The results showed that the proposed HSS framework could be effective to detect and reduce the halal defects and lower the halal defect costs. By adopting the framework, the case firm was able to lower halal defect costs significantly and increase the SS level.

SS approach can be designed and adapted to specific food industry. HSS framework could provide a systematic approach to reduce halal food defects and sustain the improvement efforts. The proposed HSS framework is also easy to use to understand halal critical points and improve halal compliance.

This study proposed a HSS framework that can be adopted to reduce halal food defects and costs. This proposed framework will benefit the halal food industry intending to realize zero halal food defects and lower production costs. The limited number of publications in the research theme of halal food defects show that there is a significant gap in the existing body of knowledge.

“Work is not a right; it is a privilege”, said Wong Hoi Kit, commenting on the labour policy implemented by the Singapore Prison Service. “We have a captive labour market; the prisoners are eager to work, as it gives them a chance to interact with others, while it helps the time go by.” The motto of the Singapore Prison Service was “Security – Humanity – Rehabilitation”, and considerable energy was focused on rehabilitating inmates by teaching them skills, through on‐the‐job training, during their prison terms. To this end, inmates were put to work, and that which they produced was sold for profit. Mr Wong – who had his MBA from Queen’s University, Canada – was chief executive officer of Singapore’s Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE); in this capacity, he was seeking to identify commercially‐viable food industry opportunities, which would meet the objectives and constraints of the prison environment. These could include primary production, manufacturing, packaging and catering.

A Greek philosopher once refused to have his portrait painted because he felt it bad enough to be condemned with his image in which nature had imprisoned him. That is personal image. For business, image is even more important. As the old pun puts it, “If you don′t strike oil in a few minutes, stop boring”. Because image communicates, discusses what it takes to develop a good personal image through good appearance and investing in a genuine sustained charm. Maps out some strategies for companies to enhance their business image through establishing a brand name, designing corporate identifiers, communicating with the public and investors, projecting an image of professionalism and competence, organizing image‐building campaigns, making ethical decisions, and handling housekeeping.

The objective of the present research was to carry out a scientific map about life cycle assessment (LCA) and triple bottom line (TBL) at slaughterhouse areas, looking for Cleaner Production practices aiming at recognizing strategic themes for maintaining the sustainability of productive systems, according to the development of sustainable practices and production evolution in slaughterhouse areas.

The literature analysis was based on general approach, with steps adapted of study phases and activities of preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analyses (PRISMA) recommendation guide to do systematic literature review. Activities were subdivided to discuss the results in two kinds of analysis: quantitative and qualitative.

The main findings of our study reinforce the LCA importance in slaughterhouses to promote Cleaner Production, so that the main measures suggested and/or adopted by different authors include the substitution of raw materials by feeding, with the adoption of grains, protein supplements with less environmental impact in the composition of the feed and changes in the processes seeking for better energy efficiency and optimization of water consumption in meat processing.

There is another action of sustainability considering LCA and Cleaner Production practices in the industrial meat area that should also be considered. These actions are restricted to documents of business circulation, with limited access since they involve issues regarding innovations in economic and technological aspects of slaughterhouses, as well as industrial confidentiality. Furthermore, in patent bases it is possible to advance the studies looking for how the digital transformation has been carried out in this industrial branch, since the 4.0 transformation industry tends to use clean technologies.

There are LCA models with a systemic approach to measure the level of sustainability of a process, comprising analysis of impacts related to different areas: environmental, social and economic although in terms of the meat production chain, the impact analysis focuses mainly on the environmental area. So, future works should be developed in meat production chain to assess social and economic impacts, i.e. a sustainable LCA addressing the three areas to consolidate models and standardize metrics with a scientific basis.

Chicken feather particles reinforced rubber seed oil based polyurethane composites were produced and the physico-mechanical and microstructural analyses were studied. Casting method was used to produce the composites with varied weights of Chicken feather particles from 5 to 25wt% in steps of 5 wt%. The composites produced were analyzed for hardness, impact strength, tensile strength, density and water absorption properties according to ASTM standards. The density and impact strength were observed to decrease with increase in percentage weight of the chicken feather particles and this was attributed to the fact that the feathers have lower density than RSO-Polyurethane. Tensile strength and hardness of the composites were found to decrease at the intial stage (0 to 10 wt%) and later started to increase with percentage increase(15 to 25 wt%) of reinforment added. The microstructure reveals that there was a reasonable uniform distribution and bonding of chicken feather particles in the RSO-Polyurethane matrix.

Poultry production supply chains produce substantial wastes that are transformable into favorable environmental outcomes and profitable products. While overwhelming evidence supports this conclusion, scant literature is available on how such transformations are doable. Using systems dynamics, this study addresses this research gap in a national (Bangladesh) context. This study aims to contribute an integrated model for poultry supply chains that incorporate reverse flows of wastes using system dynamics (SD) engineering with empirical simulations.

This study applies SD and simulations of alternative supply chains with versus without reverse loops that transform wastes into viable products in poultry production and downstream marketing operations. This research reports on an in-depth case study of systems thinking and use of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology systems dynamics software. Data for the study are longitudinal and come from written operation records and extensive, repeated, one-on-one Interview from a large poultry plant operation in Bangladesh.

This study finds that several current poultry waste production problems are solvable through an integrated approach that generates viable new marketable products with substantial profitable opportunities that also contributes to reductions in industrial pollution. This study confirms that forward, backward and reverse supply chains need to be under one umbrella system to achieve economic, social and environmental benefits.

This study’s SD model and outputs need additional applications in poultry supply chains in multiple countries. Applying the firm-level model that this study provides is a necessary but insufficient step toward empirical confirmation through replicating.