Anyone who has prepared a Thanksgiving dinner knows how much work goes into organizing the perfect meal. Publix makes it easy for our customers by doing most of the work for them.
Last year, Publix prepared 70,000 precooked, already assembled deli turkey dinners. Each deli turkey dinner feeds seven to 10 people and includes
- a 10 – 12 pound fully cooked turkey
- 2 ½ pounds of old-fashioned cornbread dressing
- 2 ½ pounds of homestyle mashed potatoes
- 32 ounces of gravy and
- 16 ounces of cranberry-orange relish.
“Our deli turkey dinners take the stress out of planning,” said Buyer Aaron DeVore.
“In a quick trip to the Publix Deli, our customers can pick up one box with the main ingredients for their Thanksgiving meals. They really appreciate the convenience.”
Preparing meals of this magnitude takes tons of teamwork. About 50 associates from at least a dozen support departments collaborate to make sure no detail is left out, and each associate has a specific role to play in the process. The deli retail business unit (RBU) partners with manufacturing to coordinate and manage most of the assembly process.
| Deli RBU | Manufacturing |
| Communicates information about the dinners to retail | Coordinates temporary assembly line assistance |
| Orders ingredients and works with the traffic department on the logistics of storing and moving those items |
Produces the gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes and cranberry-orange relish and appropriate labels |
| Works with corporate quality assurance to coordinate the turkey thawing | Coordinates equipment, such as forklifts and conveyors |
| Supervises assembly line production and quality control | Orders pop-up turkey timers |
Many other departments also have important roles in the assembly process. Distribution associates coordinate dinner storage at our boxed meat/dairy warehouses, as well as make sure our refrigerated trailers are held at 35 F. Our traffic department manages all truck deliveries from the assembly locations to our warehouses and our stores. In addition, associates from the return centers collect cardboard, plastic and other materials from the assembly line for recycling.
Along the assembly line
Originally, Publix shipped the individual deli turkey dinner components to stores for assembly. Publix streamlined the process 14 years ago so retail associates could focus on serving customers instead of taking time to build the dinners at the store. For the last four years, assembly has taken place at our Lakeland manufacturing central warehouse.
The process begins in March, when stores are surveyed based on the previous year’s sales and their forecasted results. During the summer, our suppliers produce the dressing and mashed potatoes. Meanwhile, the turkeys are raised on North Carolina farms and prepared by another supplier. In addition, Publix manufactures the gravy and cranberry-orange relish. All these items are stored in our Atlanta frozen foods warehouse until assembly.
In September, key departments go over logistics, assembly details and key dates. The manufacturing supply purchasing department also places an order for the dinner boxes. In November, stores start accepting deli turkey dinner pre-orders from customers, with most orders placed within two weeks of Thanksgiving.
Dinner assembly takes place the week before Thanksgiving. On the weekend before assembly, the components are shipped from our Atlanta frozen foods warehouse to Lakeland. Dinner assembly takes place in our manufacturing central warehouse, a refrigerated facility that keeps food safe throughout the process.
Temporary workers are brought in to assemble the dinners, but before any work is done, a meeting is held to go over the importance of working safely, handling product carefully and following Publix’s rules and regulations. On the assembly line, workers unload product from their shipping boxes, place each item in a turkey dinner box, seal the box and stack it on a pallet.
When a pallet is full, a forklift driver places it on a refrigerated Publix truck. The trucks deliver the pallets to one of our distribution centers for holding until they are delivered to a store. At the store, customers pick up their pre-ordered turkey dinners at the deli and take them home to heat and enjoy.
New this year: A SECOND LOCATION
This year, Publix is adding a second assembly location at the Atlanta boxed meat/dairy warehouse. This addition will reduce the cost of shipping product to Lakeland, only to be shipped back to Atlanta Division stores.
| Lakeland | Atlanta | |
| Number of assembly days | 3 1/2 | 2 |
| Hours worked | 5 p.m. – 2 a.m. (final day runs 5 p.m. – 11 p.m.) |
3 p.m. – 12 a.m. |
| Number of assembly lines | 2 | 1 |
| Projected number of dinners assembled | 55,000 | 16,000 |
| Projected peak rate of assembly | 1,840 dinners/hour | 950 dinners/hour |
In 2012
- 781,000 total pounds of TURKEY provided
- 177,500 total pounds of DRESSING packaged
- 177,500 total pounds of MASHED POTATOES packaged
- 142,000 total pounds of GRAVY produced
- 71,000 total pounds of CRANBERRY-ORANGE RELISH produced
80 number of temporary workers assembling dinners this year
0 number of injuries since the assembly line process began in 2008
