Dawna Slade begins her day by collecting information from the systems throughout the Icewater Seafoods plant in Arnold’s Cove. The plant has technology equipped for weighing, grading and portioning the cod it produces and each piece of machinery produces data. She also collects tally sheets from some of her colleagues working in the plant.
Once she’s collected the data, Dawna will analyze and interpret the information, then summarize it into her daily report. Her report includes details on yield and labour that are helpful for efficiently running the plant. The report provides a view of the full processing operation and is especially useful for understanding what was cut in the plant compared to what was packed up for customers.
Dawna has been working in the Arnold’s Cove plant for 40 years. When asked why she’s stayed there for so long, her answer is simple, “I enjoy the people I work with and I enjoy my work. For some people it may seem like the same thing every day, but to me it’s always interesting. There is always something that pops up that challenges me, whether its maintenance with a piece of equipment, inventory challenges or something else.”
Her day isn’t all about data and reports either. While she’s familiar with the importance of the sophisticated technology in the plant, Dawna interacts with everyone in the operation, including management and the hundreds of workers on the plant floor. Icewater Seafoods has teams not departments and coaches not supervisors. As Production Service Coach, Dawna works with the other coaches to provide important insight on any problems they may have encountered that day.
Like many of the 215 people working at the plant, Dawna lives in Arnold’s Cove. She says, “I’ve always lived here in Arnold’s Cove. So many of us have. The operation here is very important to the town and the surrounding areas. It’s provided me and my family with a very good base in life.”
The Arnold’s Cove plant depends on fish from inshore and offshore harvesters to operate nearly year-round and provide quality cod to premium world markets.