Hold the plant downtime to the very minimum. This can be accomplished as follows: 1. A complete examination and overhaul of all equipment during the off season. No short cuts. 2. A complete check, cleaning and overhaul if needed of the electrical system. 3. A stock of the proper repair parts during the operating season. Especially parts for the equipment that can cause complete plant shutdown, such as the condenser, press, suction fans, seed and trash conveying and blowing systems, etc.

Other ways that we can hold our ginning cost down are: 1. We get bids on all high cost items such as repair parts, bagging and ties, bale tags and sample tubes, sheet metal works and propane. But we do not sacrifice quality for price. 2. Insulate hot air lines and tower driers to conserve the use of gas for drying. 3. Enforce a good safety program, which can save a lot of cost in workmans compensation insurance rates. 4. Give each employee a printed policy handbook that explains your policy of the operation and care of equipment in and around the plant. 5. Keep the plant and the area around the plant clean. 6. Keep a close watch on labor cost, but do not cut manpower to the point of causing production problems. 7. Try to eliminate shutting the plant down at shift change or noon or midnight by rotating eating times. Our production increased about 100 bales per day by doing this. 8. Get bids on our insurance package. Make sure you are not paying insurance premiums on vehicles or equipment you no longer have. Check into the possibility of self insuring your plant against fire. All steel gin plants do not burn easily. 9. Encourage your growers to build modules as much as possible. Ginning modules has increased the efficiency of the gin 10% to 20% by block ginning and not making a lot of remnants.