Machinery management in bio-production systems: planning and scheduling aspects

Abstract

D. D. Bochtis

(Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus, Blichers Alle´ 20, P.O. box 50, Greece)

Abstract: Most operations in bio-production systems involve a number of highly interconnected tasks executed by co-operating machinery systems operating in series or in parallel.  An envisioned future team of identical field-robots could represent an example of the former case, while machinery systems including a number of primary units supported by a number of service (mainly transport) units involved in “output material flow” operations, such as harvesting, as well as in “input material flow” operations, such as spraying and fertilising, could represent examples of the later. the efficient execution of such operations requires considerable efforts in terms of scheduling and planning.  Here, a classification scheme for the management task of planning and scheduling for bio-production machinery systems is proposed, as a first step towards implementing appropriate management tools used in industrial management domain.  The identifications of the characteristics of the decision problems related to the management of these systems can provide the basis for their mapping to the appropriate operational research approaches.

Keywords: agricultural machinery management, field logistics, B-patterns, biomass supply chain, farm management, farm machinery

Citation: Bochtis D D.  Machinery management in bio-production systems: Planning and scheduling aspects.  Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 2010, 12(2): 55-63.