Information modeling technology in industrial horticulture

1. Problems of the domestic commercial horticulture

In short, the problem of domestic commercial horticulture can be represented by the following theses:

· the level of mechanization in horticulture is about 10-15%. Since 1995, the supply of specialized equipment in the economy has almost been stopped, and the machines available are already worn out;

· The proposed mechanisms are basically at the level of scientific and technical developments of the 20-30 years;

· Within the frames of the general crisis of the domestic agricultural machinery, garden machinery manufacturing industry has stopped to exist;

· Domestic horticulture is now in transition “from extensive to intensive technologies”;

· Intensive horticulture in the west is a perfectly formed industry and just mechanical transfer of technology to domestic conditions is unacceptable.

Unfortunately, currently there is no uniform national doctrine and theory of machine technologies for commercial intensive gardening, responding to fundamental questions: “What is intensive gardening?”; “What is industrial machine technology?”; “What are their properties and characteristics?”, “What are the characteristics of their development and evolution?”, etc.

2. Agriculture technology component of the horticulture industry. The situation “as it is”

The minds of many domestic professionals are still dominated by “technological bias” - the belief that intensive gardening technology is something associated mainly with agro-biological, agro-technology and productional features of intensive gardens, for example: the use of low-growing stocks and high-yielding varieties; increasing the density of planting fruit trees; implementation of effective systems of crown formation; use of drip irrigation systems and support systems; implementation of programming and informational (according to the phases of growth) systems of fertilizer application; implementation of integrated (at the threshold of injuriousness) combined chemical and biological crop protection; the use of soil landscape cards based on geographic information systems (GIS) and information technology of space monitoring while laying gardens, etc..

We know that intensive horticulture belongs to the category of complex systems (including technical, technological, biological, organizational, social, and other components), where we need to implement the most effective technologies and methods of systems engineering and business modeling.

And that is why the selection of agrotechnological aspects only in solving the problems of commercial horticulture leads to a violation of the basic principle of the system approach – the setting of problems.

3. The system of technology and commercial horticulture machines. The situation “as it is”

The development of technological features of the gardens, from the perspective of the productional approach, requires the development of innovative technology. And vice versa, technical opportunities define intensive gardening technology.

The lack of doctrine and general theory generates a variety of views and opinions, inconsistency and confusion in planning and implementation of the research on the advanced machine technologies in horticulture.

4. Engineering components and technologization. The “as it is supposed to be” scenario

Without touching upon the situation “as it is” (which can be characterized as “Agricultural engineering. Failure”), it can be stated that without a high-tech engineering component it is impossible to have an effective engineering support of any sector of the economy.

In their publications [1-4], the authors define the innovative approaches of agricultural machinery development in commercial horticulture.

· The process of creating / revival of engineering components in modern domestic horticulture should be carried out according to the principles of regional and agricultural machinery in the form of small business;

· Development and production of modern equipment for gardening should be in the format of «Unit Production» (single and small batch production), with adoption of flexible organizational infrastructure and universal quick-set high-tech equipment, which ensures high quality output;

· The widespread use of process and information technologies on the basis of standards ISO 9000, ISO 10000, ISO 14000, ISO 15288, ISO 15504, ISO 15926 and others, that allow to harmonize the diverse nature of the requirements to intensive gardening and provide a comprehensive, systematic and goal-setting approach in developing and introducing intensive technologies in horticulture.

5. The system of organization and management. The situation “as it is”

The use of modern system and business technology allows to eliminate “the conflicts of interests” arising at the joints (“bottlenecks”) of the process-chain of the development of any national economy sector.

For domestic commercial horticulture there is a number of negative factors: lack of adaptation and harmonization of information technology for organization and management of high-tech industries to the specifics of commercial horticulture; the absence of harmonized standards and regulations as for the implementation of ISO standards in small businesses and manufacturing in the format of «Unit Production»; the lack of recommendations for the implementation of CALS-technologies in the format of «Unit Production» (technology convergence and transfer); the absence of accelerated assessment and certification of technology, produced in the format of «Unit Production»; lack of engineering education and training of specialists for work in the format of «Unit Production» (higher education programs); the lack of an integrated system (Knowledge Base) for the production of equipment for gardening like open technical dictionaries (eOTD ECCMA) in industrial automation systems based on the standards NATO, ISO 8000, ISO 22745.

6. The regulatory framework for commercial horticulture. The situation “as it is”

One of the most important indicators of any economy sector and production maturity, organizational and management processes is a well-developed regulatory framework, which provides technical and technological regulation.

Currently, we are witnessing the absence of purposeful approach to the creation of a unified system of regulations that define and regulate the development and operation of commercial horticulture that has led to exacerbation of “conflict of interests” in the chain of processes of industry gardening development:

· the system of machines for horticulture and nursery gardening has not yet been approved;

· the Technical Committee for Standardization TC 284 of the Russian Federation is not supposed to organize a subcommittee on machines for gardening.

In summary, the lack of regulatory requirements for the technical and technological support of intensive gardening makes it impossible to perform the process of certification of machines and equipment and to ensure its competitiveness in the WTO

7. Federal and regional programs for development of domestic horticulture and nursery gardening. The situation “as it is”

The successful implementation of programs and projects is constrained by the following factors:

· Lack of funding.

· Lack of industrial and technological doctrine of commercial horticulture.

· Low investment attractiveness of intensive gardening projects .

8. Addressing the problems of the domestic commercial horticulture. The “as it is supposed to be” scenario

The authors of the article, in the framework of the Regional Science and Technology Center of “Industrial Machine Technology of Intensive Gardening” (RNSTC "InTech"), developed scientific approaches (a model) addressing the problems of domestic commercial horticulture at the present stage.

The model is based on the following thesis: agrotechnological bias in addressing the problems of the domestic commercial horticulture in isolation from purposeful systematic approach and disregard for modern information technology eliminates the effective development of the industry.

The developed model of functioning and development of domestic commercial horticulture basically contains elements of information technology of organization and management of high-tech sectors of the economy, and is based on the following initial theses:

· Modern information technologies of planning, organization and management of high-tech industry (CALS and CALM-technologies) are basically invariant and can be effectively adapted to commercial horticulture.

· To implement the CALS and CALM-technologies in commercial horticulture, it is necessary to form a single information space in all areas and to consider the functioning of the sector in a single life cycle.

Modern interpretation of the use of information technology in organization and management of science-intensive industries are defined as follows:

· CALS (Computer Acquisition and Life-cycle Support) ;

· ALS (Russian variant of CALS) – Acquisition and Life-cycle Support;

· CALS (Commerce At Ligth Speed);

· CALМ (Computer Aided Lean Management).

СALS and CALM-technologies are provided with the help of software systems and practices such as: PLM (Product Lifecycle Management); PDM (Product Data Management); SCM (Supply Chain Management); CPC (Collaborative Product Commerce); ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning); MRP/ MRP-2 (Manufacturing Requirement Planning); MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems); SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and others.

According to the features of commercial horticulture functioning, the authors have developed the basic scientific principles of information technology, taking into account agro-technological and production processes.

The proposed model of commercial horticulture is designated as TIM (Technology Information Modeling) - Information modeling of technology in commercial horticulture.

9. The basic principles of the InTech model (TIM technology)

1. The fundamental base object in the TIM-technology – industrial machine technology elements in the form of information arrays or databases (technical and technological requirements, processes, process maps, etc.).

2. The Principle of 3-dimensional technical and technological design – 3D-model = F(D₁, D₂, D₃), based on the process approach and the similarity of the system functioning (functional similarity) determining the design of 3D-models as the construction of the 3-dimensional structure with the following coordinates: D1 - technological processes; D2 - technological operations; D3 - the type of machinery and equipment.

3. The Principle of 3-dimensional technical and technological design assumes that with the installation of a target (goal-setting processes) and the uniqueness of the output characteristics, the technological processes may contain various process steps, which in turn require different types of machines.

4. The Principle of Time Management – 4D-model = F (3D, Т), defining the structure and content of the 3D-model as a function of production cycles T (eg. garden stubbing, orchard start, maintenance and care of young orchard, maintenance and care of fruit-bearing orchard, etc.).

5. The principle of resource management – 5D-model = F (4D, Q), determining the material and financial support Q for the functioning of the industrial garden throughout the life cycle.

6. The principle of life support – 6D-model = F (5D, G), ensuring normal operation of the industrial garden on the basis of continuous monitoring G over the entire life cycle.

The figure shows the structural and functional scheme of TIM - technology in commercial horticulture.

Figure. “Structural and functional diagram of TIM – technology in commercial horticulture”