In Israel there are 5,000 acre of pepper and 40,000 ton of pepper are export, out of which 30% are produced in greenhouses. Greenhouse pepper growing processes are labor intensive and require 280-360 working days per acre. The large numbers of workers involved in the various operations cause bottlenecks that affect costs and working efficiency. Work methods analysis is a commonly employed technique to improve production and operations management (Globerson, 2002). The determination of standard times for greenhouse production systems is essential for efficient labor management (Luxhoj and Giacomeli, 1990). Simulation is an important tool to compare different work methods (Tersine, 1985). The advent of simulation in agricultural systems provides the ability to compare several alternatives under predefined controlled conditions, without the need for repeated field experiments, and independently of the growing season. The influence of differences between and within cultivars can be examined by means of a computerized model of the system, and statistical comparisons can be made among the various possible combinations of all crop parameters, such as the geometry of the crop and fruit distribution (Edan and Miles, 1994). Simulation has been successfully used in a variety of agricultural engineering applications including: management of cotton combines (Chen et al., 1990) and watersheds (He, 2003); design of agricultural robots (Elkabetz et al., 1998; Edan and Miles, 1994), automatic transplanting machines (Bar et al., 1996), nursery material handlings operations (Chen et al., 1978; Jagtap and Verma, 1983a, b; Fang et al., 1990) and a site-specific sprayer (Elkabetz et al., 1998); systems engineering of automatic transplanting machines (Kutz et al., 1987), mechanical harvesters in the tomatoes industry (Brandt and French, 1983), and seedling quality classification (Muttiah and Miles, 1988); and facility design of a cowshed for a robotic milking environment (Halachmi et al., 2003), a grape packing house (Otmi and Karni, 2000) and an aqua-farm (Eranst et al., 2000). Work efficiency improvement is extremely important due to the high dependency and unstable availability of manpower. The objectives of the research were to improve work methods in pepper greenhouses, in order to reduce the manual labor required. Work methods were analyzed and simulation tools were developed to compare alternatives

XXXI CIOSTA-CIGR V Congress “Increasing Work Efficiency in Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry“ September 19-21, 2005, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany, ISBN 3-00-016346-8

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Improvement of Work Methods in Pepper Greenhouses
Improvement of Work Methods in Pepper Greenhouses

In Israel there are 5,000 acre of pepper and 40,000 ton of pepper are export, out of which 30% are produced in greenhouses. Greenhouse pepper growing processes are labor intensive and require 280-360 working days per acre. The large numbers of workers involved in the various operations cause bottlenecks that affect costs and working efficiency. Work methods analysis is a commonly employed technique to improve production and operations management (Globerson, 2002). The determination of standard times for greenhouse production systems is essential for efficient labor management (Luxhoj and Giacomeli, 1990). Simulation is an important tool to compare different work methods (Tersine, 1985). The advent of simulation in agricultural systems provides the ability to compare several alternatives under predefined controlled conditions, without the need for repeated field experiments, and independently of the growing season. The influence of differences between and within cultivars can be examined by means of a computerized model of the system, and statistical comparisons can be made among the various possible combinations of all crop parameters, such as the geometry of the crop and fruit distribution (Edan and Miles, 1994). Simulation has been successfully used in a variety of agricultural engineering applications including: management of cotton combines (Chen et al., 1990) and watersheds (He, 2003); design of agricultural robots (Elkabetz et al., 1998; Edan and Miles, 1994), automatic transplanting machines (Bar et al., 1996), nursery material handlings operations (Chen et al., 1978; Jagtap and Verma, 1983a, b; Fang et al., 1990) and a site-specific sprayer (Elkabetz et al., 1998); systems engineering of automatic transplanting machines (Kutz et al., 1987), mechanical harvesters in the tomatoes industry (Brandt and French, 1983), and seedling quality classification (Muttiah and Miles, 1988); and facility design of a cowshed for a robotic milking environment (Halachmi et al., 2003), a grape packing house (Otmi and Karni, 2000) and an aqua-farm (Eranst et al., 2000). Work efficiency improvement is extremely important due to the high dependency and unstable availability of manpower. The objectives of the research were to improve work methods in pepper greenhouses, in order to reduce the manual labor required. Work methods were analyzed and simulation tools were developed to compare alternatives

Scientific Publication