Details Section:
This section provides further considerations of what information would be included
and where.
The Corn Contract table would contain a line item for every shipment in production or transit. Each
item would carry a bar code with the entire line of information and a small man-readable section for
safety considerations.
Contract No.:
The contract number is the key to all of the other data in the system. The contract
number would be a composite of information about the source field and grower of the product, and some
information as to its type and use. For instance whether or not this is a food grade product and
whether or not it is for human consumption. Additionally you could include key values to signify
whether there were any pesticides or chemicals present in the product that would require special
handling.
Seed Serial No.:
By coding the major characteristics of the seed and carrying this number here,
additional details can be determined about the product produced from it. This and other data gleaned
from the Crop Field entry would enable a small handheld PDA/terminal to determine most of the safety
and compatibility requirements for this product without a connection to the online database.
Grower ID:
This is a small item in size, but including the 15-20 characters for this entry would
allow anyone downstream to identify the grower of this product.
Crop Field:
This is one of the critical pieces of information for the system.
For products In transit it provides a link to the pesticides history of the product itself and is a
key factor in determining the product`s compatibility with others currently in transit.
By making line entries into this table for every important event related to the field in question,
important information can be accessed regarding:
Crop history,
Chemicals and pesticides applied to the current crop,
The same, as a cumulative history for the field,
Productivity for the grower, and many more cross-correlations can be derived.
Crop Type:
This is the primary source for information regarding the product`s suitability to purpose,
and compatibility with other products.
Customer No.:
We include the item here because by identifying the end user, it may be possible to
combine this with other goods for purposes of transportation and anyone can determine if the customer
requires any special handling considerations.
Note:
These are the most critical pieces of information for the system. From these we can determine
where the crop was grown, with what seed, and by whom. We can see what chemicals and pesticides were
applied, and what the intended use is to be.
With this information it can be determined what products can be combined without loss of value, what
equipment requires special treatment after its use and where the product will be shipped.
All of this can be accomplished with a single line item for each product in the system. Divided into
regional knowledge bases this information could easily be written to every PDA/ terminal that needs
to operate autonomously and updated on a daily basis making use of smaller, less expensive, more
accessible equipment to be used for gathering and daily operations.
Start Date, Harvest Date and Ship Date:
We used these dates as an example; any dates pertinent to the
shipment or handling of the product can be included here.
Moisture Content and Adjusted Yield data
These line items merely show the possibility of including yield results along with the shipment should there be special handling considerations derived from
them at a later point.
Others:
The main table for Corn Contracts will never need to contain more than the data for the
current products in production or transit since links to all of the previous information is coded
into strings in this entry. By doing this we can move much of the data gathering to small portable
terminals which will be able to operate autonomously within allowable parameters. For example, by
using a small handheld device a yard foreman or truck driver can scan the barcode for a product and
determine its destination, compatibility with other products, dangers in handling, etc. and all
without a connection to the internet.
The Palm III and Visor Deluxe handheld computers could easily hold the entries for approximately
10,000 items at once and still have nearly 30% of its memory available for software without
modifications to the standard unit.
This information is admittedly of limited depth and the operator may not know how to interpret the
data, but with a rational system of assigning contract numbers, and the additional data in the
complete entry, enough information can be coded into the device to trip an alarm requiring the
operator to connect to the system and/or contact a supervisor.
Onsite Storage, Trucking, Elevators, Rail Cars and Barges:
By examining information from the
line items above it can be determined what type of handling a piece of equipment requires before its
next use. The owner can be contacted, if necessary. Its capacity and next availability can be
determined to aid in routing scheduling. We would include any other information you require as well.
Each of these types of equipment would also have an event log behind them that could be mined for
cost/benefit or logistical information.
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