ASABE Technical Library - Abstract
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IMPROVEMENT OF WORK METHODS IN TOMATO GREENHOUSES USING SIMULATION
Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org
Citation: Paper number 035004, 2003 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.15400)Authors: Avital Bechar, Nir Kesler, Gal Levi, Efi Brand, Aviad Kanigsberg, Shlomo Yosef, Sinaia Netanyahu and Yael Edan
Keywords: simulation, tomato greenhouse, work study, work methods, trellising, picking, human labor.
Tomatoes greenhouse growing processes are labor intensive. The extensive manpower required to perform the
different operations cause a bottleneck from aspects of costs and work capacities. The main bottleneck points are in
the trellising, fruit picking stages and transportation to the packinghouse. This research aims to improve work
processes in tomato greenhouses, by reducing manual labor.
The research was performed in a farm of 75 acres of tomato greenhouses, located in southwest Israel. Work-studies
were conducted and the growing processes were characterized. Two simulation models of work processes in tomato
greenhouses were developed based on statistical analysis of the work-study data. The simulations were developed
on ARENA and Microsoft Excel Visual Basic environments. Several alternatives for the different work processes
were suggested and evaluated. Results indicate that fruit picking should be implemented using a picking cart,
moving along the row in a batch advance method and longer rows are preferable and reduce work time.