Controlling the risk for an agricultural harvest

被引:62
作者
Allen, Stuart J. [1 ]
Schuster, Edmund W. [2 ]
机构
[1] MIT Auto-ID Labs, Nashua, NH 03062
来源
Manufacturing and Service Operations Management | 2004年 / 6卷 / 03期
关键词
Agriculture; Harvest risk;
D O I
10.1287/msom.1040.0035
中图分类号
学科分类号
摘要
Gathering the harvest represents a complex managerial problem for agricultural cooperatives involved in harvesting and processing operations: balancing the risk of overinvestment with the risk of underproduction. The rate to harvest crops and the corresponding capital investment are critical strategic decisions in situations where poor weather conditions present a risk of crop loss. In this article, we discuss a case study of the Concord grape harvest and develop a mathematical model to control harvest risk. The model involves differentiation of a joint probability distribution that represents risks associated with the length of the harvest season and the size of the crop. This approach is becoming popular as a means of dealing with complex problems involving operational and supply chain risk. Significant cost avoidance, in the millions of dollars, results from practical implementation of the Harvest Model. Using real data, we found that the Harvest Model provides lower-cost solutions in situations involving moderate variability in both the length of season and the crop size as compared to solutions based on imposed risk policies determined by management. © 2004 INFORMS.
引用
收藏
页码:225 / 236
页数:11
相关论文
共 27 条
  • [1] Allen S.J., Schuster E.W., Practical production scheduling with capacity constraints and dynamic demand: Family planning and disaggregation, Production Inventory Management J., 35, 4, pp. 15-21, (1994)
  • [2] Allen S.J., Schuster E.W., Managing the risk for the grape harvest at Welch's, Production Inventory Management J., 41, 3, pp. 31-36, (2000)
  • [3] Allen S.J., Martin J., Schuster E.W., A simple method for the multi-item, single-level, capacitated scheduling problem with set-up times and costs, Production Inventory Management J., 38, 4, pp. 39-47, (1997)
  • [4] Anderson J.R., Dillon J.L., Hardaker B., Agricultural Decision Analysis, (1977)
  • [5] D'Itri M.P., Allen S.J., Schuster E.W., Capacitated scheduling of multiple products on a single processor with sequence dependencies, Production Inventory Management J., 40, 5, pp. 27-33, (1998)
  • [6] Eppen G.D., Iyer A.V., Improved fashion buying with Bayesian updates, Oper. Res., 45, 6, pp. 805-819, (1997)
  • [7] Fine C.H., Clockspeed, (1998)
  • [8] Fisher M., Raman A., Reducing the cost of demand uncertainty through accurate response to early sales, Oper. Res., 44, 1, pp. 87-99, (1996)
  • [9] Garraty J.A., Gay P., Columbia History of the World, (1972)
  • [10] Hazell P.B.R., Norton R.D., Mathematical Programming for Economic Analysis, (1986)