Operations Report- Scenic Rim Dairy Farm
Some of these items include; the cows (to produce the milk), good feed for the cows (mix of nutrients, and essential vitamins needed by the cow to have the highest quality milk), the facility (the farm itself, as well as sheds for the equipment and also some minor labour. 1. 2 Transformation of Inputs/Processes: For a business to have outputs they will need to first transform the inputs. This is also known as the ‘process’ stage of a product.
At the Scenic Rim Robotic Dairy Farm, this is a fairly simple yet time consuming task as the process stage requires firstly milking the cows (Approx. ilking 260-280 cows a day, being milked between 2-3 times). This is a very easy step, as the cows are milked by a robot that has it’s best interest in the comfort of the cow. The robot performs a specific sequence of actions in order to milk the cow correctly which involves; 1. Check in the cow (weight and scan of tag on collar) 2. The tits of the cow are cleaned and sterilized by two rollers that helps with lactation (meaning that the rollers feel like a calf, which then helps the mother cow to feel more comfortable and also to release milk a little quicker) 3.
A laser then scans the cows utter to find the individual position of each tit 4. The cups then attach individually to each of the cows tits and starts the milking process. An advantage of each cup being attached individually would be if one tit started to produce less than 400ml per/minute, then the cup drops off, but the others keep going until each tit stops producing over 400ml per/minute. As the cups are milking, a reader on the side of the machine is identifying how much of each component (butter fat & protein) the cow is producing whilst being milked. 5.
Once the cow has finished the milking process, it then gets a light spray of a solution made to kill any bacteria and to help reduce the risk of infection to the tit.
After this, the cow is then able to exit the robot and go and graze. The second step of the transformation stage would be to pasteurise the milk that has just been produced. The reason that the Scenic Rim Robotic Dairy pasteurises their milk, not only because of law, but to kill both good and bad bacteria so that the milk, is basically just milk. The last stage of processing the inputs is the bottling stage.
This stage includes the pasteurised milk being moved down a pipe into bottles in the bottling room (that are sitting on a conveyer belt).
After the milk as been bottled a worker then places a lid on the bottle and manually puts the bottles into a create, ready to be distributed. iii Shakai E. Nichols Sunday, 25 August 2013 8:35:20 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time dc:2b:61:fc:16:de Operations Management Report Scenic Rim Robotic Dairy Farm 1. 3 Outputs: A factories output is what the factories result is by the end of processing the inputs. In this scenario, The Scenic Rim Robotic Dairy Farms’ output is obviously their milk. iv
Shakai E.
Nichols Sunday, 25 August 2013 8:35:20 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time dc:2b:61:fc:16:de Operations Management Report Scenic Rim Robotic Dairy Farm 2. 0 Decision Making 2. 1 Strategic Decisions: Within a business there are a lot of opportunities that come about requiring strategic thinking about some big decisions. The farm are not often faced with big decisions, but the decisions they need to make require some what of strategic thinking. Some of these decision could include; broadening their product range ; widening their product distribution. Whilst at the farm, Farmer Greg Dennis mentioned both of these decisions.
These are major parts of the factory as they both have potential in being great ideas. Take broadening their product range. Dennis said he wouldn’t mind branching out into having cheese as well as milk. This is a great oopportunity for the factory because its allowing consumers to not only enjoy ‘Scenic Rim 4Real’ Milk, but also cheese that has been made from ‘Scenic Rim 4Real’ milk. Another decision Farmer Greg mentioned was to widen their distribution.
This is also another great oopportunity for The Scenic Rim Robotic Dairy as more customers will be able to try their milk and compare it to the milk they are already consuming.
Farmer Gregie also indicated that milk sales have gone up by 15% over the last two and a half years, thanks to not only the introduction of robots but to the 110 stores that are currently selling ‘Scenic Rim 4Real‘ milk. He also said that they are currently only selling within a 1-2 hour radius of the farm. They would like to eventually bring their products to places like Toowoomba and Caboolture to maybe increase sales even more. 2.
2 Production, Planning & Control Decisions: While working in a business, there are many decisions that you will have to control and plan if you want the output to be the best it can.
On the Scenic Rim Robotic Dairy Farm they have to plan and control decisions such as; 1. Their staff level: Although there are two farms, Greg stated that there were only 15 employees between the two, and that no other staff is required. This would arise simply because on the farm visited, most of the workers were family. 2.
Their maintenance schedules: At the farm, Farmer Greg explained that the Dutch milking robots ‘Lely’ are correctively maintained (meaning that maintenance that has been performed is to correct the broken down piece of equipment, back into working order) at least once every year.
