Truck allocation planning for cost reduction of mechanical sugarcane harvesting in Thailand: An application of multi-objective optimization

• Published in: Nōgyō Kikai Gakkaishi Vol. 70; no. 2
• Main Authors: Kaewtrakulpong, K.(Tsukuba Univ., Ibaraki (Japan)), Takigawa, T, Koike, M, Hasegawa, H, Bahalayodhin, B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2008
• Subjects: CAMION; CAMIONES; CANA DE AZUCAR; CANNE A SUCRE; COSECHA; HARVESTING; METHODE D'OPTIMISATION; METODOS DE OPTIMIZACION; OPTIMIZATION METHODS; PLANIFICACION; PLANIFICATION; PLANNING; RECOLTE; SUGARCANE; TAILANDIA; THAILAND; THAILANDE; TRANSPORT; TRANSPORTE; TRUCKS
• ISSN: 0285-2543
• DOI: 10.11357/jsam1937.70.2_62

The allocation of mechanical harvesters and trucks to reduce the cost in sugarcane harvest influences the profit distribution among the three groups involved: sugarcane farmers, the owners of the trucks and mechanical harvesters, and sugar factories. These groups usually do not have common interests. Therefore, multi-objective optimization (MOO) was applied in this study to find a compromise solution. The parameters used in the MOO model were evaluated by using a simple sugarcane harvesting and transportation simulation derived from the field study in northeastern Thailand. The results showed that the compromise solution obtained from MOO was more acceptable than the solutions obtained from single-objective optimization. The results of analysis of variance indicated that the main factors influencing cost were the distance to a sugar factory, field size, and their interaction. In addition, cost reduction and efficient operation in mechanical harvesting and transportation were achieved in this study.