Introduction
The feed plan feature allows users to generate feed records based on flock consumption and bin availability on houses. One of the greatest shortcomings of this feature is that it lacks some logistical elements. One example of this is delivery times- with the exception of some settings we can set for buffered delivery dates, the software will recommend that feed be delivered outside of the operating hours of the feed mills that produce them, and the farmers that receive them. This feature will be the start of resolving that.
Prerequisites
To calculate planned feed deliveries that occur within delivery windows, we will need:
- Flocks with feed profiles, and other feed plan configurations.
- Security affiliation to flocks and facilities.
- Security access to the delivery scheduling screen.
Configuration and Security
System → System Settings → Features
There are options in this screen to disable feed plans. Disabling the plan will not hide the feed delivery scheduling screen (see below), but we will not be able to generate the deliveries if this is disabled.
Security permissions for the screen is under the "Feed Management" section of the software.
Managing The Schedules
Feed Management → Feed Delivery Scheduling
Operation Schedules for divisions, farms and houses are all managed in the same screen.
Determining a Delivery Schedule
Only one schedule is used on a given day- we can't schedule two or more to overlap. When we build out the schedule, we take records in a certain priority. If we find a record of that priority then we use it, otherwise we look for the next lowest one until we find none. The priority is listed here:
- House Single-Day
- House Recurring
- House 7-Day Occurrence
- Farm Single-Day
- Farm Recurring
- Farm 7-Day Occurrence
- Division Single-Day
- Division Recurring
- Division 7-Day Occurrence
Example:
Let's say we set up our 7-day division schedule, scheduled a few days off for the farm, but scheduled some availability for a house on that farm. You can see that the house takes priority over the farm and division, while the farm day on the 25th takes priority over the division whish would have otherwise been opened on that Friday.
Recurring records will be applied to every month and day for every year until it is deleted. Single instance records are only for that specific date. If we looked at a flock for these same facilities next year the house record would not be included in the delivery windows.
It is important to note that when there are no schedule records for a Division, Farm or House when a flock's feed plan is being calculated, then it will perform the default feed plan function of scheduling deliveries when they are needed, with no regard to operation hours.
Changes to the Feed Plan (Deliveries during Delivery Windows)
Few changes have been made to the feed plan. The only one of note is that now, after the software has decided that a batch of consumption has satisfied a delivery criteria and becomes a feed plan record, we compare that record to a delivery window to validate that it can be created.
These are the different scenarios that we will run into with feed plans:
Deliveries Calculated Inside of a Delivery Window
A delivery that the software identifies as needing to be performed inside of a delivery window will remain unchanged. They will be created as they have always been.
Deliveries Calculated Outside of a Delivery Window, But On an Operational Day
A delivery that is scheduled on an operational day, but outside of a delivery window, will have it's delivery dates updated to conform to the delivery hours.
- If a planned delivery was calculated to be delivered before the delivery window, the date will be updated to the start time.
- if a planned delivery was calculated after a delivery window the delivery date will be updated to the end time.
Deliveries Calculated On a Non-Operational Day
At present, we are not creating these deliveries. They are omitted from the end results and a message was logged that it was not created. Users will have to create records manually to account for these.
These deliveries are logged in the messages section of a generated feed plan.
These are the records that we will need to solicit feedback on to figure out how to deal with them. Do we move the forward? backwards? split them between delivery windows? give users a simple interface to make the decision on a case by case basis?
Auditing the Results
A column was added to the feed plan detail to audit the delivery schedules. After calculating a feed plan, Open the "Feed Plan Detail" audit screen.
A new column called "Open for Business" has been added to align with the flock's consumption hours. If a delivery window is found it will be logged here, the logged info will tell you:
- Is it Operational?: "X" if it is.
- What Type of record it is: (1 = occurrence, 2 = recurring 3 = single-day schedule).
- What level: House, Farm, or Division.
- What date is logged on the record (for recurring and single-day): MMDD format.
- What Time Window: Starting hour-Ending Hour.
