Feed Plan Configuration
- Amanda Thomas
Feed Management --> Feed Plan Configuration
Each group may use a different feed Plan configuration. This configuration will give the rules for how to schedule feed. Feed buffers are set so that animals can be protected from running out of feed. Each configuration can be assigned to houses.
Configuration
Code: Enter a code to be used that is unique to that Feed Plan configuration
Description: Enter a description to describe this plan.
Status: Select a status of Active or Inactive. Inactive plans will no longer be able to be applied.
Feed Buffer: The house must always have this amount in hours/days/weight worth of feed at all times
Delivery Time Prior to 1st Placement: The amount of time that feed should be delivered to the house prior to the first flock placement.
Relations: Sets the Company/Divisions and the Industry Types the Expense Codes are associated with.
Additional Options Tab
Overrides
Ignore Feed Profile Maximum: Specifies whether to ignore the maximum delivery size configured in the feed profile. With this setting checked, maximum delivery size goal is no longer triggered.
Ignore Feed Profile Minimum: Specifies whether to ignore the minimum delivery size configured in the feed profile. A feed delivery therefore can be any size (rounding can still occur).
Allow Mixed Feed Types in Feed Bin: Specifies whether the next feed profile can be mix with the current feed profile.
Auto Consumption Adjustments
% Maximum Positive Adjustment: Specifies the maximum percent that Adjustments for Consumption can reach.
% Maximum Negative Adjustment: Specifies the Minimum percent that Adjustments for Consumption can reach.
Feed Plan Rounding
Calculating flock consumption, and precisely when they will run out of feed is an exact science. When the feed planning algorithm generates feed plan records based on this consumption, the values can return with decimal places to many levels of precision. Scheduling deliveries whose units are evenly divisible by one (no decimal places) makes for legible and easy tor recall feed plans. The software needs a configuration that allows it to generate results that do not include decimal results.
Moreover, some feed mills may deliver feed in trucks with specific sized compartments, to deliver loads of different types of feeds to one or more flocks on the same haul. Maximizing feed delivery amounts to compartment sizes guarantees that no compartment is only slightly full.
Whatever is done to adjust planned feed delivery amounts up or down needs to be accounted for in future consumption. A decimal value on a metric ton result can mean entire kilograms of feed that we just can't "round off". Rounding a delivery down does not mean the birds suddenly do not eat that feed, and rounding it up does not mean they will consume more to catch up. The birds will eat what the consumption calculation says they will eat, so whatever is rounded needs to be accounted for, guaranteeing that a future delivery arrives a bit earlier or later, depending on how a past delivery was rounded.
Delivery Rounding
Round Rule: When we have a value that needs to be rounded, this will determine what the software does to get the rounded result:
Round: When we have a delivery amount that is not evenly divisible, the remainder will be rounded up or down, depending on whether it is greater or less than half the divisible amount.
Round Down: When we have an amount that is not evenly divisible, we will always round the value down to the next amount.
Round Up: When we have an amount that is not evenly divisible, we will always round the value up o the next amount.
Round UOM: The unit of measure for the "Round to Nearest" setting. If this is set to "KG", and Round to Nearest is set to "3", then all deliveries must be evenly divisible by three kilograms.
Round to Nearest: This is the value that determines how much a planned delivery is evenly divisible by. along with the unit of measure, this will determine what increments we will deliver in. If we want our deliveries calculated in 3MT increments, we set this to "3" and the units to "MT". If all we are concerned with is evenly rounded amounts, we'll set this value to "1".
Final Round to Nearest: The final feed delivery has exceptional logic that reconciles consumption, feed types and withdrawal at the end of the life of a flock, and rounding is no option. If you desire to rounding increment to differ, or not apply, to feed orders, you can set that here.
Round Feed Type: When we opt to round deliveries up to the next whole amount, we run the risk of delivering more feed than is specified in our feed profile goals. When a round up configuration does this, this informs the software what to do:
Round: Add the feed to the existing feed type, for the current delivery (delivering more than the goal).
Last: Add the feed to the existing feed type, for the current delivery (delivering more than the goal). <- This isn't a typo, at some point the logic for "round" was removed and the configuration garners the same results as choosing "Last".
Next: Create a new delivery for the next feed type and formula (delivering the goal and moving to the next ration).
Rounding Overrides and Messages
When the rounding configurations are set to "Round Up", there are some feed delivery reasons that will override a round-up result, and instead round it down. When that happens, a message will be displayed after the plan is generated.
The reasons that would cause a round-up override pertain to any situation where adding more feed would violate another configuration, these reasons include:
Adding more feed would exceed a house bin capacity.
Adding more feed violates a withdrawal configuration.
Adding more feed violates an additive withdrawal configuration.
Adding more feed would exceed a maximum delivery size.
Adding more fed would exceed the maximum supply days.
It is possible to configure the "Round to Nearest" increment to a value that is less than your minimum delivery amount. If this scenario is discovered during validation, you will receive a warning message.
In the event that the rounding process rounds a value down to nothing, we do not remove that planned delivery! We include it in the list, and report back a warning message.
Assign Houses Tab
The Assign Houses tab allows the user to assign the configuration to multiple houses.
You can also assign the feed plan configuration to a house by opening the House form (navigation Facility Management --> House --> Details tab --> Details group --> Feed Plan Configuration)