Availability Modeling of Sugarcane Harvesting System by Using Markov Chain
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Online ISSN 2234-1862 Print ISSN 1738-1266
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Availability Modeling of Sugarcane Harvesting System by Using Markov Chain Fatemeh Afsharnia 1 & Afshin Marzban 1 & Mohammad Amin Asoodar 1 & Abas Abdeshahi 2 Received: 15 January 2020 / Revised: 16 June 2020 / Accepted: 18 June 2020 # The Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery 2020
Abstract Purpose Sugarcane, as an important industrial crop, is always considered as one of the strategic commodity and supported by governments. One of the most important repairable systems in agro-industrial companies is a sugarcane harvester machine. The failures of this machine cause a delay in operations and reduce product yield and quality. This machine has a key role in sugarcane harvesting operations of the agro-industries. Methods Availability of sugarcane harvester machine was determined by using the Markov chain method which is a robust probabilistic method according to the actual conditions of the sugarcane harvesting system in the agro-industries. The methodology outlined in this study has been utilized to 12 sugarcane harvester machines, namely CASE IH Austoft 7000. Results According to the results, harvesting system availability was calculated as 87.5%, 86.4%, 95.3%, and 90.4% for the first, second, third, and fourth harvesting groups, respectively. For these groups, the down probability of the system is evaluated to be 12.5%, 13.6%, 4.7%, and 9.6%, respectively. Conclusion On average, the down probability was 10.1%, meaning that the machine will not be available at 10.1% of days at harvesting season. Due to the high sensitivity of the crop that delayed harvesting, agro-industry managers should try to reduce this amount by increasing system reliability and optimizing planned maintenance activities to decrease scheduled downs that have a direct effect on harvest time. Keywords Availability . Failure . Repair . Sugarcane harvesting system . Markov chain
Introduction Agricultural machines are broken down like any other machine. The frequency of failure and the length of their repair depend on the conditions under which it occurs. Failures can only be attributed to wear out, and they can be predicted. The failure of farm equipment, especially the failures that occur during the peak of harvest period—except costly repairs— usually causes delays that result in high costs due to yield reduction, product quality deterioration, and inefficient labor utilization. Reducing of machine failures decreases the need
* Fatemeh Afsharnia [email protected] 1
Department of Agricultural Machinery and Mechanization Engineering, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Ahvaz, Iran
2
Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Ahvaz, Iran
for repairs and so farming can be a safer activity. As Hunt (1977) has pointed out, “the loss of a workday can cause great economic loss irrespective the use of expensive and highcapacity machines.” Timeliness of agricultural operations—especially
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