A look at engineering based approaches to developing harvest
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The document explores engineering approaches in developing essential oil production methods, emphasizing the necessity of heuristic and emergent thinking due to the complexities of agricultural systems. It presents three case studies in the essential oil industry, including automated tea tree harvesting and distillation processes, showcasing the need for innovative problem-solving. The emphasis is on adapting existing technology and fostering a deeper understanding of agricultural processes through creativity and conceptualization rather than solely relying on imported technologies.
A look at engineering based approaches to developing harvest
- 1. A Look at Engineering Based Approaches to Developing Harvest, Processing and Controlled Environments for Essential Oil Production Murray Hunter Centre for Communication & Entrepreneurship University Malaysia Perlis Abstract Agriculture is a complex activity requiring complex processes upon uncertain variables. Thus developing propagation, production, harvesting, and post harvest equipment and processes cannot be built upon precise theorem. In most cases these processes need to be developed through observation, conceptualization, trial, error, insight, and emergent and heuristical thinking. This requires the utilization of various types of thinking processes and converging, discovery with trans-disciplinary knowledge. This paper examines agricultural engineering development pathways with three examples the author has been involved within the essential oil industry, 1. The development of automated tea tree harvesting through reengineering and adaptation, 2. The development of distillation processes through incremental emergent engineering and applying thermodynamic theories into practical situations, and 3. The development of controlled environment vetivert production through conceptual development and emergent innovation engineering. Introduction The ideal engineer is a composite ... He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems. (N. W. Dougherty, 1955) Over the time that humankind has existed upon the earth and society progressed from hunter-gatherers to cultivators, we have encroached upon the Earth’s natural terrestrial ecosystems with our agricultural systems. These human made eco-systems are not compatible with the algorithms of nature and thus require our heavy intervention to maintain their efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. Our interventions to achieve short-term results have created many long term consequences that were not foreseen – where we degraded the soil, increased salinity, contaminated our waterways, lowered our water tables, as well as changing our micro-climates. In fact we do not really understand the true interrelationships between the variables influencing the results of our agricultural activities, as most often they are not direct cause and effect relationships (Lovelock 2005). Our contrived agro-eco-systems are really too complex for us to understand completely (see Paper presented to the National Conference on Agricultural and Food Mechanization 2012, 10-12 January at Pullman, Kuching, Sarawak
- 2. figure 1), and the way we really approach issues is through educated guesses based upon short-term research results taking up limited correlating variables together with our personal and collective experiences. Infrastructure Government Regulation Positive Inputs Taxes & Conducive weather Water Negative Outputs subsidies Climate Or Sunshine Trade Floods, droughts, etc Nitrogen Runoffs, wastes, environment Agricultural inputs carbon Research Weather Fertilizers etc Rainfall Knowledge Wind Labour Sunshine UV radiation Temperature Some Humidity Resource inputs, Production Processes recycling fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, machinery, back to Human research capabilities Farm size & layout system Habitisation Organisation & methods Knowledge Suitability of conditions Suppliers & contractors Pollution (air, land & water) Propagation Pollution Labour sources Attitudes and concerns Water resources Cultivation Positive Outputs (create hinterland where Products farm part of) Processing Physical Environment Customers Financing & Marketing Revenue flow various kinds of back to Soil capital Topography system Atmosphere Natural flora & Negative Inputs fauna habitat Business Urbanisation Adverse physical Environment Competition conditions Low prices Pests & diseases Markets Changing demand Pollution Finance patterns Heavy metals Trade environment An Agricultural Enterprise as a System Figure 1. The agricultural enterprise as an eco-system (Hunter 2009, P. 326). Due to eco-system and agricultural complexity, working within this environment requires an overall environmental scale view as well as a discipline specific focused view. Our advances in knowledge come from the ability to conceptualize and effectuate to develop new ideas and theories that can be acted upon, in a similar way to how Einstein thought spatially and then only reverted to the discipline of mathematics to retrospectively support his imagination (Gardner 1993). Therefore in this way science becomes an art based on effectuation in not an un-similar way that Picasso would have created his masterpieces1. Art infers conceptualization, which infers creativity as the basis of our innovations. It is from the concepts that an engineer then works backwards or emergently to solve a problem. Thus 1 Effectuation can be best explained by imagining how a person cooks a meal after coming home from work. A person may look at what food ingredients are in the food pantry and refrigerator and then use these ingredients to cook something that comes to mind. The process of effectuation is about thinking of possibilities that may have potential and then evaluating and confirming the potential. Effectuation does not rely on preconception, which is something akin to a painter sitting in front of a blank painting canvass thinking about what to paint. Effectuation is about creating something that will extend our ideas to fitting the solution.
- 3. engineering within this innovation paradigm loses its status as a discipline and gains its status as the process of applying creative effectuation into solutions within the agricultural eco- environment. If the above argument string is accepted then it is not disciplinary knowledge that is so important but rather the ability through our cognitive processes to apply our knowledge to problems and applications in order to solve them. The fraternity of engineers has largely ignored this but it is the application of and not the knowledge itself that brings solutions and innovations. In solving agricultural problems particularly in the areas of mechanization and controlled environments, we don’t apply algorithms to problems as this doesn’t work when effectuation is needed. Heuristics are the key to guiding our emerging thinking and problem solving. Any agricultural issue must be diagnosed through our thinking and applying knowledge we have to the circumstances we observe, and every solution must be constructed from what knowledge we have and implemented through our emergent thinking. Heuristics is something belonging to logic, philosophy and psychology (Hutchinson 1971), a thinking process something between the algorithmic and stochastic approaches (Polva 1945). Stafford Beer likened heuristics to a living organism, its DNA and existence developed along an algorithmic blueprint, but sustaining survival in the environment through heuristics (Beer 1981). Heuristics prescribe general rules for reaching goals, which we cannot reach algorithmically, because we are not sure of the exact route to get there, as there are a number of potential paths and these paths are at the point of beginning, unknown to us. Heuristics is the way we actually live our lives, although we believe we are living life algorithmically with rules. We need heuristics to make decisions, although we are not aware of this. When heuristics are mentioned, we think of it’s contribution to artificial intelligence, but heuristics is the reality of how an engineer develops new processes for products that the actual details of the production process, although in principal is known, is mysterious in finite detail to the engineer when starting out (Hunter 2006). Agricultural Innovation Innovation is a ”hot topic” in both the fields of agriculture and engineering, but too much emphasis has been placed on amassing technology, rather than using amassed knowledge to create new knowledge through emergent thinking. This has important national consequences as Dr. Asma Abdullah states that there “is also the tendency for Asian countries, including Malaysia, to deal with the issue of values in development by importing many technologies and systems wholesale from abroad without going through the process of mental transformation necessary to master them fully. Although Malaysia is going through rapid transformation, our growth is one without development in the context of knowledge contribution to science, engineering and technology. As long as we are consumers and operators of sophisticated techniques, plants and technologies imported wholesale from abroad, we are to a certain extent undergoing a technology-less form of industrialization. This transformation of values and attitudes is a key issue in the nation’s development agenda” (Asma 1995).
- 4. A lesson can be learned from some of the Japanese companies which have been able to successfully compete on cost with their Chinese competitors. Japanese companies through heuristics have been able to build their on plant and processing equipment at a third of the cost of the Chinese (Chen 2004), who purchased their equipment from third party vendors. The Japanese have realized that this is a source of competitive advantage and are able to continue to export from a much higher cost base because of substantial capital savings. This is a lesson for us in Malaysia aspiring to become a global player in both agriculture and manufacturing industries in utilizing heuristical approaches in production process design. Through heuristic design we are able to increase our production process knowledge base, rely less on imported machineries and add both innovation and competitive advantage to the sector. This is an example to follow in other chemical plant development, which potentially can save firms large capital investments on new projects and acquire technology through internal deduction and experimentation. A heuristic approach to production process development in agriculture is an acquisition of proprietary knowledge, which is exclusive to the firm. The effort to develop the process is based on trial and error and thus is not easily duplicated quickly by other firms and can be considered a barrier to entry into that particular product/market, thus enabling the firm to practice monopoly differentiation for a period of time at a price premium to other firms. Thus through heuristic production process development the firm has developed a source of competitive advantage. If the new production process can be developed without heuristics, then barriers to entry into the particular product/market would be low and the product category would be crowded with competitors, where the future of Malaysian agriculture is about developing high value added crop diversity that can compete in uncontested market space, if possible. Advances in agricultural mechanization and devising of controlled environments is about improving productivity, and developing new value added products. Historically our advances made in agricultural engineering and post harvest processing techniques has probably made a larger contribution to agriculture production than the “green revolution” in the 1940s and 50s which enabled the controlled supply of nitrogen and other nutrients to crops – allowing our mono-cropping model. For example, it was the invention and subsequent development of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, saving hundreds of man-hours that allowed the rapid expansion of the cotton industry of the Southern American States and mass settlement (Schweikart & Pierson Doti 2010, P. 63). Diagnosing Problems Complex issues need two complementary ways of seeing. First we need to see the whole environment the ‘what is” to get a contextual understanding of what a problem is. This requires spatial thinking without being locked into specific disciplinary knowledge that will restrict perspective. This is called field dependence where the environment is seen holistically, connections between categories of information can be seen, and information is processed in chunks (Witkin et. al. 1954).
- 5. Once connections can be made, problems or possibilities (opportunities) can be seen as a potential to solve or develop. A change in thinking is required where much more focus and attention should be given to the details. Thus holistic transforms into analytical thinking which breaks down the whole into simpler parts where information can be reorganized. This is called field interdependence where the individual items within the field, rather than the field as a whole is considered (Vaidya and Chasky 1980). Field independency aids analysis, to look at things in isolation to rest of field, categorize stimuli where one can impose their own structures upon the problem, in a detached and impersonal manner (Hunter 2011, P. 219). One however must be mindful in the field independence mode that they don’t fall into the rigidity of their discipline which may narrowly regulate their perceptions of the problem (Jonassen & Grabowski 1993). Focus enables researching specific issues that may lead to the solution of the specific problem or enable the conceptualization of a new system, process, or piece of equipment. Decisions will have to be made between a number of research priorities due to the multiplicity of factors, varying degrees each factor influences. For example in the production of essential oils, yield and quality, resource limits, time, available competencies and cost are all issues that have influencing variables. The variables that most influence oil quality and yield would be in this case selected for investigation. Potential factors influencing yield and quality can be mapped out on the Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram approach as shown in Figure 2. Location Climate Genetic Material Humidity Collection Temperature Purchase Sunshine hours Topography UV radiation Plant physiology Seasons Slope & drainage Propagation Yield and Rainfall characteristics Chemical Constituents of the Humus Nutrients Method of extraction Essential Oil Extraction time Compactness Drainage & water holding qualities Pest & weed pH control Pre-harvest handling Mineral residuals Irrigation & preparation Plant densities Soil type Time & method of harvest Agronomic Harvest & Soil Practices Extraction Practices Figure 2: Factors Influencing Essential Oil Yield and Constituents on a Ishikawa (fishbone) Diagram (Hunter 2009, P. 319). It is from this position that the information extracted from the environment and re-organized in an Ishikawa array that the following basic questions that can assist in prioritising research and development can be asked. These include;
- 6. 1. What are the specific technical goals and objectives? 2. What are the major technology, infrastructure and climatic constraints (boundaries)? 3. What are the areas where innovations will develop quick improvements? 4. What is the probability of successful outcomes?, and 5. How do we choose between successful outcomes? Modifying ‘off the shelf solutions’ and knowledge can solve many problems and should be considered first. An ‘off the shelf solution’ is a research result that has proved positive, but not tested in the site specific project that is intended. This will save project time and reduce cost. Importing ideas, practices and equipment may not always suit local conditions and will be expensive. Similar crops within the region may have methods and equipment that may be easily modified to lead to a more effective solution. Unexpected costs should also be identified. Other factors may require capital intensive solutions, where cost competitive production is a factor in success and sustainability. For many agricultural activities the use of mechanisation has been proved to be more efficient than manual labour, even in very low labour cost countries (Timmer 1973). However small scale decentralised mechanised production units may not always necessarily lead to lower production costs and there are often some advantages in flexibility, at early project stages (Austin 1981). The selection of appropriate farming, harvesting and processing equipment will depend on the technology available, the potential to adapt the equipment to the site and crop, and the finance available. Not much equipment will be available ‘off the shelf’ and in most cases existing equipment will need to be modified. Practical experience during trials is needed to understand exactly what changes are necessary. Good metal and machine fabricators need to be identified. The final part of this paper will briefly apply the above discussion to three different types of projects and outline the engineering and cognitive approaches taken. The engineering aspects will not be explained in detail as the author’s interest is in the thinking processes. Project One: Automating the tea tree harvest process Tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) was introduced to Malaysia by the author back in 1991 where a trial plot was planted at MARDI Serdang. With initial promising signs a much larger trial was undertaken at Berseri, Perlis to take advantage of the unique dry season in that state. Trial results showed that oil yields were far in excess of what commercial yields were in Australia at that time and the economics showed that the net return per Ha. Was approximately three times of what oil palm would provide (Hunter 1997). However at that time harvesting and filling the distillation bins was a completely manual task. To be an internationally competitive producer of tea tree oil, these tasks needed to be automated, especially with rapidly rising wages and shortages of labour. The Australian tea tree industry had developed many innovative ways of harvesting through converting multi-crop foliage harvesters into meeting the requirements of specialized tea tree harvesters. The German company CLASS developed a specialized tea tree harvester within the Jaguar series which was very efficient, bringing the harvesting operation down to a one-
- 7. man operation and ability to harvest up to 10 Ha on a daily basis. However in today’s prices the cost of this harvester is in excess of RM4.7 Million. The Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (SEDIA) made the decision to develop tea tree as a strategic crop for Sabah in 20082. There was not nearly the amount of funds available to purchase specialized harvesting equipment from Germany. A local solution was required. The decision was made to strip down and completely rebuild a corn harvester, modifying the front-end cutters, mulchers, and foliage carry shafts so it could handle the harvesting of tea tree and fill a bin attached to the end and carried by the harvester. As a previous solution to this problem has been achieved, it became a matter of reengineering and adaptation utilizing locally available items and parts. This required studying the present solution and determining how this can be transformed into a local version. The critical issues here were the cutters and flow of the trees into the mulchers after cutting. This was eventually solved through postulating how to this could be achieved (the conceptual world), trialling this in the field (experimentation), observing the results (Evaluation), and re-postulating and modifying the cutters, re-trialling, observing and re-postulating again. Thus the development process is part conceptualization and part real world experience in determining a final outcome. However the solution was not achieved through this single learning loop and the assumptions had to be changed about the mode of cutting from a linear method along some rails to a circular method (complete re-evaluation). This was done and the postulate, trial, observe, re- postulate, and re-trial sequence continued until a positive solution occurred. Figure 3 below represents this learning process. Thus the thinking processes in this first example relied on spatial skills. Conceptualization is a form of imagination and it is very important in being able to work backwards to determine what will be the kinetic processes and how these can be best governed. The key to developing this harvester was prior knowledge about how the other harvester worked as a process when harvesting tea trees, knowledge about the capabilities of what is available locally, and spatial imagination to be able to run this process within the mind. One is running the mind back from the solution and adapting local parts to this end in a mental picture. The only way to determine whether the solution works is to try it and observe and try to imagine what could control the process better within the imagination. The locally fabricated harvester cost RM220,000 to build, trial modify and put it into service. 2 This was undertaken by Institute of Development Studies (Sabah) before the formation of SEDIA.
- 8. Figure 3. The learning process (Hunter 2009, P. 219). Project Two: Scaling up Essential Oil Distillation Processes Essential oil distillation is a very well established process and although governed by numerous laws of thermodynamics related to latent heat, gas laws, vapour laws, steam, and phyto-chemistry, it is a relatively practical process commonly used around the world by both large and small agricultural based enterprises. The distillation process is primarily influenced by the nature of the plant material, characteristics of the volatile materials, and size and shape of the distillation apparatus. These three factors vary the application of the various laws that apply. Consequently scaling up is not a linear process. Steam, vapour pressure, and general volatile constituent vapourization characteristics will change as size scales up. Thus as designs are scaled up, theoretical considerations are overridden by practical trial and error as the converging influences of all relevant theories are too complex to calculate out and thus unexpected results occur. Thus scaling up distillation is an emergent development process. The process of postulation based on smaller distillation unit behaviour, observation, evaluation, and re-postulation is necessary. Postulation becomes a process of imagining the interaction of the steam, chemical constituents, and biomass, as distillery dimensions are enlarged. Like the harvester, spatial intelligence is the paramount quality required. A knowledge of the constituents and various laws relevant to the process are also required so these can be mentally manipulated extrapolated from observation of the performance of the
- 9. smaller distillery. One will heuristically determine what laws are important and apply their calculations through incremental effectuation to scaling up design3. Project Three: The Production of Vetiver by Hydroponics Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanoides) is primarily used for soil stabilization, erosion control, and water treatment. The rhizomes also contain a volatile oil that has woody and earthy notes valuable for fine and natural perfumery. Traditionally vetiver is cultivated directly into the soil where the roots grow down some three to four metres in depth and the roots have to be dug up for distillation. The effort required to produce this oil is well reflected in the market prices. Production in Malaysia must compete against low cost producing countries like China, Haiti, Indonesia, and India. The cultivation of vetiver can also be undertaken hydroponically which would dramatically lessen labour costs. This could be achieved through plating the grass through a netting arrangement and then allowing the roots to dangle into a water bath which can be keep circulating with specifically selected nutrients. It would take approximately twelve months for the roots to grow to a length of around four feet when they could be trimmed back to six inches and reinserted into the water bath for another round of growth. The conceptualization of this alternative vetiver process most probably came into mind through an insight based on connecting hydroponics with the problem of digging up roots for distillation. Once again this engineering concept is not the result of using algorithms, but rather imaginative and effectuated thinking processes. The process would be made effective through trial and error. Conclusion Technical and social disciplines are undergoing convergence which can be seen in the way many industries are merging together into one. Convergence is creeping into the research and development process where trans-disciplinary approaches are required to solve problems. Being an engineer is not good enough in isolation. In order to create, an engineer must have knowledge across a number of disciplines so that knowledge can be synergized into some meaningful expressions in the form of new applications and inventions. This would normally be triggered by some deep insight that relates trans-disciplinary knowledge with some issues facing society that need to be solved, as is shown in figure 4 in the field of biotechnology. This creates new knowledge and new knowledge itself is a source of exponential growth of opportunity. 3 One can only really guess as which laws are taking over dominance in the process based on experience and knowledge about the characteristics of what is being distilled.
- 10. “Issues facing society to be solved” New Forms of Expression Other disciplines of Insight Expressed knowledge Application & Microbiology Our current Knowledge Invention Biology Trans-disciplinary synergy of Deep Insight knowledge Engineering Agriculture Physics Chemistry Biochemistry Figure 4. . Trans-disciplinary knowledge and the expression of new knowledge as application or invention (Hunter 2011, P. 176). This phenomenon can be seen at a national level if one looks at the number of resident patents filed per million population in each country. Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, Figure 5. shows the number of resident international patents applied for in the region during 2010. International patent filings are more relevant than domestic patent filings as the international filings figures are a better indicator of the country’s international influence in the global business arena. Countries like Japan, Republic of Korea, China and Australia are far in front of the rest of the Asia-Pacific Region. In the Asian Grouping, India had 627 international patent filings during 2010 and Singapore 402. Both countries have invested in R&D very heavily, with India expected to become an industrial giant in the near future and Singapore publically emulating the Korean research model in cluster development, in large investments like the biotechnology Biopolis. Although aggregate filings are low in the rest of the Asian Region, Malaysia stands out with some relative success with its national policies on projects like the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in generating new patent filings. The Asian region still has a long way to go, however issues like innovation, research and development, and commercialization are on top of the policy agendas at this time.
- 11. Australia 2139 Brunei 3 China 3910 Indonesia 6 India 627 Japan 26906 Dem. Rep. Korea 4 Republic Korea 5935 Malaysia 54 New Zealand 316 Philippines 15 Singapore 402 Thailand 12 Vietnam 9 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 Source: WIPO Statistics Number of International Patents Filed by Residents Figure 5. International Patents Filed by Residents in Asia-Pacific Region 2010 Schumpeter (1954) argued that economic growth requires innovation – the generation of higher quality products at lower unit costs. The future of regions and nations depend on new ideas and new products that energize those places and facilitate economic growth (Feldman & Florida 1994). Knowledge without application is useless in creating tangible benefits to society, but hopefully this paper has shed light that it is not knowledge in itself that is important rather the ability to apply it. And the ability to apply it doesn’t rely upon formulae, theory or algorithm, but rather emergent thinking and the heuristics have developed. This is a neglected part of engineering education and this is also the quality that makes a good engineer stand out from the rest of the pack. Only innovation will make an essential oil industry viable in Malaysia and truly competitive internationally. This depends upon our ability to conceptualize, imagine and sketch out concepts in our mind rather than having capital and the most up to date equipment at our disposal. References: Asma, A., Going Glocal: Cultural Dimensions in Malaysian Management, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Management, 1995, P. 179. Austin, J. E., (1981), Agroindustrial Project Design Analysis, Baltimore, The John Hopkins University Press, pp. 121-125. Beer, S., Brain of the Firm 2nd Ed., Chichester, John Wiley & Sons, 1981, pp. 52-53.
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