SUGARCANE HARVEST AND TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT: A PROVEN WHOLE-OF-SYSTEMS APPROACH THAT DELIVERS LEAST COST AND MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY

NSW SUGAR MILLING, A cooperative sugarcane processing group in Northern NSW, Australia, harvests and transports up to 2.5 Mt of sugarcane each year to its three factories (Harwood, Broadwater and Condong) using only 21 harvesters and 28 trucks in total. Cane is delivered to each factory every six minutes to maintain maximum processing capacity. There is little or no queuing of trucks at the mill, and few interruptions from the field side operations. This paper describes the progress made since the technology and processes were last reported in 1999. Traditionally a significant proportion of sugarcane processing costs are invested in harvesting and transportation. By contrast, the current system’s operational costs are very low. This paper describes how high levels of operational automation, a reliable system-wide communications system and comprehensive visualisation of real time activity allow a small number of staff to successfully manage a very effective ‘just in time’ system. This innovative system represents a significant change to traditional approaches in harvest and transport management and illustrates a proven path using a whole-of-systems approach for other processors to follow.