The Cuban economy depends to a great extent on the results of agricultural production, which since the triumph of the Revolution has experienced an upward process in its level of mechanization. These advances require the efficient exploitation of the agricultural machinery park, which is achieved if there is adequate planning. At present, in the La Cuba Agricultural Company of various crops, it has been found that the planning of the operation of the machinery park is inefficient, this problem constituting the starting point of the present investigation. In the search for the causes that originate this situation, it was detected that the technological charts are not made or data are omitted due to the time required for their preparation and the need to carry out cumbersome calculations.This analysis makes it possible to specify as an objective the creation of a computer system, using SQLite and the NetBeans development environment as the database manager. In the development of the Software, the RUP methodology and the Visual Paradigm tool are used. The tests carried out corroborate the functionality of the system developed for planning the operation of the machine park, a fundamental issue for achieving greater production efficiency.fundamental question to achieve greater production efficiency.fundamental question to achieve greater production efficiency.
Keywords: computer system, agricultural machinery, planning, technology chart.
Agriculture constitutes a fundamental link in the basic food chain in the world, so it is necessary to guarantee that all its processes are carried out efficiently. This can be achieved in the first place if there is adequate equipment of agricultural machines to carry out all the tasks, but it is not enough, it also needs its rational exploitation. So the need to use machines in agriculture and to do so in a moderate and economical way demands a correct planning of their use, which acquires great significance with the development of integral mechanization and the intensification of food production.
Among the challenges facing agriculture are sustainable agricultural development (Zepeda del Valle and Lacki 2003), that is, the need to recover the productive capacity of the land and preserve natural resources and the environment, and to reorient the matrix technological agriculture, to make it more efficient in the sense of producing more per unit of land, person, energy, capital and time; offering better quality products with lower unit production costs.
La producción agrícola en Cuba es un elemento indispensable para alcanzar el desarrollo económico-social del país, pues con ella se deben garantizar las necesidades alimentarias de la población. Por su parte (Jara 2003) señala, entre los problemas más críticos de la mecanización agropecuaria en el país, los altos costos en la utilización de la maquinaria agropecuaria debido a deficiencias en los procesos de planificación, selección, organización y administración de los recursos técnicos, humanos y de capital.
As a key element for the achievement of a correct planning of agricultural machinery in agricultural companies in the country, there must be an adequate preparation of work plans, based mainly on Technology Letters, which include three groups of indices. However, according to a study carried out in the company of various crops La Cuba in the Ciego de Ávila province, the planning of agricultural machinery shows limitations reflected in:
- Low use of machinery, land, facilities and workers Lack of security in receiving essential inputs for machinery (fuel, oils, parts, etc.) in quantities and in the right times.
Several authors have investigated in this area such as (Márquez Delgado 2009.), (Raimundo and Lora 2010), (Magaña, Baray Guerrero et al. 2010). Studies in this line have also been carried out in Cuba, such as (Santana Duque 2006) and (Hernández Echemendía 2006). However, there are still limitations in the management of the machinery park in the La Cuba multi-crop company in the Ciego de Ávila province. Therefore, this work aims to develop a computer system from a dynamics of coordination and integration relationships, using databases and high-level language, which allows increasing the efficiency of planning the operation of the machine park.
one.
In the development cycle of a computer system, one of the most important steps is choosing the right development tool. This can increase the quality of the end result, as well as significantly reduce development effort and costs.
The computer equipment of the La Cuba de Ciego de Ávila multi-crop company lacks good computer features, including the absence of a computer network that would make it possible to implement a web system for the management of agricultural machinery in the company. Therefore, the author favors the development of a desktop application, following the client's demands for the use of free software tools. Taking into account all these requirements, the languages, tools and techniques used in the development of the application are presented below.
NetBeans : (Manuel Gimeno and González 2011) It is a free integrated development environment, made mainly for the Java programming language, although it can be used for any other programming language. There is also a significant number of modules to extend it, it is a tool for programmers designed to write, compile, debug and run programs. Java: It is a general purpose programming language (Manuel Gimeno and González 2011), its syntax derives a lot from C and C ++, but it has fewer low-level facilities than any of them. Concurrent, object-oriented, and class-based that was specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible.
SQLite: It is an ACID compliant relational database management system, contained in a relatively small (~ 275 kiB) library written in C. SQLite is a public domain project created by D. Richard Hipp. Unlike client-server database management systems, the SQLite engine is not a separate process with which the main program communicates (Kreibich 2010). Instead, the SQLite library is linked to the program by becoming an integral part of it.
UML (Unified Modeling Language): It is a general-purpose language for Object-Oriented modeling. It is used to specify, visualize, construct and document artifacts of a software system; to understand, design, configure, maintain and control the information about the systems to be built (Larman 1999).
RUP (Rational Unifies Process, Unified Development Process): The conception of an information system goes far beyond raising the requirements, developing a set of models and starting to program. RUP is based on six practices: iterative development, requirements management, component-based architecture, visual modeling, continuous quality verification, and change management. These six practices guide the model and are intended to solve many of the problems associated with software. that in reality they have been very little implemented in software projects; these are: ease of use, modularity, encapsulation and ease of maintenance (Wikipedia Consulted February 2006).
Visual Paradigm: Visual Paradigm (Pressman 2002.) is a CASE tool: Computer Aided Software Engineering. It provides a set of aids for the development of computer programs, from planning, through analysis and design, to the generation of the source code of the programs and documentation.
3. Current characterization of the computer tools used in the management process of agricultural machinery in the company of various crops La Cuba in the province of Ciego de Ávila.
The management of agricultural machinery in Cuban companies has been affected by various factors, one of which is the blockade suffered by the country, which has limited the rational use of the machinery park. This situation has also influenced the performance of agricultural work, where existing machines have been misused for lack of adequate ones.
At the present time in Cuba, the management of agricultural machinery is carried out through Technological Letters and the projection of the machinery park. However, after a study carried out at the La Cuba de Ciego de Ávila company of various crops, it has been shown that there are shortcomings in the preparation of these documents, especially the Technology Letters, which limit the performance of adequate management.
Through a survey applied to the selected population, it was determined that 70% of the people related to the management of agricultural machinery have a university school level, while 30% are Middle Technician or graduated from Pre-university. 60% of those surveyed have a work experience that ranges between 10 and 15 years and 40% between 5 and 10 years. These issues are important because they can limit your performance as a planner.
65% of those surveyed reflected that they considered low use of the machinery, land, facilities and workers that the company has. 30% expressed that this situation has occurred on occasions causing damage to the company. The remaining.5% considered that it was not a worrying situation.
On the other hand, the lack of security in the reception of fundamental inputs for machinery was also noted when 85% abaló this situation, highlighting as the most affected inputs fuel, oils and some parts for machines and equipment. According to them there were errors in the quantities to be purchased and the appropriate times for it. The remaining 15% said that this only happened on some occasions.
Then, information is sought on how to carry out the planning of the exploitation of agricultural machines in order to find the causes that led to this situation, obtaining as a result that in most cases it is done manually (60%), only 10% responded that it is done with the help of the computer. 30% say that planning is not done.
Regarding the way of planning, it was detected that it is not very adequate (70% of the respondents). Only 30% answered that it is adequate. Among the causes that originate this situation are the complexity in the calculations for manual execution (80%) and the lack of time (20%). They also added that it was difficult for them to access the information required to carry out such planning (75%) and only 25% expressed the opposite.
40% of those surveyed state that Technology Letters are always made, 40% say sometimes and 20% never. When asked how you could improve the planning of the use of agricultural machines, 100% agree that they need a tool that facilitates the development of Technology Letters.
All of the foregoing reveals the need to develop a Computerized Management System for agricultural machinery that contributes, from a dynamic of coordination and integration relationships, to have an infrastructure to have its own information, share its resources and have communication channels fast and efficient, that collaborate with the development of work and decision making in the company of various crops La Cuba in the province of Ciego de Ávila.
Four.
Software engineering (Wesley 2008) can be considered as engineering applied to software, based on pre-established tools and the application of them in the most efficient and optimal way; goals that engineering always seeks. It is not only about solving problems, but rather taking into account the different solutions to choose the most appropriate one. At this point, the analysis and design of the system is made, using the RUP methodology, since it is a solid methodology with documentation, which supports the incremental evolutionary life cycle, it also has a disciplined approach for assigning tasks, leading to obtain a system that is easy to maintain and can be reused (Jacobson and Rumbaugh 2005). This methodology more than a simple process;is a generic framework that can be specialized for a variety of software, for different application areas, different types of organizations and skill levels, as well as different sizes of projects.
Together with the RUP methodology, the UML language was used, which turns software development into an engineering discipline. Figure 1 shows the Use Case Diagram of the system.
5. Validation and testing of the GESMAG system
Implementation and testing are the focus of attention in the final phases of the software development cycle with RUP methodology, in these stages it is where the executable baseline of the architecture is created and where they are subsequently checked in order to guarantee the output of a quality product (Jacobson and Rumbaugh 2005)
Tests were carried out to the system that allowed to file the possible errors that emerge during the software development and to verify that it works correctly. The interface principles, the error handling, the aids and the security provided by the system, constitute guarantees to the client of the reliability of the developed tool.
Conclusions
Once the investigative process was concluded, it was possible to reach the following conclusions:
- The La Cuba Agricultural Company of various crops currently has a deficient planning of the exploitation of the machinery park, because they do not carry out the Technology Letters or omit data in their preparation, which is fundamentally due to the cumbersomeness of the realization of all this process manually. The studies carried out allowed to corroborate the need to develop a computer tool to carry out the planning of the operation of the machinery park in the La Cuba company of various crops, because there is no possibility of its acquisition, since the existing ones do not meet the client's requirements.This system constitutes a valuable tool in the hands of specialists from agricultural companies,as it allows the entire planning process of the farm machinery operation to be carried out quickly and accurately.
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