Cane age and delivery delay monitoring

This paper describes monitoring functions that have been added to the Traffic Officer Tools (TOTools) computer program. TOTools assists traffic officers with the planning and execution of daily transport operations. Its capabilities and features have been described in previous conference papers. The monitoring functions that have been added to TOToois are: (I) A cane age monitor: (TOTools contains information about harvester locations, start times and average harvesting rates and well as completed collections. From this information, estimates of the age of cane at sidings and storage areas, including the mill yard can be made. The cane age monitor warns the operator if stale cane is left anywhere in the transport system, allowing for corrective action to be taken.). (2) A harvester delay monitor: (TOTools also contains information about planned and completed deliveries. This, along with the harvesting infomlation, allows estimates to be made of delays that harvesters may experience while waiting for empty bin deliveries. The harvester delay monitor warns the operator if these delays are likely to exceed a pre-set limit, again allowing corrective action to be taken.) This paper describes the process, involVing industry collaboration, by which the enhancements were made to TOTools. the extra information required by TOToois to do the monitoring, the testing process undertaken and the results to date.