Implementation of lean manufacturing principles in a vertical farming system to reduce dependency on human labour

Abstract

Based on the current trends and projections of population growth and average caloric intake per capita, the world is growing hungrier with every passing decade. Despite the advancements in agriculture techniques, the rising temperature, increasing frequency of natural disasters and changes in global precipitation concentration have negatively affected the yield of agriculture sectors around the world. Adding to the fact that there is a scarcity for labour in farms worldwide, the agriculture sector is facing an immense challenge to meet the growing demand for agriculture produce. With the largest consumers of said produce concentrated in the urban areas, a new revolution of growing and harvesting produce known as Urban Farming has gained popularity as a green and self-sustaining initiative. Among the common urban farming systems, a plant factory that combines water-based agriculture, vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture, boasting the highest yield and growth rate has the most potential to feed the ever-growing population of urban dwellers. However, plant factories are notorious for their high overhead cost due to the high-power consumption and dependency on human labour. This paper attempts to redesign the typical plant factory layout in order to reduce the need to move the growing trays and enable the implementation of low-cost, simple cartesian robotics. The prototype adopts the lean management principle karakuri kaizen to enable mechanical motion of the growing trays which reduces the amount of vertical and horizontal motion needed by a cartesian robot as well as maximizing the space used for the growing area of any typical plant factory layout. Experimental results show that 90% of 36 seedlings of cabbage have grown successfully within a 6-week period. © 2020, World Academy of Research in Science and Engineering. All rights reserved.