A first course

The most important thing to realize is that things are to be kept simple, at least in the beginning. By doing so you should be able to get up and running in a few hours. When you have become familiar with the way the program is working then you can make things more detailed as needed.

The files are to be filled in, in the order they appear in the “Data files” menu. In most files the initial task is to create a number of entries and associating these with an identifier (a number). Do not bother too much about the numbers used. These can always be changed using the renumbering function found in the “General / Data files” menu. In every file you should consult the online help (press [F1]) in order to get an idea of what goes into each field. In most fields it is evident, but some might need a little explanation.

The first time you enter a file, it is empty and ready to receive the first input. When a line within the file is left, the data contained on the line is stored immediately. You can insert new lines within a file by pressing [F4] or by moving below the last existing line using the [arrow down] key. If the size of a window doesn’t suite you, it can be resized by dragging the borders using the mouse. If a file is equipped with a green splitter separating the upper and the lower part of the window, the splitter can be dragged up and down as well. All windows can be moved around by dragging the title bar. All file entries contain a context menu that can be invoked by right-clicking the window. The context menus feature functions for copying, mass insertion, and other facilities for rapid data entry depending of the file in question.

The basic files

The Greenhouse file is important in order to get e.g. the energy consumption right. There are quite a few fields in this file that need some explanation. Consult the online help within the file. You may skip the file for now, but then only “non costs” matters such as space utilization will be computed correctly.

Skip the Glasshouse file. The file provides a loosely connected foundation for the Department file and is not needed.

The Department file is important. The departments comprise the planning units in the program. You need at least one department, which in that case will be the whole greenhouse. That probably is a bit too simple. Make a propagation department, a stock plant department, and one or more departments for the final production as needed. If it doesn’t matter whether plants are spaced in one house or the other then these two houses should belong to the same department unless other considerations speak against it. Two houses that are not similar equipped regarding e.g. growth light should probably not be part of the same department. To begin with, the gross area and the net area for each department is all that is required.

The Operation file contains all operations applied to any crop. Start with entering the operations for starting, spacing, backspacing, sale (packing) and maintenances. Later on you can always expand these operations into the sub-operations comprising them. E.g.: The starting operation is comprised by filling pots, putting pots on tables, and putting cuttings into pots. Consider it twice before you begin planning at this detailed level. Bear in mind that the norm time associated with each operation only is used as a proposal when entering data in the Batch file. Caveat: When selecting the “Type” for the backspacing operation, do not get tempted to select one of the sales types although backspacing is applied during the selling phase of a crop course. The labor for backspacing is applied to plants that are not sold (yet) and the correct type would be “Start”.

The Material file contains the various pots, substrate, packing etc. that is used in the greenhouse. Enter the materials used by selecting the material type and applying a number to each.

Until now the information entered has been rather scattered with no or little mutual connection. That is because the files above found the basis for every thing else within the program. When you have finished entering data in the basic files, changes only have to be made to these when e.g. a new material is introduced or a cost price has changed.

The Crop/Batch files

In the Crop file things get more complicated. At a first glance the Crop file looks like all the other basic files, but now we begin to use the information stored in these. The Crop file is tightly connected to the Batch file. The Crop file contains information that always applies to a crop, whereas information depending on the time the plants are started is stored in the Batch file.

To begin with, make one crop by giving it a number, a name, and saving it. On the “General” tab enter any labor needed for maintenance during a crops lifetime and the operation number for maintenance. Enter royalty costs if any. Click the “Prices” tab and enter the expected selling prices in the table contained in the tab sheet. Be aware that the selling price table contains a forecast and there is no need to enter a new and only slightly changing selling price for each week. Enter instead a suitable average for an interval of weeks. This is done by entering the first week of the interval in the “From week” field, skipping the “To week” field thus leaving it blank, and finally entering the expected price. Repeat this on the next lines for each selling price interval. Click on the “Materials” tab and enter the materials that apply to all batches for the crop. Normally this would be one pot per plant, some substrate, a 12 hole tray when selling, and maybe a sleeve.

Next you have to enter the phase data in the Batch file. The Batch file is invoked be pressing [Ctrl-Enter] or [Ctrl-F3] within the Crop file or by clicking the “Batch button” located in the top of the entry.

In the Batch file the course of a crop is defined. Batches are (like selling prices) defined in intervals. Start by making one batch interval containing all the necessary phases. This is done by entering both the starting week and the ending week of a period where all batch starts have the same course. Enter the number of cuttings per pot and the cost of one cutting. Then the phases are to be described in the lower part of the window. The 4 most important fields are the “Dur. Weeks” (duration in weeks), “Num. pl./m²” (number of plants per m²), “Waste (%)”, and “Sales (%)”. You may skip the field “Phase desc.” as it is nothing but descriptive.

In the following simple description of a crop course it is assumed that the plants are tightly spaced for a period of 5 weeks, then spaced and growing forth for a period of 7 weeks, until finally, when they are sold over a period of 2 weeks. After the first week of selling the plants are backspaced in order to consolidate the space available.

The first phase is the starting phase and you must enter the duration ( = 5 ) of the period, where the plants are spaced tightly, in the field “Dur. Weeks”. Assuming that the plants are potted in 10 cm pots enter the figure “109” into the field “Num. pl./m²”. Enter the figure “2” in the field “Waste (%)”, as it is assumed that 2 % of the plants are to be dumped before spacing due to poor quality. In the first operations field “Op.1” enter the number of the starting operation. In the field “Lab.1” enter the norm time for the operation.

In the second phase enter the duration ( = 7 ), the number of plants per m² when spaced ( e.g. 47 ), and the operation for spacing together with the associated norm time.

It is now time for the selling phase. As mentioned above there will be a backspacing after one week’s sales. We therefore have to break up the selling phase into two separate phases with duration of one week each. Therefore on the next line enter duration of one week, and keep the 47 plants per m² from the line above. In the field “Sales (%)” enter the figure “70” assuming that 70% of the remaining plants are sold in the first selling week. Enter the operation for selling (packing) together with the associated norm time. On the next line once again enter duration of one week and keep the plants per m². In the field “Waste (%)” enter “10” and in the field “Sales (%)” enter “90”. This means that of the approximately remaining 28% ( ≈ 100% – 2% – 70% ) of the plants started, 10% will be dumped due to poor quality, and all other remaining plants will be sold. Though a wastage percentage of 10 appear to be much, it actually corresponds to approximately 3% of the plants started, as most of the plants were sold on the line above. Repeat the selling operation and its associated norm time and enter the operation for backspacing in the next operation field together with its norm time. On the information tab in the bottom of the entry you can evaluate the figures entered, as their impact is calculated here based on a starting quantity of 1000 plants.

Move to the upper half of the batch entry and enter the next batch interval. As soon as the interval is stored, a copy of the phase lines from the previous batch interval is copied to it. Normally the only changes that have to be made to the copy of the phase lines are the duration in one or two of the lines. Repeat making new batch intervals until you have a full year. Although you don’t intend to start a batch each and every week, you should keep the set of batch intervals contiguous. No plants are started until stated so in the Planning file. Having a definition of all batches available provides greater flexibility when changes to the plan have to be made.

You now have a full description of one crop with selling prices, phase data and all. Run a crop analysis from the “Analyses” menu in order to verify that the data entered are reasonable. Any odd results indicate a mistyping/misunderstanding somewhere. Be aware that you must have filled in all relevant data in the Greenhouse file in order to get the crop analysis accurate.

As there is nothing more tedious than retyping, the now verified crop should be used as a prototype for other similar crops. That is, if another crop does not differ too much, it is easier to modify a copy of the first crop in order to get the next one, rather than retyping everything from scratch once again. In order to make a copy press [F6] within the Crop file.

Planning

Now all the conditions for making a plan are in place, and the actual planning can be made in the Planning file. Entering starting quantities is straight forward. Enter the crop number, the starting week, and the starting quantity in the upper part of the planning entry, and enter where the plants are to be placed in each phase by indicating the proper department numbers in the lower part of the entry. The Planning file features several functions to facilitate entering large amounts of information. Right-click the entry and have a look at the possibilities displayed in the context menu.

Further help

The above “guided tour” is a simplistic way of explaining how things are done. Several issues have been purposely neglected, but if you completed the above, you will have a skeleton on which you can hang the missing stuff as your skills improve. You will of course need to know how to handle more complicated matters, as you squeeze the program to make it fit the way you do things. It is not the aim of this tutorial to explain the many ways things can be handled, and the many tricks that can be applied in order to solve a specific production problem. You will have to consult the online help or the User’s guide in order to get a thorough understanding of how GartPlan behaves.

You can get a printed copy of the user’s guide. In the “Help” menu click the “User’s guide” item in order to load it into your word processor. From within your word processor you can print out the user’s guide or just parts of it. Do your self a favor and study the section about keyboard shortcuts as this will ease your work with the program considerably.