Operational management in the field: technologies provide automated and efficient management.

In any enterprise, the difference between those who fail and those who succeed is in operational efficiency. And in the field, it's no different. Besides having a good cultivation area and quality inputs, companies and farmers who want to ensure the profit of their business need to have good management as a central focus.

"When we talk about operational management in the field, we are referring to the entire management of the farm, ranging from data-based planning, through the organization and optimization of processes, to the measurement of results," explains the president of Hexagon's Agriculture division, Bernardo de Castro. "Basically, the goal is to ensure that operations work with the highest quality and without failures or waste," he adds.

However, carrying out this operational management can be a major challenge - whether for the agricultural and forestry industries or for rural producers themselves. After all, controlling details such as fuel consumption, machine maintenance, input use and cash flow, for example, is an extremely complex task, especially when it comes to large productions.

In the majority of cases, having this strategic vision of agricultural operations is only possible with the help of technology. With more and more innovative features available, those who want to stay ahead have been betting on products that automate and monitor activities, simplifying the management of tasks and helping to obtain positive results.

"Through technologies such as sensors and on-board computers integrated with agricultural or forestry machinery, data are generated that allow an accurate understanding of the reality of the processes that happen in rural and forestry areas. Viewing and cross-referencing this information, strategic decision-making for operations becomes much more precise", emphasises Bernardo de Castro.

HxGN AgrOn Operational Management software, developed by Hexagon's Agriculture division, for example, is a geo-referenced information management system of agricultural and forestry operations, whether in the planting, cultivation or harvesting phase.

With advanced and automated processing, the product collects information from the displays installed on the machines and, with the aid of the cloud, makes reports, maps, graphs and exportable tables available on an online platform.

Efficiency and profitability for field management

With so much strategic data at hand, companies and producers are able to have much greater control over the agricultural and forestry operations under their management, identifying the most sensitive stages of production and taking the necessary actions to adjust them in an agile manner. This ensures more efficiency and, consequently, reduction of expenses and increase in certain investments.

In the case of HxGN AgrOn Operational Management, the analysis of information such as operating time, area covered, working hours and fuel used by the machines allows the elaboration of strategies to improve fleet management and productive times through the planning of the trajectory of the vehicles and their manoeuvres.

Not to mention that it is possible to issue alerts in certain situations, such as to remember the need for corrective actions on non-calibrated machines.

The reports, graphs and tables also help in the elaboration of a more predictable planning of activities, also enabling the comparative monitoring between what was planned and what is being performed.

"Everything can be automated with a good operational management system. Even the write-off of inventory and the payment of resources, such as inputs and third parties, are tasks that can be integrated into the software and generate a facility in the everyday life of the agricultural and forestry industries and even the rural producer", concludes Bernardo.