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<pre>Members from the list might be interested in a number of resources we have made
available to the public from the MIT Data Center that relate to various aspects
of agriculture. The MIT Data Center is situated within the Laboratory for
Manufacturing and Productivity at MIT located in Cambridge, MA. One area of
particular interest is the application of harvest risk to the production of
olives. You can see detailed paper on the subject at: "Controlling the Risk for
an Agricultural Harvest"
http://mitdatacenter.org/1526-5498-2004-6-3-0225.pdf This paper deals with risk
associated with grapes, however, it could be applied to other crops. You can see
our other work relating to agriculture at:
http://www.mitdatacenter.org/DATACENTERharvestrisk.htm Another area we are
working involves the integration of management science, engineering technology,
and supply chain management. We believe this has great application for
agricultural industries. You can see a series of presentations from a recent
meeting we conducted titled "Engineering Marketing Science" at the following
link: http://www.mitdatacenter.org/DATACEN...sentations.htm Bringing
sophisticated marketing approaches to agriculture will lead to improved sales.
As a final area, MIT has a strong reputation in the area of computer science.
The focal point of the MIT Data Center is the M Language, an approach for data
and model interoperability. You can see an introductory paper on the subject
at: http://www.mitdatacenter.org/MIT-DATACENTER-WH-009.pdf We are currently
working on a series of applications of M in agriculture and would be open to
hearing suggestions for application within the olive industry. The MIT Data
Center lists a number of resources in the supply chain and logistics area.
These are important to efficient agriculture. You can visit the site at
www.mitdatacenter.org We welcome suggestions on the direction of our research
program and the needs of the olive industry. Best, Ed

Edmund W. Schuster

edmund_w@mit.edu
www.mitdatacenter.org

Select papers available online authored by Ed Schuster, Stuart Allen, and
others:

"An Introduction to Semantic Modeling for Logistical Systems"
http://www.mitdatacenter.org/BrockSchusterAllenKar.pdf


"Capacitated Materials Requirements Planning and its Application in the Process
Industries"
http://mitdatacenter.org/JBL98v6%20-...%20spacing.pdf

"Master Production Schedule Stability Under Conditions of Finite Capacity"
http://mitdatacenter.org/LEC20054-14-05R1.pdf



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