Digital Dairy Chain Innovation Voucher: Cow shed design optimisation

The company, Boreland Farming Partnership, currently operates a 40-year old cow shed accommodating more than 200 cows. Due to evolution in business requirements and market landscape, a number of bottlenecks have been identified impacting the well-being of both cows and staff, hence hinder the efficiency as well as the strategic growth of the business. The current dairyman will be retiring and a new one will be hired, along with other staff on rotation. A new shed is being planned to replace the old one and so this collaboration was formed.

This project, hence, aims to improve the shed design by resolving the bottlenecks while meeting the requirements/needs of both cows and staff. In order to achieve the aim, a number of objectives is listed below:
1. Examine the key functions/areas of the current shed layout
2. Define key requirements of cows and staff
3. Identify major bottlenecks and define/measure the efficiency of the current shed layout
4. Model a new shed layout to meet all major requirements and restrictions (space, resource, etc)

The key outcome of this project will be a prototype version of the simulation model that can evaluate the efficiency of the shed layout under different operational requirements and constraints. It is believed that this model can help to demonstrate a new capability to the organisation in designing the best shed layout fulfilling the current and future demand.