Agricultural Logistics

High value-added products derived from milk - such as cheese, butter and baby formula - vary in their contents of fat, protein and other components, and have very strict composition limits. The demand for the dairy products and the composition of the raw milk collected from the farms change by season and by location. This variability and the availability of multiple production resources make finding the combination of products that produces the highest revenue a complex issue for the dairy companies. The Adaptive Supply Networks group recently developed an optimisation tool to determine the best combination of products given the available resources and quality constraints, and informs the managers about the best locations to produce specific dairy products. Data input and output happens through a standard Excel interface, so the optimiser has been easily integrated to the company's product marketing strategy.

For more information please contact Simon Dunstall at CSIRO.

See our wine supply chain research pages for news and highlights of our supply chain research and development in the wine industry, including our collaborations as part of the Wine Supply Chain Council.