Dynamic Programming to Solve Picking Schedule at the Tea Plantation

Abstract

The tea picking schedule at PT Perkebunan Ciater is set to be the same for all plantation blocks. In fact, the altitude from sea level and the pruning age of each plantation block is different, this results in the difference of buds’ growth. The implementation of the same picking schedule causes the quality and quantity of tea buds often could not be fulfilled. This research is to determine the precise picking schedule by considering the buds’ growth of each plantation block. Two steps are implemented to solve the problem. The first step is to look for picking period and the pattern of buds’ quality for each plantation block, which corresponds to the altitude of the location and the pruning age. The regression method is applied in this first step. The buds’ quality pattern is then used to determine the cost of decreasing buds’ quality and the costs of the buds that left in the plantation. The second step is to develop the picking schedule using dynamic programming, which minimizes the total cost of picking. In addition to this, we also develop a rolling schedule, which schedule time interval is three days. The model results show that the proposed schedule gives a better total cost than the current schedule and the buds’ quality target is easier to achieve.