Integration of Production Control and Enterprise Management Systems in Horticulture.

Production processes in horticulture are increasingly industrialized. Greenhouses have developed towards high-tech production plants that are highly automated by advanced systems for climate control, irrigation, crop monitoring, harvesting, internal transportation, sorting and packaging. At the same time, horticultural production nowadays is a complex managerial task, which needs advanced management information. However, this information is often registered manually in enterprise management systems. This paper aims to contribute to a better integration of production automation systems and enterprise management systems in the Dutch horticulture. It investigates the current situation and existing related standards (ISOBUS and ISA-95). Moreover, the paper identifies barriers for the adoption of integration solutions, including the economic situation, a decrease of the high-end market, a low willingness to cooperate, a relative low scale of growers, a high perceived complexity and path dependency, a negative perception of the relative advantage and a limited willingness of growers to invest.