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УПРАВЛЕНИЕ В СОЦИАЛЬНЫХ И ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИХ СИСТЕМАХ
UDC 004.414.2: [338.436.33:338.24]
BBK 32.973:[32.965,5:65.32-211]
I. Yu. Kvyatkovskaya, A. V. Petraev, T. I. Gairabekova
INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR BUSINESS PROCESSES IN AGRO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
И. Ю. Квятковская, А. В. Петраев, Т. И. Гайрабекова
ИНФОРМАЦИОННОЕ ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЕ БИЗНЕС-ПРОЦЕССОВ АГРОПРОМЫШЛЕННОГО КОМПЛЕКСА
The structure of agro-industrial complex management is investigated and typical business processes are singled out. Information tasks for every management level are defined. Variants of information exchange are considered for joining agricultural manufacturers into cooperative societies. Classification of information and analytical reports is offered.
Key words: agro-industrial complex, business process, information and analytical system, management.
Рассмотрена структура управления агропромышленным комплексом, отделены типовые бизнес-процессы. Сформулированы информационные задачи каждого уровня управления. Рассмотрены варианты информационного обмена при объединении сельскохозяйственных производителей в кооперативы. Предложены виды отчетности информационно-аналитической системы.
Ключевые слова: агропромышленный комплекс, бизнес-процесс, информационно-
аналитическая система, управление.
Introduction
Orientation of national policy in Russia on transfer of economics into a new development rout is related to intensified agricultural production. Productive operation of agro-industrial complex (AIC) mostly depends on the maturity of information resources and systems market. They supply manufacturers, production workers, specialists and managing personnel of AIC with trustworthy and reliable data, which, in their turn, prompt to take rational managing decisions. Information activities are connected with the maturity of information infrastructure and creating system of effective management. This system is based upon information technologies in common information space.
The purpose of this work is improving fulfillment of business processes (BPs) in agricultural production. These processes are regulated at different levels of AIC management system with implementation of information and analytical system.
Agricultural production consists of a number of workflows. As a rule, they end up coming to a specific intermediate result (milk yield, live weight gain etc.) The final result of end product depends on the amount and quality of intermediate results.
In this case, part of BPs becomes open-ended or inter-functioning. Viewed from the point of AIC managing body, among these BPs there are those related to managing and serving outstanding clients; services and agricultural production processes and implementation of new breeding technologies.
As for agricultural manufacturer, open-ended BP refers to his or her support at every step of interaction with ambient environment; immediate work flow and applications processing; timely petroleum and seeds distribution; reliable and timely information supply; qualified information counseling and production support. Improving BP efficiency, which is based on prompt feedback of its elements, does not lead to common efficiency concurrence of its processes.
Organizational structure of AIC management. Based on systematic approach, the AIC management can be presented as a complex system. It consists of interrelated elements, levels and sub-
levels, a number of operation purposes which correspond to different management levels. As for organizational structure, it has peculiarities resembling branch alliances. The bottom management level consists of elements that are not subject to federal bodies. These elements’ independent economic activities are shaped depending on market conditions, natural environment and the potential of executive managers. When in crisis, AIC must be prepared for any change. This can be achieved by flexible management policy which allows giving a prompt reaction on threats and minimizing negative impact. That is why a structure, providing the most democratic management pattern, is necessary. Such divisional structure is based on the correspondence of large independent economic and production departments to single management levels. The latter should also get in charge of making profit. The downside of this structure is reproducing the functions, fulfilled by each department. Divisional structure allows AIC management system to give a more immediate feedback and adjust to the emerging changes, paying as much attention to a specific task or product as medium-sized specialized enterprise.
Agro-industrial complex management system is necessary for building interaction in supporting one or several management BPs. They are connected with horizontal hierarchy of inner interrelated functional actions. The final target of this interconnected BPs is the emission of documents and designing management actions.
The peculiarity of AIC as a management object is the presence of municipal and district production management, besides federal and regional levels. This type of management has almost no impact on industrial fields, transport, trade etc. However, municipal and district bodies still influence agriculture to a considerable degree. This level’s distinctive peculiarity is the initiative of forming cooperative societies; defining specialization of agricultural production; building process plants in the district with the aim of attracting investment and offering new jobs [1, 2].
The bottom level of AIC organizational structure is presented with direct management subjects. Among them are farming ventures (FV); agricultural enterprises (AE) and personal subsidiary plots (PSP). Among agricultural enterprises we can single out agro-industrial enterprises. They are an organizational form of manufacture which comprises agricultural and industrial production within a single economy. PSP are presently in demand as a consequence of low profit of private households in rural territories. Further advances in agricultural sector will obviously lead to the improvement of living standards and bringing the role of PSP down [3].
Managing agricultural regions, that include FVs, AEs and PSPs, requires their segmenting in a number of features. Suchlike horizontal division is possible on the level of one household [4, 5]. Divisional structure of AIC management allows to join groups of manufacturers within an agricultural consumer, supply and sales co-op societies targeted at effective promotion of commodities.
Agricultural consumer, supply and sales societies (ACSSC) comprise agricultural manufacturers, process plants, sales and buying enterprise. ACSSCs are developing in order to exclude marketer blacks from commodities exchange chain between agricultural manufacturer and agricultural consumer. The aim of ACSSCS is designing more beneficial conditions for selling commodities and supplying co-op members with means of production. While collecting large consignments ACSSCs successfully compete with mediators, who bring to a considerable level the price for commodities down and the price for provided services up [6, 7]. ACSSC partly supports BPs of lower management level that is characterized with inter-functionality.
The scientists of Saratov state agricultural university have singled out 4 mechanisms of integrating role of ACSSCs. These mechanisms depend on specific regional conditions, rural areas as well as distribution of cooperative societies and sales outlets [8]. ACSSC is an integrator which has been built for effective management of material, financial and information flows. The authors worked out information models which correspond to each variant. It is necessary to visualize BPs as well as provide common data way, web services, XML etc. in order to shape open-ended BPs, provided by ACSSC.
While organizing a co-op society based on integrator economy, data interaction is built upon horizontal cooperation between an agricultural enterprise (integrator), a co-op society, PSP owners and heads of FVs (fig. 1). This alliance allows to significantly raise the earning power of commodities, produced by PSP, FV and other economies. At the same time PSP owners gain form integrator economy consultations on production technologies, cattle, footage, veterinary drugs and petroleum for rent. A cooperative society, in its turn, buys and sells agricultural products to a process plant.
Material and financial flows:
Agricultural products Financial calculations
ALLOCATIONS
i Sales outlets
Fig. 1. Material and financial flows
Fig. 2 presents the scheme of dataflow from ACSSC subjects to the central managing body of AIC. This dataflow reflects reports on funding agricultural manufacturers and ACSSC integrator economies from the regional budget. One of the functions of integrator economy is to sign agreements with FV and PSP owners so as to manufacture agricultural products. The society of PSP, FV and an agricultural enterprise is responsible for sales. They can be achieved by building an effective system of collecting agricultural products from co-op members and delivering it onto a process plant.
Within the period of contract validity ACSSC provides services in consulting on manufacturing and technologies as well as financial activities. As a result, the operating revenue is transferred to the settlement account of a co-op society. Then the profit is distributed among the manufacturers in proportions, corresponding to the volumes of products manufactured.
AIC MANAGEMENT
A
i
i
i
Data reports on funding I f'i
Agricultui al consumer supply and sales society • □
Data reports on manufactured products (volume, price]
PROCESS PLANT
Fig. 2. Dataflow
The second variant of sales mechanism for agricultural products provides for including a process plant into an ACSSC as an associate member (fig. 3).
ALLOCATION
Fig. 3. Material and financial flows
The presence of a process plant in material and financial flows allows agricultural manufacturers to have a constant distribution channel. The process plant may regulate supplies of raw materials by manufacturers or distribution of credit funds among ACSSC members. The process plant allows building an immediate system of mutual payments.
Like in the first variant, ACSSC may broaden its activities providing agricultural manufacturers with necessary production means. The regulation of dataflow thus is limited to supporting financial and material means on a cooperative level and conveying information on the effectiveness of funding to superior bodies. These higher authorities, in their turn, can be controlled by district or regional elements of management system [9].
Information and analytical system of AIC management. Data support for AIC BP is fulfilled by information and analytical system (IAS). The key business processes, serviced by it, are analysis, planning and forecasting. Regional level allows to organize search and information processing for the following operations: certification of objects of AIC resource supply, rating elements on territorial level according to a specific criterion and building a regional rating system. The tasks of branch and territorial levels include: processing data on the area and soil structure of agricultural lots; distribution and specialization of enterprises; rating subordinate subjects according to a specific criterion; building district or branch rating system; calculating branch weighted averages; creating and operating databases on agricultural techniques. The tasks, solved by agricultural manufacturers, include: collecting and updating reference data on one’s own household including information on agricultural lots, technical, financial and human resources supplies; the search for partners and investors; evaluation of one’s own financial state by means of organizations that provide loans or leasing services for agricultural manufacturers.
A regional databank must provide operation of AIC management system. This bank must collect scientific data on animal breeding, plant growing, wine growing, use of chemicals etc. As for animal breeding, the following data can be presented there: livestock species composition, footage, breeding techniques and animal veterinary. Speaking about plant growing, the databank can comprise scientific knowledge on plant breeds, conditions of seeds supply, manufactured agricultural machines and equipment. Wine growing databank can help solve issues of breed zoning and specialization of wine growing. This kind of bank can be formed on the basis of ampelography, which is the knowledge of
kinds and breeds of grapes. This science studies the patterns of change of grapes under the influence of environment and direct human activities. The breeds are described according to a common system, approved by International Commission of Ampelography. Data correction is fulfilled by regional and territorial bodies on the basis of changing breeding conditions.
Databanks, presenting ambient environment of a regional AIC, are related to the description of market conditions and issues of price setting. The latter depends on the cost of energy, equipment, machines and planting materials. Manufacturers must obtain major information through regional and district information and consulting bureaus by means of global networks.
The structure of IAS includes:
- manufacturer level;
- private database, containing information on the state of agricultural lots (agricolous, landscape and climatic); results of financial and farming activities; state of fixed assets and production infrastructure;
- normative-reference data in ambient environment: purchasing price on the manufactured products; recommendations on obtaining equipment on lease; regional and federal programms on support of agricultural sector; fuel, seeds, fertilizer etc. prices.
A supplement to IAS must be ES (expertise system) which is focused on selecting the structure of manufacturing for the most profitable directions and their combinations.
Branch level is represented by databases on technologies of agricultural production. Its elements include subject-oriented information systems (or CALS-systems) which make an inquiry to the single units of databases. These units correspond to the stages of breeding technology or processing. For instance, for animal breeding these are breeding, care, maintenance, diet of animal feeding, mechanization, veterinary support, etc.
Primary information for IAS operation may be presented with various data on agricultural enterprises - homogeneous objects of observation. Fixed factors, whose value is known, are part of AIC management. There are also indefinite factors that are explained by natural phenomena and appear as a consequence of lack of knowledge or information. Correspondingly these factors are called "firm" and "mild" factors [10]. Firm ones measure the volume of manufactured products, their cost price, amortization of fixed assets, financial indicators of enterprises’ stability. Mild factors evaluate management effectiveness, product quality, consumer satisfaction etc. Measuring mild factors is one of the most labor-consuming management tasks (tab. 1) [11].
Table 1
"Mild" and "firm" factors for assessing the quality of farmhands in agricultural economy
Objective — "firm" factors Subjective — "mild" factors
Quality of seeds, cattle breeds. Presence of the required means of protection for plants and animals. The degree of wearing out for machines and equipment. Organization level of labor, production and management. The rating of agricultural labor on labor market. Qualification and experience level in agriculture. The degree of personal interest in the results of work. Social and psychological climate in a single department in a specific district. Personal qualities of a farmhand. Attitude of a farmhand to labor. Attitude of society to labor.
The work of AIC IAS suggests issuing output data in various forms that are necessary for making management decisions:
1. In the form of periodic reports on the results achieved at every level of AIC management according to evident relations. The mechanism of collecting information is an indispensable stage of preparing reports. It allows a manager to draw quality-based conclusions, foresee tendencies and average indicators out.
2. In the form of situational reports that are written on the basis of a manager’s inquiry towards the elements of a subordinate level depending on the need in data for analysis or making managing decisions.
3. In the form of interactive data given out on a dashboard in order to control basic indicators f activities; compare actual and planned indicators and manage deflections immediately. A top manager may analyze every indicator in details through a number of lower-level indicators which influence a current one. For example, he or she can decode which agricultural manufacturers haven’t fulfilled the planned supply and what their share in the total volume of non-delivered products is.
4. In the form of prediction results achieved on the basis of adequate models presented.
5. In the form of analytical reports based on discovering non-evident relations by means of intellectual data analysis.
Preparing reports refers to structured and semi-structured tasks. The former include reports on results of activities of lower-level IAS elements. They use quantity characteristics, measured with absolute (the number of manufactured products, their volume and price) or relative (the share of manufactured products in total amount, the amount of energy expenses in the cost value of crops etc.) indicators. The latter comprise reports on rating lower-level elements according to one or several a-priori evident features or on dividing these elements into classes. The example of suchlike report can be making up a list of model test economies bearing the most characteristic features of the branch with the aim of setting a market price.
Conclusion
The primary information technologies to implement in agriculture should be information and communication technologies that allow to join databases, geoinformation, CALS and expert system technologies as well as users residing far from one another. The designed variants of information exchange allow to join agricultural manufacturers within one cooperative society; eliminate intermediaries and increase in price for the purchased from manufacturers products by 25-32 %. The latter factors provoke financial instability on food market.
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The paper is submitted to the editorial board 6.07.2012
INFORMATION ABOUT AUTHORS
Kvyatkovskaya Irina Yurievna - Astrakhan State Technical University; Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor; Professor of the Department "Applied Informatics in Economics"; i.kvyatkovskaya@astu.org.
Квятковская Ирина Юрьевна - Астраханский государственный технический университет; д-р техн. наук, профессор; профессор кафедры «Прикладная информатика в экономике»; i.kvyatkovskaya@astu.org.
Petraev Andrey Victorovich - Astrakhan State Technical University; Candidate of Economical Sciences, Professor; Doctoral Candidate of the Department "Applied Informatics in Economics";
A.Petraev@astrakhan.sviaz-bank.ru.
Петраев Андрей Викторович - Астраханский государственный технический университет; канд. экон. наук, докторант кафедры «Прикладная информатика в экономике»; A.Petraev@astrakhan.sviaz-bank.ru.
Gayrabekova Tamara Izrailovna - Chechen State University; Senior Lecturer of the Department "Information Technology"; sti_ing@mail.ru.
Гайрабекова Тамара Израиловна - Чеченский государственный университет; старший преподаватель кафедры «Информационные технологии»; sti_ing@mail.ru.
