How properly supported, full integration can help farmers focus on growing
One of the largest overhead costs in the indoor farming industry is labor, and when growing at scale these costs increase exponentially. When properly designed and deployed, automation systems lower operational cost significantly by automating specific labor intensive tasks.
Automation can also be used to manage facility equipment runtime in ways that consume less power and flag equipment for maintenance, both of which extend equipment life. Some common examples of smart farming automation are: automated lighting, irrigation events, CO2 injection, dehumidifier staging, and scheduling environmental set point changes throughout the grow cycle.
There are many options on the market when it comes to choosing a smart farming controls platform, but few platforms are fully integrated. When growing at scale, it's infinitely more desirable and efficient to have all of your controls and monitoring consolidated by choosing a fully integrated user interface. Why has it become common practice for equipment sales to push non-integrated packaged systems on the smart farming industry despite the benefits that come with total integration solutions? Well, one reason for the trend is that packaged systems are much easier to produce, support, and sell than integrated systems. Many suppliers are interested in making a quick sale, shipping the system to your facility, and then checking out of your project completely. This leaves farmers hanging when it comes to support, often leaving buyers alone to figure out complicated unforeseen issues.
Building and deploying integrated systems requires true commitment from the controls provider and the client. This coordination should begin during early construction and before you finalize and buy your major equipment. Working with an integration expert during product selection for major facility equipment ensures your system can be integrated into one seamless application. Besides the extra visibility that comes with an integrated platform, integrated systems allow users to collect, aggregate, and analyze all facility equipment data using historical views, dashboards, and reports providing your team with deeper insights on how to optimize or troubleshoot the facility.
Contact Mandala Automation and find out if your system is fully integrated. If not, we can help you take the steps to get you there.
