FIT2001 - Week 2

The previous post was my reflective blog for Week 1 of the first semester of 2010 academic year. I reflected on the analysis of water cycle system and some ideas on how to improve it. This week however, I have learned about the importance of the food chain system which produces, distributes, and consumes the food for general population.

Just like last week, the system consists of 5 subsystems working coherently to achieve a greater desired outcome. The subsystems are as follows:

1. Farmers - The farmers are the most important subsytem in the system. They are responsible in producing the foods for distribution and consumption to the community to survive. But the process is actually more complicated than it seems. Farmers need to be able to analyse the area that they are going to plant their crops in and making sure the soul and climate are at the optimal conditions. Then they have to select the correct seeds they are going to plant and procure the correct equipment with proper access. Irrigation is a part of the subsystem that is also important since without proper watering, the crops will not be able to grow. Once the crops are ready, the farmers need to harvest them and may distribute the harvested crops themselves or have a contract agreement with an outsourced distributor.
2. Distributors - The distributor is responsible for carrying the foods produced by the farmers to the wholesale buyer to be sold. This might be done by either outsourcing the distributor from third-party distributor or it may be done through internal sources. In the latter means the distribution is done by the farmers themselves. This might be a cost-efficient alternative for small to medium food producers. But for farmers who are producing their food at a larger scale might need to have their distribution methods through outsourcing to improve the efficiency.
3. Buyers -The buyers are the people who are responsible with stocking their storage facilities for retail. It is their responsibility to sell the food products to their customers for consumption.
4. Consumers - The consumers are the ones that buys the products from the retail stores for consumption.
5. Standards Authorities - The Standards Authorities are the people responsible for conducting quality control over the food products. The purpose is to ensure that the food products are fit for consumption and to avoid health issues in the future.

This week, I feel more knowledgeable in systems analysis. It's still haven't touched on the IT side, but an initial analysis on common day-to-day systems give me an idea on what to be expected from this unit.

FIT2001 - Week 1

During the first week of my fourth Semester, I have met new people, new units, and especially new knowledge. For this unit, the tutorial has been quite educational. We talked about the artificial water cycle system that has been used in all parts of the world.

The System consists of 5 subsystems that works simultaneously to keep the water running. These subsystems are:

1. Collection - The collection subsystem works with a purpose of collecting the water from natural water resources. My group and I was considering the use of Seawater as an additional water source since 70% of the world's area are covered in seawater with the main collection facility to be freshwater from dammed rivers and mountain springs. Seawater can be distilled to produce freshwater and processed to produce cleanwater while the remaining leftover salt from the distillation process can be distributed to salt manufacturer plants.
2. Storage - The storage subsytem works as a place to store the water collected by the collection plant. Is is used as a water reserve in case the collection facilities are producing less cleanwater than the consumption. The water in the storage can be distributed accordingly until production rate restored. It is can be used also to store the cleanwater when the collection facilities are producing more water than the consumption.
3. Distribution - The Distribution subsystem is responsible for carrying the water from both the collection and the storage facility to the population for consumption. This contains devices such as pipes to carry the water, and waterpumps to generate sufficient pressure to be used for general consumption. I think this should be designed accordingly to withstand natural disaster to avoid water scarcity when natural disaster strikes.
4. Consumption - Distributed water are consumed by the general population both for residential and industrial purposes. This consumption should be monitored from the water meters for the usage to see the consumption trends of the population as a information source to improve the production : consumption ratio.
5. Disposal - The water disposal is the subsystem that is resposible for disposing the waters used after consumption. Water waste are categorised into two types: grey water, and blackwater. Instead of disposing the water, my group and I suggest a way to reprocess the both water types into cleanwater to be collected as a collection subsystem. The water can be reused for the general population to increase the production. The leftovers from the waste process can be used as a natural fertilizers for agricultural needs.

so far, the tutorial has taught me the importance of water cycle in our daily lives. The tutorial also enables me to think critically to analyse different systems. This should help me in my future career.

This concludes my first week blog. Stay tuned for next week ^^.

~ Dian P. Irianto ~
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