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.