Awgar Stone - Agrochemical Software: Data Management Considerations in the Fertilizer Supplier Industry

Notice of New Website
Click here to go to the new version of the website.

Agrochemical Software: Data Management Considerations in the Fertilizer Supplier Industry

NPK, Chelation and Trace Elements: Complexity and the Need for Excel or an IT System

The design and production of fertilizers as well as other agrochemicals involves firstly the delicate process of creating a blend of chemicals that give the correct proportions of nutrients that the target crop requires. This is likely to be done with the help of an Excel spreadsheet or IT system as the calculations are complex. Many fertilizers are so-called NPK fertilizers as they provide the three major plant nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These main nutrients are blended in various proportions and may well in addition have trace amounts of other chemicals added to them, possibly chelated transition elements (a metal held in a complex structure formed by the binding of molecules, referred to as ligands).

Different raw materials will product different amounts of nutrients. This data as well as raw material cost all needs to be included in the software used, whether Excel or a full database system. A professional software developer or expert may save time and money.

Liquid Fertilizers and Solid Fertilizers

The chemical and physical characteristics of the fertilizer / agrochemical mixture are interrelated and to further complicate matters a fertilizer can be liquid or solid. Safety considerations are important as certain levels of ammonium nitrate for example must not be present in a powder fertilizer due to the explosive potential. Any IT system should take into account the physical and well as chemical aspects as well as giving "alerts" regarding these safety and legal aspects.

A knowledge of physical chemistry (as well as some organic and inorganic) is useful for these calculations.

Manufacturing, Packaging and Supply

In terms of IT systems the business processes can be roughly broken down as follows:

Manufacturing of fertilizer of agrochemicals - mixing (blending), bill of materials and packaging into cartons, bottles or kegs for example.
Supply chain management (SCM) is also involved including ordering, purchasing, product configuration, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, inspection of goods and commission calculations.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), sales and marketing, commissions, service, customer contact
Project management, finance and human resources - these may well be handled by an accounting system.

Integrated packages or integrated systems can make management of the above easier, these are sometimes referred to as ERP systems. This is at the other extreme to just using Microsoft Excel or Access, most companies will fall somewhere in between. The more aggressive tend to invest heavily in IT and grow faster.

Fertilizer Supplier Software - Is there Such a Thing?

There doesn't appear to be any packaged (off-the-shelf) software for the design and production of fertilizers specifically, (a Google search for "fertilizer supplier software" yields no results), so custom software (or bespoke software) would need to be developed. The technology itself is less important here than making sure calculations are correct in any IT system / database application, working closely with the custom software supplier should achieve this.

A good place to start however is Excel, once mature, these spreadsheets can be used as a basis for an IT system.

-
23 April 2010
Paul Rigby works for Awgar Stone Ltd as a director and software developer and has been producing Excel and bespoke software solutions to various industries including the manufacturing, scientific and agrochemical / fertilizer supplier industry for over 10 years.