DESIGN OF FUNCTIONALITIES FOR MONITORING PIG MEAT

TRACEABILITY INFORMATION SYSTEM

Liana ANICA-POPA
Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Accounting and Management
Information Systems
E-mail: liana.anica@cig.ase.ro
ABSTRACT
Modeling functionalities of a traceability monitoring information system involves identifying the
operations whose performance must be ensured !his analysis is based on functional
re"uirements of the system# made from various perspectives of the business of farming pigs#
mainly
!his paper presents concrete findings and results of the research study# activities diagrams
drawn using $ML methodology# modeling wor%ing modules for recording the various
possibilities of growth of the livestoc% at a farm

KEYWORDS
information systems design# activity diagrams# monitoring por% traceability# food safety# food
"uality# consumer protection# research-development-innovation
INTRODUCTION
Designing an information system for monitoring traceaility of the !or" !roduction is
circumscried to the central desideratum aiming to im!ro#e the $uality of !or" !roducts to
ensure food safety, food $uality. %educing at acce!tale le#els, or e#en eliminating the
ris"s of consuming food !roducts &hich not fulfill $uality standards ensure greater
consumer !rotection, &hich can enefit from safe and &holesome food.
According to the author, a traceaility information system of !or" to carcass must
include s!ecific modules corres!onding to the acti#ities that &ould !ro#ide at least the
follo&ing main features:
- herd management'
- in!ut register (through the !urchase of animals, cal#ing, transfers)'
- out!uts record (deli#ery, death, transfer)'
- com!uteri*ed management of feeding'
disease and medication administration record.
All this resulted after studying functional re$uirements, e+!ressed y the research team
memers &ith different s!eciali*ations in agri - food sufields.
In the research material is !resented the suite of ,M- acti#ity diagrams illustrating the
increases !ig li#estoc" management y !urchasing or transfers or cal#ing.
1. ACTIVITIES DIAGRAM
In literature, the acti#ities diagram de!icts the acti#ities organi*ation and ongoing.
.onditional eha#iors are re!resented y decision !oints, and the !arallel eha#iors are
united y synchroni*ation ars. Synchroni*ation ars allo& you to sho& concurrent threads
in the &or"flo& of a usiness use case (Ericsson, /001). A decision !oint has only one
in!ut transition and multi!le outgoing transitions, in such a &ay to e ale to select for
e+ecution 2ust one. A !oint of fusion is more in!ut transition and one out!ut transition,
indicating the end of conditional eha#ior caused y a !re#ious decision !oint.
A guard is a condition that must e true in order to tra#erse a transition. 3uards are
o!tional. It is #ery common for a transition to not include a guard, e#en &hen an acti#ity
includes se#eral e+it transitions. Follo&ing Agile Modeling (AM)4s !rinci!le of De!ict
Models Sim!ly, &e only indicated a guard on a transition if it added #alue.
It can e created s&imlanes. A s&imlane is a &ay to grou! acti#ities !erformed y the
same actor on an acti#ity diagram or to grou! acti#ities in a single thread (Amler, /00/-
/005).
Each chart starts &ith the eginning symol of acti#ities se$uence and ends &ith the
final symol ( ; ). Descri!tion of class actions is usually !receded y class diagrams
de#elo!ment.
A chart of acti#ities thus enales increased !rocessing and is ada!ted, in !articular, to
the modeling of control and data flo&s (Audiert, /005).
,M- !ro#ides a gra!hical re!resentation of a method eha#ior or of a use case
!erformance y an acti#ities diagram.
An acti#ity is defined as an im!lementation of a mechanism, of actions se$uences.
S&itching from one acti#ity to another is materiali*ed through a transition. 6ransitions
are triggered y the end of an acti#ity and causes immediate onset of another' they are
considered automatic. 7irtually all dynamic mechanisms could e re!resented, ut only the
s!ecial or com!le+ deser#es modeling efforts (8,M-9:).
6his study resulted from functional re$uirements e+!ressed y the research team
memers &ith different s!eciali*ations in agri ; food4s sufields.
An acti#ity diagram focuses on the flo& of acti#ities in#ol#ed in a single !rocess. 6he
acti#ity diagram sho&s the ho& those acti#ities de!end on one another (Miller, /00<).
Diagrams are also useful for: analy*ing a use case y descriing &hat actions need to
ta"e !lace and &hen they should occur' descriing a com!licated se$uential algorithm' and
modeling a!!lications &ith !arallel !rocesses.
6o uild an acti#ity diagram, an I6=. designer must consider to (Boryso&ich, /00>):
- identify acti#ities, done y a !erson or y a com!uter, in the usiness !rocess'
- order them in flo& chart fashion, &ith decisions and conditional ranching,
deciding &hich ne+t se$uential ste! to ta"e.
- loo" for acti#ities &hose orders could e s&itched &ith no im!act on the outcome'
- arrange these side y side and insert a synchroni*ation ar efore them'
- identify the !rocesses that come after and the !rocess at &hich the !arallel
!rocesses all must e com!lete efore the identified !rocess can run.'
- !lace a synchroni*ation ar efore the !rocess, that is another hori*ontal ar on the
outgoing lines from the !arallel !rocesses to ?tie? them together as !receding the
ne+t se$uential !rocess'
- re!eat until no further changes can e made.
2. ACTIVITIES DIAGRAM FOR PIGS PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT
6he research team !ointed out the need to create o!!ortunities for collecting data aout:
- lots of animals affected y increasing numer y ac$uisition'
- animals su!!liers'
- !rocurement documents'
- location of ne&-arri#ed animals'
- actual numer and &eight of incoming animals'
- li#estoc"s u!date y adding the !igs numer recently entered into management.
In this &ay, the traceaility monitoring system stores !urchased animal traceaility
information on origin farm, &hat might e useful in case of non-com!liance or ac$uired
animals4 diseases.
6he figure elo& illustrates the corres!onding acti#ities to our earlier oser#ations.
Figura 9. Activities diagram for pigs procurement management
3. ACTIVITY DIAGRAM FOR CALVING MANAGEMENT
6o chart the de#elo!ment of acti#ities included in the recording irths module, research
has defined the follo&ing classes of treatment !rocessing:
- identifying #eterinary &ho recorded the cal#ing'
- defining the atch of !iglets'
- registering the cal#ing document'
- s!ecifying the !hysical location of the !iglets'
- recei#ing the numer of heads and &eight of each indi#idual'
- u!date the !iglets li#estoc".
Figura /. Activities diagram for piglets calving management
4. ACTIVITY DIAGRAM FOR TRANSFERS MANAGEMENT
In case of in!ut y transfer, &e considered:
- the #eterinarian &ho su!er#ised the transfer'
- animal lot formed after the transfer'
- the registration of the transfer document'
- a clear indication of locations, source and destination'
- the record of the numer and &eight of animals in the shi!ment'
- li#estoc"s u!date.
7eterinary register
.al#ing document creation -ocation #erification
%egistering !iglets@ numer and &eight
-i#estoc" u!date
A 7eterinary #alidation
-ot creation
A %ecording #eterinary data
%egistering #eterinary
8not e+ists:
8e+ists:
Figura <. Activities diagram for pigs transfers management
CONCLUSIONS
De#elo!ing and im!lementing systems of sustainale food traceaility, information
systems for mar"ets on !rimary !roducts and the use of the Internet facilities y consumers,
!roducers and com!etent administrators are allo&ed an increasing degree of information to
the farmers and oosting usiness de#elo!ment in the agriculture domain in terms of food
safety guarantee (Anica - Bo!a, /00C)..
It seems that, at a time of ra!idly rising !rices and concerns o#er food security, the
ethical consumer mo#ement made its #oice heard do&n the su!!ly chain.
At the Euro!ean ,nion4s !olitics le#el, the role of the scientific research and the
technological de#elo!ment for the food safety and Economics com!etiti#ely gro&th &as
recogni*ed in different occasions. For %omania, that in#ol#es significant efforts for
reducing and o#er !assing the technological ga!s and assuring the consumer !rotection.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

6he study &as financed y the !ro2ect DDesigning an information system for traceaility
monitoring in the !or" meat !roductionD, contract numer nr. 919.5/9A9<.0C./00C, !ro2ect
%egistering #eterinary
6ransfer document creation %egistering destination location
%egistering transfered !igs@ numer and &eight
-i#estoc" u!date
A 7eterinary #erification
-ot #erification
A %ecording #eterinary data
%egistering #eterinary
8not e+ists:
8e+ists:
%egistering source location
financed y the 3rants .om!etiti#e Scheme de!loyed using the !ro2ect MAEIS ; financed
according to the loan statement nr. 1>FC-%G a!!ro#ed y -a& nr. 9>0 A /00F.
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