Data and decision making in the Vertical Farm

The goal of this research is to understand the types of data sources and their applications within vertical farms. It does so from both a systems and a people’s perspective. From the systems perspective, literature research was conducted to find definitions of prevailing industry system definitions, metrics and KPIs. For the people’s perspective, eight qualitative interviews with persona representatives of the case company were undertaken on the basis of a semi-structured guideline. This was done to gain an understanding of people's decision-making process, related to their tasks and data-needs, and to reflect similarities to literature. In both of these lines of research, special attention is given to research and development of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the context of vertical farming, and one Dutch VF company in particular. The research examines KPIs present in literature and defines five data dimensions that manifest in the context of VFs. This research provides a framework that is both flexible and applicable in other Vertical Farms and specific enough to provide a roadmap for data warehousing catered to the specific vertical farm where this research was conducted. This research provides an overview of current data-related questions at a case company. It bridges the gap between literature and industry and provides tools for translating a data need into a communication means.