Analysis on Transporting Methods of Cultivation Unit for Vertical Cultivation in Plant Factory

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

• What is the difference between cultivation unit and ‘plant unit’ described in Section 2.3? Define the plant unit some more in detail.
• Description of cultivation unit shown in Figure 2 is incomplete. Is it transported with bare rooted plants or with substrate? What kind/type of substrate is used. Do the roots come out from the bottom of substrate? Is it transported with a saucer to prevent a dripping of nutrient solution from the roots? These factors affect the performance of the transporting system.
• It might be better to use the term ‘vertically stacked cultivation shelf’ in place of ‘vertical cultivation shelf’, because the cultivation shelf itself is not vertical but horizontal.
• The ‘references’ need to be re-examined carefully. There are so many careless mistakes. What does [J] mean, which was used many times in the references? In reference number 9, the page numbers are missing. In reference numbers 3 and 23, the author names are missing. All alphabets of author and/or journal names are capitalized in reference numbers 2, 4, etc.
• Describe whether the software ‘Flexsim’ is a commercial product or not. If it is a commercial product, describe the company name and its website. This is a kety software to provide the simulation results shown in Figure 7.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,
I found your work very interesting and of really practical value. Growing interest and demand on vertical farming implementation in food production  requires papers like your - with analysis, comparison and easy-to-use application tips. Nonetheless, I have some  concerns.

Moreover, the method of transporting modes evaluation, based on Flexsim simulation, lacks of scientific significance - the reader does not know the algorithms the software uses, there cannot be statistics applied as well. There are only 3 articles discussed in Results and Discussion part (aren't there any more papers to be discussed with?) 

Check line 192 - move to line 189.

Regards

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The presented article Analysis on transporting methods of cultivation unit for vertical cultivation in plant factory is interesting, attractive for the reader. The article is written on 13 pages, contains 2 tables, 8 pictures and 4 chapters

1. Introduction

2. Materials and methods

3.  Results and Discussion

4. Conclusions

The introductory part is written clearly and comprehensibly, but very briefly. It refers to a few literary sources.

I have only a few comments on the work:

In total, the work contains only 24 literary sources. Add a little to the current state of knowledge.

In Figure 1, mark where the process begins and where it ends.

Lines 106 to 120 contain a number of abbreviations. Fill in the list or symbols used at the end or beginning of the article.

Figure 3 shows 4 modes of the transport transport system, which are described later.

Figure 4 is illustrative and shows a vertical transport system.

The established logistics transport system is shown in Figure 5; located in a factory at South China University of Agriculture.

The results of the simulation of the productivity of different modes of transport were realized using Flexsim software.

From the results it can be stated that: Mode 4 productivity is highest, Mode 3 productivity is lowest, Mode 1 investment costs are lowest, Mode 4 is not suitable for small scale production, from comparing progressive types such as Mode 1, Mode 2 and Mode 4 and other types such as for example, mode 3, it can be observed that this mode is more flexible. According to the above evaluation weights, mode 1 is due to its higher productivity and simpler structure most suitable for the requirements of factory production companies.

The conclusions contain only 4 points:

Point 1 is a bit specific, it is written quite generally.

Point 2 is clear.

Point 3 is very general, it does not include the results of the work.

Point 4 lists the information at the beginning of the article. You can easily repeat the specific results, which are in the chapter results and discussion.

Write the literature according to the template. (APA)

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors edited the article responsibly. They supplemented and adjusted the necessary facts according to the reviewer's comments.