ANALYZING THE PROCESS OF PRODUCTION IN LOGISTICS
SUGARCANE MILL: A CASE STUDY
Alexandre Tognoli
Universidade do Sagrado Coração
(USC) - Brazil
E-mail: alextognoli@lpnet.com.br
Alessandro Adriano Bodo
Universidade do Sagrado Coração
(USC) - Brazil
E-mail:
alessandrobodo@reunion.eng.br
Nicholas Luis Braga Sebastião
Universidade do Sagrado Coração
(USC) - Brazil
E-mail:
nicholassebastiao@hotmail.com
Osmar
Corradini
Universidade do Sagrado Coração
(USC) - Brazil
E-mail: osmar.corradine@itelefonica.com.br
Submission: 01/05/2011
Accept: 12/06/2011
Abstract
The objective was to present and analyze the physical
arrangement of logistics and production process plant in a sugarcane mill, in
order to expose the processes involved, analyzing them more deeply and thus
collaborate in a more efficient production. The relevance of this presentation
is linked to the benefits that the plant and professionals can get through this
work, enabling the development of methods and production alternatives. The
research method used was case study based on interviews, on-site observation
and document analysis, which was very appropriate as it could examine and cross
checking. This work will allow a better understanding of the production process
of the logistics of the plant in a sugarcane mill and working with suggestions
and methods for more efficient production.
Keywords: layout, production process,
logistics of production, sugarcane mill.
1
INTRODUCTION
This work aims to expose the
production process of production logistics in a sugarcane mill and methods for
more efficient production and thus meet the high demands of the globalized
market.
This research is a case study with
qualitative methodology, which will be based on 3 ways to validate the
information, they are: semi-structured interviews, document analysis and
observation in place.
2
Logistics
The
logistics, according to Bovet and Thiagarajan (2000), is the management,
control and strategy that involve the flow of raw material to finished product,
aiming at the continuous development of service level, aiming to reduce costs,
decrease inventory and meet the needs of internal customers.
According
to Ballou (2003), has been suggested that a logistics strategy has three
objectives: (a) cost reduction, strategy aiming to minimize the variable costs
associated with handling and storage, (b) reduction of capital, a strategy
directed at minimizing the level of investment in the logistics system, and (c)
improved services, strategies that normally recognize that the revenue depends
on the level of logistics services provided.
Logistics,
according to Lima (2006), Ballou (2003) and Rodrigues and Oliveira (2010), can
be divided into the following macro: logistics, supply, production,
distribution, and integrated Supply Chain Management (SCM), which can be
defined as follows:
a)
Logistics supplies: is the branch of logistics business that deals with
the flows of raw materials and products for the organization, its purpose being
to satisfy the material requirements of the operation. Good management of
logistics supply means coordinating the movement of supplies to the operating
requirements (BALLOU, 2003);
b)
Production Logistics: involves activities from receipt of raw materials,
all logistical support to manufacturing and delivery of finished products for
shipment (CAMPI, 2008; FARIA; ROBLES, BIO, 2004);
c)
Logistic distribution: it starts with the request, dealing with the
handling, storage and processing of final orders of the firm, given two types
of markets: in the process and users. The in-process (wholesalers and
retailers) do not use the product, but offer it for resale. The users directly
use the final product. (BALLOU, 2003; BOWERSOX; CLOSS, 2001);
d)
Integrated logistics: covers the activities of supply, production and
distribution, whose goal is not to reduce inventory shrink, improve levels of
control across the material flow in the company, defining the best levels of
stock and is the major driving force for organizational transformations. This
results in reunification, so that key tasks are transformed into managing the
flow of cross-functional activities, providing a visible "end to end"
supply chain logistics from order to delivery (BALLOU, 2003; CHRISTOPHER ,
2007; RODRIGUES, OLIVEIRA, 2010);
e)
Supply Chain Management (SCM) can be considered a vision expanded, updated
and holistic management of materials, covering the management of the entire
production chain from a strategic and integrated manner, describing the
administration of the flow of goods and information. The SCM assumes
fundamentally that companies should define their competitive strategies and
functional through their positions, both as providers and as consumers, within
the production chains in which they operate, creating value in the form of
products and services to the ultimate consumer (ALVES, 2008; CHING, 2001, GARCIA
et al. 2006; SIMCHI-LEVI; KAMINSKY, SIMCHI -LEVI, 2003); and
f)
The cost of logistics: they suggest that the costs are segregated into:
direct and indirect, fixed, variable and semi-variable, unrecoverable (sunk
costs), incremental, or marginal. What will other function is to plan,
implement and monitor the entire inventory of entry into and exit process from
the point of origin to destination. Each of these costs reveals a unique
importance for decision making in logistics (FARIA; COSTA, 2005; BLOOMBERG, LEMAY,
HANNA, 2002; ZAGO et al., 2005).
According to Severo Filho (2006), logistics managers must
constantly deal with decisions relating to purchasing, production and
distribution. He mentions that some of the most important decisions are:
a)
How to order: every request for replenishment must specify the
amount required, based on expected future demand, supply constraints, existing
discounts and costs involved;
b)
When ordering: the exact time to issue a new order parameter is
determined by the point of order, which depends on the replenishment lead time,
demand and the expected level of service desired;
c)
How often do you review the inventory levels: inventory levels may be revised continuously or
periodically, depending on the technology and costs of this review, among other
factors;
d)
Where to find stocks: If a company can store its products in more than one
installation, location decisions should be taken, for example, keeping finished
products in small warehouses close to customers or in a central warehouse, which
depends distribution costs, service restrictions, time in which customers agree
to wait, time distribution, inventory costs, costs of facilities etc; and
e)
How to control the system: the use of performance indicators and monitoring of
the operations must be present to support corrective measures and contingency
actions, if the logistics system is out of control or operating with low
performance.
3
Case Study
The industry throughout Brazil can currently be
classified as the most profitable and has received funding from Brazilian and
foreign investors and are in a constant modernization, because the production
of an environmentally friendly fuel means a prosperous future for the industry
and the planet.
The Brazilian sugar and alcohol sector includes industries
that produce sugar, alcohol, energy, molasses, among other products, but can
also act on any link in the supply chain sector.
This sector is directly related to the cultures of cane
sugar, as this is the main feedstock for the production processes mentioned
above.
In Illustration 1 can be seen the expansion of ethanol
production industries, sugar, the state of São Paulo, where the dark points are
the power plants in operation and the yellow dots are plants under construction
or planned to enter service soon.
|
Illustration 1: Map of expansion of the sugar
and alcohol Source: Adapted from Lins e Saavedra (2007) |
Most of the plants work with the products, sugar, alcohol
and molasses as the market trend may occur a change in the proportion of each
devoted to sugarcane production line. Currently this is investing in power
generation and production of MDF and HDF from sugarcane bagasse.
According to Lins and Saavedra (2007), Brazil is the
largest producer and exporter of sugar and second largest producer of ethanol,
accounting for approximately 35% of world production of ethanol.
The use of cane sugar as a feedstock for the production
of sugar and alcohol, coupled with social and environmental factors, confers
differential productivity and quality of Brazilian products in the face of
foreign alternatives, which make use of inputs such as corn or beet sugar, in
Tables 1 and 2 values are presented concerning the production of ethanol and
sugar in Brazil (Lins; SAAVEDRA, 2007).
Table 1: Data in the
industry and the research sample
|
|
sugar and alcohol sector |
Study Sample |
(%)Study Sample / Sector |
|
Processed Cane (ton) |
457.980.000 |
114.578.856 |
25,0% |
|
Sugar produced (ton) |
30.629.827 |
9.204.904 |
30,1% |
|
alcohol produced (m3) |
17.909.822 |
4.390.623 |
24,5% |
|
Anhydrous (m3) |
8.081.661 |
2.407.991 |
29,8% |
|
Hydrated (m3) |
9.828.161 |
1.982.632 |
20,2% |
Source: Adapted from Lins e Saavedra (2007)
Table 2: Comparison of alternative sources for
ethanol production
|
Region |
Culture |
Production cost (USD/litro) |
energy efficiency |
productivity |
|
Brazil |
Cane sugar |
0,21 |
8,3 |
6.000 |
|
USA |
corn |
0,27 |
1,4 |
3.100 |
|
Europe |
beet |
0,76 |
1,9 |
5.000 |
Source: Adapted from Lins e Saavedra (2007)
The sector is organized into three levels: the
cultivation of cane sugar production base of the byproducts of sugar cane and
marketing and distribution of the finished product. Currently many industries
are outsourcing the process of cultivation and distribution of the finished
product, thus focusing on the production of by-products.
The supply chain of this sector can be depicted as Illustration
2, which is presented in the links of production, since the past decades also
the industries owned farms, where it was cultivated sugar cane and even
distribution and consequently could lose the focus of the business.
Illustration 2: Flow
supply chain
Emphasis will be placed from now to the production
process and logistics of producing an industry that produces sugar, ethanol,
molasses and energy within the state of São Paulo.
The process of transforming sugar cane begins with the
grinding, in which the juice is extracted from the bagasse, which will go
through various stages of physical and chemical processing until you get one of
two end products: sugar or ethanol, Illustration 3 shows the simplicity of how
the production process.
|
Illustration 3: Simplified procedure for ethanol production Source: Smeets et al., (2006) |
For illustration of the production process can occur at
three production logistics to worry about managing some variables:
productivity, efficiency, cost, time, technology, manpower, routing, etc.
To manage these variables is necessary to create dynamic
processes of analysis, because the production process can be affected by time
and distance of transportation of cane sugar and even by weather problems.
In Figure 4 we can observe how a plant can have the
equipment comprising a greater productive efficiency, in this example should be
a concern in distributing the equipment to take a continuous production line
which will allow a more flexible maintenance of equipment and even observe the
same equipment which fatigue.
The equipment being arranged in a linear fashion, ie, to
allow the execution of each process sequentially, can help in the definition of
improved productivity.
The logistics of production can also contribute to better
analyze the position of the dispatch centers of the base products of cane
sugar, to enable greater productivity in the marketing of products, using the
modal road and rail.
Two other by-products from the sugar cane is the mud and
slop, which can be utilized for irrigation of sugarcane fields, but that these
products must be stored in tanks near the irrigation areas.
To do this you must use the duct modal road, because it
could reach distant points of the plant is a low cost of transportation and
maintenance, the same modal can be installed outdoors or be underground, which
may protect you from elements of time and without affecting the availability of
crop fields.
Energy production will serve at first to supply its own
power plant and a second phase to the distribution for an energy company, but
for this there must be a prior study of where to install the substation.
|
Illustration 4: Plant inside Source: WEG, (2006) |
In Illustration 5, is shown in more detail the production
of sugar and ethanol, which can observe the amount of equipment that are
necessary for the operation of a plant sugar cane.
In Illustration 5, one can also observe the total number
of processes that occur during the production of by-products the basis of cane
sugar, which account for approximately 11 processes and that may allow the
derivation of products such as sugar, ethanol, energy, molasses, vinasse, silt,
swings from sugarcane bagasse, among others, thereby increasing productivity
and profit.
|
Illustration 5: Process Flow Diagram - Crystal Sugar / Refined and
Ethanol Source: Not available, (2006) |
4 Final Thoughts
What we can observe is that the
production logistics in the production process of ethanol and sugar is a very
important purpose because it will monitor the entire process, noting the times
of scheduled maintenance shutdown.
You will also see if there was breakdown of equipment, if
the breaks were due to fatigue of the material or wrong operation and whether
it breaks or not caused loss of productivity. Since the loss of productivity
cannot be observed at first, because in some cases the production time is compensated.
But if this drop is constant and become something it is
not worked in the sum total of productivity shifts may occur as an imbalance in
the production times each shift and generating a risk.
The logistics of production will also work the physical
layout of the unit, allowing time to study the replacement of equipment,
movement of raw materials, production time, risks of accident, etc.
It might be noted that the theories studied during the
preparation of the work helped to identify potential problems or flaws in the
production process of the company studied.
The logistics of production is greatly affected the
logistics of supplies, because it will be responsible for acquiring raw
materials, i.e. from the input to the production that will support the
production, i.e., oil, machinery, parts replacement.
It will suffer the influence of logistics distribution is
poorly designed as to distribution of the scripts, formulation of cost of sales
and distribution, and miscalculated the time of delivery of the finished
product.
It will also influence the supply and distribution
logistics, if it occurs some unexpected production stop, schedule preventive
maintenance on an inappropriate moment, which may generate increased levels of
raw material for grinding and consequently the creation of a bottleneck, if the
storage facility does not have a large capacity, there may be a lack of trucks
to collect the cane sugar cane field.
The distribution will generate a lack of product for
delivery and therefore payment of a fine for lack of it, will affect the
reliability to the customer, increased sales and distribution costs, etc.
REFERENCES
ALVES,
A. S. (2008) Ferramentas de Supply Chain
Management para a otimização de estoques. Disponível em: <http://www.administradores.com.br/producao_academica/ferramentas_de_supply_chain_management_para_a_otimizacao_de_estoques/994/>,
acessado em: 29 ago 2008.
BALLOU, R. H. (2003) Business
logistics: supply chain management. 5 ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
BLOOMBERG, D. J.; LEMAY, S.;
HANNA, J. B. (2002) Logistics. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
BOVET,
D. M.; THIAGARAJAN, S. (2000) Logística orientada para o cliente. HSM
Management, São Paulo, ano 3, n. 18, p. 122-128, jan./fev.
BOWERSOX,
D. J.; CLOSS, D. J. (2001) Logística
empresarial: o processo de integração da cadeia de suprimento. São Paulo:
Atlas.
CAMPI,
T. (2008) Custos da cadeia logística e
logística reversa. Disponível em: <http://www.escience.unicamp.br/lalt/admin/publicacoes/documentos/publicacao_570_aula09.pdf>.
Acessado em: 05 jul 2008.
CHING,
H. Y. (2004) Gestão de estoques na
cadeia de logística integrada: Supply chain. 2 ed. São Paulo: Atlas.
CHRISTOPHER,
M. (2007) Logística e gerenciamento da
cadeia de suprimentos. 2 ed. São Paulo: Pioneira.
FARIA,
A. C.; ROBLES., L. T.; BIO, S. R. (2004) Custos
logísticos: discussão sob uma ótica diferenciada. In: CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO
DE CUSTOS, 11, 2004, Porto Seguro. Anais... Porto Seguro: Fundação VISCONDE DE
CAIRU.
FARIA,
A. C.; COSTA, M. F. G. (2005) Gestão de custos logísticos. São Paulo:
Atlas.
GARCIA,
E. S.; REIS, L. M. T. V.; MACHADO, L. R.; FERREIRA FILHO, V. J. M. (2006) Gestão de estoques: otimizando a
logística e a cadeia de suprimentos. Rio de Janeiro: E-papers.
LIMA,
M. P. (2006) Custos logísticos: uma
visão gerencial. Coppead, 1998. Disponível em:
<http://www.coppead.ufrj.br/pesquisa/cel/new/fs-public.htm.>. Acessado
em: 17 jul 2006.
LINS,
C.; SAAVEDRA, R. Sustentabilidade
corporativa no setor sucroalcooleiro brasileiro. Rio de janeiro, FBDS, 2007.
RODRIGUES, P. C. C.; OLIVEIRA,
O. J. Engineering-to-order versus make-to-stock Strategy: an analysis at two
printing companies. Independent Journal
of a Management & Production, v. 1, n. 1, p. 1-23, 2010.
SEVERO FILHO, J. Administração de logística integrada:
materiais, PCP e marketing. 2 ed. Rio de Janeiro: E-papers, 2006.
SIMCHI-LEVI,
D.; KAMINSKY, P.; SIMCHI-LEVI, E. (2003) Cadeia
de suprimentos: Projeto e Gestão. São Paulo,
Bookman.
SMEETS, E.; JUNGINGER, M.; FAAIJ, A.; WALTER, A.; DOLZAN, P. Sustainability
of Brazilian
bio-ethanol. Report: NWS-E-2006-110, ISBN:
90-8672-012-9, 2006.
WEG.
Usina por dentro. Disponível em:
< http://www.weg.net/acucar-e-alcool/usina_por_dentro.html>. Acessado em:
12 mai 2011.
ZAGO,
C. A.; ADAM, C.; NORO, G. B.; OLIVEIRA, J. H. R. (2005) Análise do processo
logístico: o caso Bunge Santa Maria. In: SIMPÓSIO DE ENGENHARIA DE PRODUÇÃO,
12., 2005, Bauru. Anais... Bauru:
FEB/UNESP.