THE RESTRICTIONS COVERED IN THE
DISTRIBUTION OF FRACTIONAL LOADS: ACASE STUDY
Tassiana Vieira Santos
Fatec - Carapicuíba, Brazil
E-mail: tassisp@hotmail.com
Marilene Rosaria Santos
Fatec - Carapicuíba, Brazil
E-mail: marilene.sant19@gmail.com
Gisele Correia Macario
Fatec - Carapicuíba, Brazil
E-mail: gigi_macario@hotmail.com
Kyvia Barros Moreira
Fatec - Carapicuíba, Brazil
E-mail: kyvia.moreira@gmail.com
Thainah Amaral
Fatec - Carapicuíba, Brazil
E-mail: thainah_amaral@hotmail.com
Submission: 03/01/2017
Accept: 14/01/2017
ABSTRACT
As the economic crisis
in Brazil advances, many transport companies on road charges, are losing ground
in the market for lack of planning, quality services, high costs of transshipment
and lack of information to its customers. More and more companies have been
adjusting to market trends in order to become more competitive and improve
their service levels, providing quality and punctual delivery and collections,
for that they rely on technology and softwares to improve their performance and
reduce costs on shipping. This article aims to analyze the constraints faced in
the distribution of fractional loads, in a HUB operation, distribution and
collection of a large company, acting as a support arm for this operation, in
the metropolitan regions of São Paulo and how to present possible and practical solutions from the techniques and
concepts of distribution logistics aligned to technology of routing Road Show
software, demonstrating how technical knowledge can add value to the business.
Keywords: Technology,
Routing, Distribution.
1. INTRODUCTION
This
article is related to the use of technology and the growing demand in the
transport sector as well as the need for planning in the operations of
deliveries and collections that are impacted directly by restrictions already
known as the hours of movement of trucks. During the research some restrictions
were observed in the operational processes that affect directly the costs and
the levels of services, mainly in e-commerce operations whose main
characteristic are the transportation of fractional loads.
In this article, we focus only on the
metropolitan regions of São Paulo, where the company is located which served as
an instrument for case study. The company did not authorize us to disclose its
name in order to maintain its integrity; we made use of a fictitious name and
proportional data to those that were collected in the field.
Goldratt
(1980) argues that the survival of a company depends, among other factors, on
its capacity to participate in a fierce competition established by the market,
which demands from its managers, a technical expertise, a large arsenal of
information and a proactive stance fundamental to those who want to perpetuate
themselves in the market in a continuous process of reinvention perceiving in
the internal and external challenges, opportunities for growth.
The choice of the research object was based on the
daily experience of the operation, observing recurrent delays and operational
failures, which generated complaints and customer dissatisfaction, the problem
observed goes to Ballou (2010), in which he states that level of Service
applied in logistics is linked to the optimization of resources used and
managed to achieve the goals of the company and mainly in the satisfaction of
its customers.
Based on the opinions of the aforementioned authors,
the research problems guide the capacity of productivity and organization in
relation to the activities and layout, space used for HUB operations, through
this reflection the following questions were raised: A) Is it possible to
optimize the operations performed by the HUB using only the available courses
and avoid the loss of delivery times, even in the face of so many restrictions?
B) The physical space of HUB and its organization influence the movement of
loads?
As a method
of procedure for a case study, observing the daily operations to validate or
not, the problems and considering that the scientific method is a set of
intellectual and technical procedures adopted to achieve knowledge (GIL 1999
apud RODRIGUES 2005).
The
relevance of this article is in its rich contribution in the analysis and
simulation of real data and use of technical knowledge acquired during the
course of Logistics Management, opening up precedents for new researches in
this scope.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1.
Logistics
The main
definition of Logistics is from Council of Logistics Management (CLM, 1996), as
follows:
Logistics is
the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient flow of
goods and services from the point of the origin to the point of consumption in
order to meet customer requirements. Based on this concept, logistics
encompasses all existing processes in the flow goods from the origin of the
product to its final destination.
For
Rodrigues (2005) logistics is the area, which enables harmonize supply, demand,
production and distribution of a product, with the objective of reducing costs.
The author also mentions the main parameters of logistics, which are: costs and
time (quantitative) and quality (qualitative); it can be seen that all the
definitions revolve around the concept of always increasing the level of
customer service and reducing the logistics costs for the company.
2.2.
Transport
According to
experts and authors, transport is responsible for absorbing one of the biggest
costs of a company, this affirmative dos not meet Ballou’s opinion:
Transport is one of the most important activities of a company,
"[...] transportation is the most important logistics activity simply
because it absorbs on average one to two-thirds of the logistics costs"
(BALLOU, 2010, p.24).
According to
Caixeta Filho and Martins (2009), efficient transportation must be capable of
meeting deadlines with the goal of reducing logistics costs. Products that are
delivered before or after the scheduled date may result in higher costs because
of the need for storage and redefining and scheduling the route and new
delivery date. These events can have a negative impact on the company’s
business and cause losses and reduce profits; consequently, loss prevention is
the means used to avoid the realization of such losses by carrying out human
and / or technological investments.
2.3.
Operational
Costs
Authors such
as Hauser (1986) and Hsu and Goodwin (1995) consider operating costs as an
exogenous variable in research that seeks to study the formation of freight
values.
According to
Batalha (1997), the service offer is organized by carriers in vehicles of regular
circulation or contracted especially for certain trips by an own fleet, by
service providers and by agents among the various modalities.
According to
Martins and Caixeta Filho (2009), when a shipper hires a carrier to collect a
batch of volumes and take it to a destination, his expectations are summarized
in having his request effectively delivered within the agreed time limit,
without damages or losses and within a reasonable a cost and freight.
2.4.
Theory
of Constraints Applied to Logistics
According to
Goldratt (2002), the survival of a company depends, among other factors, on the
ability to participate in a fierce competition established by the market and
which requires from its managers, a vast arsenal of information and a proactive
stance, fundamental to those who want to perpetuate themselves in the market in
a continuous process of reinvention, realizing in the challenges, internal and
external, an opportunity for growth.
The theory
of restrictions can be understood as a set of theoretical principles that
ground and synthesize the knowledge of management and control that in turn
recognizes the role of limiting factors or restrictions and focuses on them,
aiming at increasing overall performance of a system (GOLDRATT, 2002 apud,
RODRIGUES; MAYERLE, 2014,).
Restriction
can be any element or factor that prevents a system from achieving a better
level of performance with respect to its goal.
2.4.1. The
Five Steps to Focusing
Goldratt
(2002) developed a five-step sequence, figure 1 that functions as an
improvement process. Identify the constraint in the system; explore the
constraint of the system; subordinate everything to the previous constraint,
raise the system constraint and if in the previous step a constraint was
broken, do not let the inertia be the next constraint, start the process again.
Such process of continuous optimization is
present throughout the method and is capable of leading the company to
significantly improve its earnings or reduce costs, figure 1.
Figure 1: Five Steps to
Focusing.
Source: World logistics
Magazine (2014), Adapted to English by the authors
In order to
apply the Theory of Constraints, Follmann (2009) proposed ToC in transport
companies, from a bibliographical research and his experience in the
transportation of fractional loads. According to Rodrigues and Mayerle (2014),
this one was developed for a management model of the operation of companies
based on the theory of the restrictions. The result obtained was a tool that
allows the organization to identify and manage the process that is restricting
to achieve better financial performance or reduce losses in certain stages of
the operation, figure 2.
Figure 2: Application of
the Toc in Logistics adapted by Follmann
Source:
World logistics Magazine (2014), Adapted to English by the authors
2.5.
Capacity
x Time
According to
Caixeta Filho and Martins (2009), the capacity of a system is the measurement
of the possible production volumes of this system.
In the case
of the capacity of transport systems, it is important to associate it with a
certain level of service desired since they are extremely variable. For
example, the more congested a terminal, the greater its volume of cargo moved
because it is difficult to occur periods of idleness, leading to full use of
installed capacity, in contrast, there will be many rows and vehicles will be
held for longer and the rush to dispatch them for delivers can cause incidents
of shipping errors increase.
In this
context, we have the same point of view of Novaes (2001), in which he affirms
that the impact caused by the restrictions of time and capacity, is often
dramatic since they lead to changes in the solution of the problem due to
variations in some factors that govern the process and which are not always
well understood when planning a product delivery system.
2.6.
Scripting
One of the
most important activities of the company is the distribution planning, which is
responsible for the adequate delivery to the customers, focusing on the cost,
term and quality of service.
Lopes and
Melo (2003), describes the routing with a fundamental role in the question of
maximization and use of resources. The use of software algorithms in
operational research with a cartographic base allows to properly handle the
orders and distributed loads even though their totality is random and variable,
that is, maximizing and consolidating loads reducing the need for movement.
Identify
precisely the fleet profile required by type of vehicle. Identify the best
routes that allow reduction of time and distance, saving fuel, preserving
natural resources. The best
routes suggest the best delivery times allowing great gains in the relationship
and maintenance of the customers; termination of the costs involved, especially
fuel costs.
Although
routing is an important tool for reducing costs and increasing operational
efficiency, Lopes and Melo (2003) argue that it depends on some essential
factors, including an updated database and modern systems, usually based on
Geographic Information (GIS), which are expensive items and do not always
easily adapt to corporate culture.
Still for
Lopes and Melo (2003), due to these difficulties, only 5% of freight road
transport companies use routing machines, companies that seek a high level of
excellence in the service of their customers should seek for new technologies
since of course, more and more demanding standards are tapering so that it will
stand out in the market that uses all the technologies to monitor the process
of delivering products to its greater good that is its customer.
2.7.
Casters
and Restrictions of Express and Marginal Routes in São Paulo
Implemented
in 1997 in the city of São Paulo, the rotation imposes a restriction on the
circulation of automobiles between 7am and 10am and from 5pm to 8pm, with the
main objective of draining the city's fleet which revolves around the average
of 7 million vehicles according to Detran.
According to
the Traffic Engineering Company (CET), the estimate is that 20% of the total of
the current fleet about 3.8 million vehicles, stop circulating daily in the
city due to the rotation.
The city to
function needs to allow people to move in their various motives, and also needs
to allow the supply of goods and the provision of services. Another measure
implemented was in the restrictions of trucking traffic during the hours between
5am and 9am and from 5pm to 10pm Monday to Friday and Saturdays between 10am
and 2pm.
The truck
drivers have eight hours a day to circulate on the road which represents the
working day and allows according to the CET to deliver the products in the city.
During the night, there will be seven free hours.
According to
CET, the implementation of this restriction aims to reduce occurrences
involving trucks, which directly interfere in the traffic at peak times, (Site
G1, 2012).
3. METHODOLOGY
According to
Barros and Lehfeld (2000), scientific research is the product of an
investigation, whose objective is to solve problems and solve doubts through
the use of specific methodological and technical processes.
As a method
of procedure, the case study which is justified by the observation of an
object, for its better understanding and knowledge for this article, the object
of study was the HUB operation located in the city of Barueri, in order to know
the difficulties in the distribution of fractional loads.
It used the
comparative / statistical procedural methods because it involved the
investigation of the facts in order to highlight the differences and
similarities between the operations starting from the CD of Guarulhos and the
HUB in Alphaville, showing quantitatively the superficial costs tied to these
two operations, according to Gil (1999), the explanations obtained in the
application of the statistical method can not be considered absolutely true,
but have a good probability of being true.
According to
Triviños (1987), a Case Study as is one of the most relevant type of
qualitative research where the author identifies different forms of study
including historical-organizational, observational, situational analysis,
referring to specific events. And it is classified as follows:
As for
nature, it is applied, since it aims at acquiring knowledge for practical
application and directed to solutions of the problems raised in research which
are focused on two questions related to the optimization of physical space and
resources available for operational activities.
We chose the
two types of approaches known, quantitative and qualitative.
According to
Selltiz (1967), it is an explanatory one, since it aims at identifying the
factors that determine or contribute to the occurrence of phenomena, deepening
the knowledge of reality for explaining the reason, "the cause” of things.
The objective of the research is to identify what are the constraints faced by
the HUB in the distribution of fractional loads and the impact on the daily
activities of the operation and why they occur. It is also classified as
comparative, since the scenarios of the simulations carried out through the
software "Road Show", provided several analyzes which were used
comparatively between the distribution locations, as well as the variables that
directly impact the costs and performance linked to the company operational
activities.
As for
technical procedures, according to Gil (1999), it is classified as a case study
and bibliographic. The research was started from materials already published
about the subject and later focused on the detailed study of the object of
research, investigating on the subject to construct new hypotheses or
reformulate them.
4. CASE STUDY
4.1.
Fortrans
Fortrans
Logística e Transportes S/A offer high technology and quality logistics
services so that contracting companies do not have to specialize in something
that is not part of their core business, performing order management,
transportation and coordination of deliveries as well as the development of
strategic plans for the entire supply chain.
The company
operates throughout Brazil, acting in 184 points with 42 branches. Its
premisses are over 650 thousand square meters of built area and patio. More
than 5,000 locations served and transporting cargo to 220 countries through
RapidEx, certified by ISO 9001 since 1997 with more than 17 thousand active
customers, fleet around 3 thousand vehicles and more than 12 million deliveries
annually.
4.2.
HUB
Operation
As the
Fortrans company collects and distributes throughout Brazil, for this article,
it was decided to restrict the comprehensive research area only to the HUB
operation used as a strategic point of distribution and collection of
merchandise from B2C clients, Businness to Client and B2B, Business to
Business.
According
to Novais (2001), the HUBs or transit points are widely used as support arm in
the distribution of goods or collections, reducing the time and cost, the
distribution center of the company Fortrans is located in Guarulhos and the HUB
in Alphaville commercial center of the city of Barueri.
The
operation works from Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 9:48 p.m. divided into
two shifts, has a small team of 1 lecturer, 3 operators, 1 assistant and 1
assistant who plays the role of leader of this operation since all the results,
coordination of this, depend on it.
In short, a
Vuc loaded with the goods to be distributed by the HUB, leaves the CD in
Guarulhos and arrives at approximately 7:00 am.
The car is
unloaded and checked, volume x documentation, the profile of this operation
being the fractional load, which is later, separated in the routes, the cars
are loaded and the romaneios dispatched for the release of the vehicles. The
deliveries are accompanied by the agent that is in the HUB which must ensure
that all customers are served at agreed times and deadlines. At the end of the afternoon,
a Furgovan collects in the HUB all the packages that were not delivered or that
were collected as requested by the Guarulhos branch.
4.2.1. Operational
Physical Space
The physical
space for this operation was provided by Alphaville's branch, image 1 of the
shed's façade, where the production, storage, distribution and after-sales of a
particular customer takes place exclusively. It is a branch office located in a
small space of only 4,500 square meters and has only 3 docks for loading and
unloading, where 1 of them was assigned to the HUB operation of the Guarulhos
branch, as picture 1, third dock from left to right.
Photograph 1: Front of the Alphaville branch where the HUB
operation is located
Source:
Fortrans
All procedures related
to the safety and release of vehicles in and out of the Alphaville branch.
Although the space provided for the operation of Guarulhos is of all the
extension of a dock, part of it is occupied by boxes of the operation of a
determined client, which has space preference, it is possible to verify such
information, observing the boxes with Logo in red and pallets with cardboard
boxes disassembled according to photograph 2.
Photograph 2: Entry of the loading and unloading dock of the HUB
operation
Source: Fortrans
It has been observed
that these volumes end up disturbing the little space for unloading, checking
and separation of incoming loads, in some cases material wrongly routed for
this reason. In photograph 3, it is possible to observe how much space these
materials occupy.
Photograph 3: Boxes with red and blue colors and stacks of
dismantled boxes
Source:
Fortrans
The yellow cage,
photograph 4, and other volumes belong to the HUB, in this "cage" are
allocated the highest value and / or theft volumes, such as electronic
products, operators and lecturers are responsible for the key and movement of
these materials, However, all volumes of high added value should be considered,
since in the case of theft the employees must respond for this lack. Larger
volumes are palletized in an attempt to hinder potential losses.
Photograph 4: Frontal image of the dock boundary and part of the
"cage" to allocate high
Source:
Fortrans
In Photograph 5, as
mentioned above we have the limiting
part of the warehouse assigned to the HUB and the previous storage of part of
the volumes that were collected that will be transferred at the end of the day
to the Guarulhos branch.
Photograph 5: Dock entrance after unloading.
Source:
Fortrans
4.2.2. Fleet
The vehicles, drivers
and helpers of this operation are aggregated and responsible for all deliveries
and collections in the regions of Osasco, Carapicuíba, Alphaville, Barueri,
Santana de Parnaíba, Pirapora, Itapevi, Jandira, Cotia, Vargem Grande Paulista,
Caucaia do Alto, Juquitiba, São Lourenço da Serra, Taboão da Serra, Embu Guaçu,
Embu das Artes and Itapecerica da Serra, Cajamar, Franco da Rocha and Francisco
Morato.
The main collection
clients are concentrated in the regions of Alphaville, Barueri, Osasco and
Carapicuíba and Itapevi. The fleet is composed of 10 cars, including Vuc, Van
and Fiorino and may have a vehicle of its own eventually but the request must
be pre-programmed.
Vuc: The Vucs are used
in the transfer of large amounts of cargo; they are the ones that carry to the
HUB all the packages to be delivered in the regions served by this operation
and mainly in the collection in the B2B clients, after their complete unloading
giving the operation greater mobility with an expressive amount of cargo
support.
However, in some
customers they are restricted by height and cannot enter the place of loading
and unloading of the company. These customers are already known for the
operation, however, in cases of large volumes to be collected in a single
customer and not being able to send a truck, it is necessary to make several
trips to collect the orders of the customers.
Van or
Furgovan: The vans take care of the operation very
well because its load capacity is great, the height generally does not prevent
to enter the interior of condominiums and commercial warehouses, it is very
used in the operation to attend mainly the deliveries in malls where the large
number of delivery products is from the Asics customer, their volumes are cubic
boxes that take up a lot of space often in a single delivery, there may be more
than 12 volumes for the same customer.
Fiorino: It was
observed that although it does not have the capacity to allocate large volumes,
Fiorino is the vehicle that seems best to meet the needs of the HUB because if
it had a large amount of small boxes and / or packages destined to customers
B2C. The most common products are cell phones, watches, electronics and Apple
products.
Own Car: According
to observations and reports made by employees of the company, the car itself is
only available in cases of urgency, that is for deliveries of priority
customers such as Apple, Dell or in cases where the expected delivery period
has expired and the delivery must be performed in order not to affect the
performance of the Guarulhos branch or even for deliveries in distant regions
which is not profitable for the added driver. Still reported by employees, the
affiliate does not leave a car fixed in the HUB because this car is not needed
every day.
4.2.3. Costs
and Profitability
A
spreadsheet, table 1, with the descriptions of the values of the daily costs
of each aggregate vehicle, amount paid per helper, cost of the 2nd exit for
delivery and / or collection, overnight value, among other information was made
available for the case study which the assistant of this operation should be
based in order to optimize the vehicles, cost reduction in addition to the
restrictions of each operation or customer. However, this reference is little
used in practice, as observed in the field.
Table 1: Values of Added Vehicles
Source:
Data of internal material Fortrans.
The value in
cargo freight should be more than double the daily rate of the vehicle, for
example, the daily rate of a Fiorino is R$ 110,00, the freight value in cargos
must be higher than R$ 220,00 for the company can obtain some profit /
profitability in freight.
4.2.4. Operational
Restrictions
Many
constraints were observed in relation to deliveries by customer requirement or force
majeure, such as:
Size of the vehicle: some
customers already delimit the size of the collection vehicle by informing
previously in the schedule the type of material for the removal of the
material, this facilitates the programming of the car and the number of
employees that will be sent for collection of the loads but not all the
customers act in the same way, thus causing variable and often dramatic
situations for the leader of this operation who must at the last minute locate
and make available another car to collect all the material requested by the
customer or have to request that the vehicle perform a second trip to meet
demand. The reverse may also occur.
Customer locations, especially
for clients in the Alphaville region, Barueri city's commercial center, many of
them do not have their own parking, the driver has nowhere to park the vehicle
without the risk of taking a ticket or having some inconvenience during
collecting like having to stop the vehicle at any location and making multiple
trips with the cart until collecting all the material, this takes time, rework
and generates greater physical wear and tear of the employee.
Permanence of collaborators in the
place, still to emphasize the delicacy of the previous
situation, many of the clients do not authorize the entrance of helpers in the
place and all the work ends on the account of the drivers.
Optimization of the vehicle to make
collections and deliveries, either by requirement of some customers who do not
accept that the car that will perform the collection is previously loaded by
the route to be met or scheduling, it is not always possible to reduce costs by
taking advantage of the same car of delivery for collection, it is recurrent
the sending either to the same client or near address to send a car only to
carry out the collection and another one for delivery.
Priority customers, Apple,
Dell, Nokia deliveries, Motorola picks, Netshoes, Walmart, daily scheduled
deliveries among others. With these customers the company can not fail because the
level of service agreed revolves around 95 and 98%, case of Apple and Dell,
that is, for these customers there can not be any failures in the
operation and if any unforeseen happens should be immediately standardized
because they pay to have the best possible operational performance and priority
in road or air mode operations.
5. FIELD ANALYSIS
The data
collected refer to the sample of a common demand day of the HUB operation.
These data were organized in spreadsheets in Excel, for this article we will
focus only on the operations of deliveries and parallel analyzed based on the
references raised in bibliographical researches and problems pointed out.
Subsequently,
solutions were proposed that aim to optimize the separation and distribution of
the goods executed by the HUB, as well as the best use of the physical
operating space.
Simulations
were carried out based on the data collected through the Road Show software
allowing several unfolding scenarios of the HUB operation where applications of
techniques and acquired knowledge were essential for the analysis of the
results and proposed solutions.
According to
Rodrigues (2005), logistics must be applied to harmonize the supply, demand,
production and distribution of a product with the objective of reducing costs;
all the definitions revolve around the concept of always increasing the level
of service to the customer and reduce logistics and transportation costs for
the company.
The lack of
planning in the operational flow from the arrival of the transfer vehicle
coming from the Guarulhos branch, the effective distribution of the volumes,
Ballou (2010, p.24) states that: "[...] transportation is the most
important logistic activity simply because it absorbs, on average, one to
two-thirds of logistical costs. "
The
author further compliments the matter by saying that no modern company can
operate without moving its goods.
Thus,
through the opinions of the authors and experts in the segment of logistics and
distribution, it was found that Fortran operates through the hybrid mode of
distribution but uses the incorrect method as a flow process, since in a
transit point or HUB the volumes are not stored in the warehouses as the
deliveries have previously known destinations, the cargo is consolidated from
the CD or Guarulhos branch and goes straight to the HUB with the sole aim of
being fragmented and distributed with agility.
5.1.
Analysis
of the Demand for Deliveries
The demands
of deliveries related to the time closest to the day-to-day reality of the
operation were simulated where the interval criterion of 15 minutes was used
for each delivery; table 2 provides the data collected as a basis for the
simulations that were performed.
Table 2: Data Relating to a Day of Demand for Deliveries
Source:
Internal material data Fortrans
For Lopes
and Melo (2003), the routing of deliveries plays a fundamental role when it
comes to maximizing the use of transport resources considering the use of
software with powerful operational research algorithms applied to a complete
cartographic base and updated, allowing to treat all the orders and loads to be
distributed even if they are totally random and variable.
Image 1: Simulation Result Using Roadshow Software -
Deliveries
Source:
Routing
In the
current scenario of the operation we obtained the following results, as shown
in image 1. Each colored dash on the map corresponds to a route from table 2,
the small squares in yellow, red and pink, correspond to deliveries not made on
the day, due to the excess hours worked meaning that the drivers arrived at the
time limit allowed for deliveries the equivalent of a 10-hour workday and that
such customers did not receive their orders.
This
explains the fact that the warehouse is full of volumes when it should not
since it does not characterize the behavior of a HUB or transit point
operation, this assertion goes against Novaes regarding this method of
distribution:
Transit
Point: Similar to CDs with the differential of not maintaining inventories,
they are located in order to serve a specific market area, away from the
central warehouses and operate as transit facilities, receiving consolidated
cargoes, separating them and distributing fractions for local deliveries near
the region in which it is allocated. The main feature is that the fractionated
loads already have a known destination, speeding up the deliveries and making
possible the advance planning of the routes (NOVAES, 2001 p.236-240).
By organizing the map data for a better
understanding of the scenario we have the following results expressed in table
3.
Table 3: Simulation Data Analysis of Deliveries
Source:
Elaborated by the authors - Result of the simulations carried out through the
software Road Show.
It is clear
that the performance of daily demand is not satisfactory for the delivery
operation and that many customers do not receive their packages on the expected
date. To be more exact, these account for 68 or 43% of customers dissatisfied
with the services provided by the company Fortrans.
For
Alvarenga and Novaes (2000), freight transport linked to quality in services
has made the efficiency of the logistics system a basic condition for
competitiveness in all sectors of the country's economy. Transportation is the
logistics activity responsible for making the connection between production and
demand, taking goods and services as far as the final consumer is at the time
needed and in the desired physical
conditions.
Nowadays, we
have in addition to the highly competitive and demanding market, customers who
know their consumer rights well and who have tools such as the Internet and
social networks to express their opinions about products and services
purchased, which can instantly lead to a company to "glory or
bankruptcy".
Image 2: Simulation of the Demand of Deliveries Starting from
Guarulhos
Source:
Routing
Comparing
the two scenarios, it was noticed that there is a 10.5% difference index
related to the performance of deliveries, between Guarulhos and Alphaville,
where HUB is the best option for this case, since 17 more customers would be
served if the deliveries left Guarulhos.
5.2.
Optimizing
Results
Exploring
the route simulator tool, Road Show, we asked this software to optimize the
results considering that all deliveries and collections of the day, according
to the sample of data collected should be carried out within a maximum period
of 8 hours, the tables that follow in this item had as objective to analyze
such obtained answers.
For the
cargoes coming from Guarulhos we had image 3 illustrating with colored outlines
the delivery routes. As it became difficult to identify each color, we call the
routes by numbers from 1 to 20, having as orientation the top to bottom
direction of the map.
Image 3: Optimum solution for the Delivery Routes Starting
from the Guarulhos CD
Source:
Routing
We measured
the results of the simulation in table 4 where the first detail to draw
attention to us was the quantity of cars required for deliveries to be made
within 8 hours of work, which is certainly not adequate for this operation,
since the aim is to reduce costs.
It was also
verified that 50% of the cars would return before the 13 hours for company, all
would leave with a minimum number of deliveries and to work with own fleet in
this scenario would be a huge loss for company and no aggregated driver would
accept to leave only with 8 deliveries as they begin to make a profit from the
10th delivery performed where they receive an additional amount for each
delivery made.
Table 4: Results of
the Simulation Using as Criteria 8hrs of Working Day, GRU.
Source:
Elaborated by the authors - Result of the simulations carried out through the
software Road Show
Moreover,
these results differ from the opinion of Rodrigues (2005), who states that
logistics must be applied to harmonize the supply, demand, production and
distribution of a product with the aim of reducing costs.
And Ballou,
2010, p.24: "[...] transport is the most important logistic activity
simply because it absorbs on average one to two thirds of the logistical costs
and so it must be well planned so that there is no loss"
In image 4,
the same criteria of the simulation performed in Guarulhos were used for the
HUB split fleet and having as a restriction deliveries made within 8 working
hours.
Image 4: Excellent solution for deliveries from the HUB in
Barueri
Source:
Routing
It was also
clear in this simulation that as in Guarulhos the number of cars tend to increase
to be able to meet the restriction of 8 hours of work which is neither ideal
nor feasible for an operation aimed at reducing costs.
In Table 5,
we have the data related to this simulation where the fleet increased by 9
vehicles but different from the Guarulhos scenario the deliveries would end at
the hours closer to 18 hours, that is, the higher utilization rate than
Guarulhos in 14%. But even so, we would have increased costs with more cars on
the street, polluting more to deliver a minimum number of volumes which is not
ideal for the company.
In this way,
it would be more advantageous to work with aggregate fleet, since the average
of 9 deliveries per vehicle.
Table 5: Simulation Results Using 8hrs of Working Day
Criteria, HUB.
Source:
Simulations made through Road Show software
5.3.
Is
Physical Space Appropriate?
The physical
space is poorly utilized, thinking about it a replanning was done
verticalizing the storage of volumes,
using the pallets, allowing the operation to gain movement, speeding up the
loading and unloading activities and thus adapted to receive and allocate in an
organized manner, the deliveries 1 day before its distribution, according to
figures 3 and 4:
Figure 3: Replanning of the physical space - floor plan
Source:
Prepared by the authors
Figure 4: Replanning of the Physical Space - Upper Plant
Source:
Prepared by the authors
With the new
layout and rearrangement of the operational flow, it is unnecessary to increase
the fleet since the amount of volumes demanded for the HUB daily is low and the
availability of the fleet which will be sufficient to supply the needs of the
operation without necessary to tow more vehicles and keep in line with
management objectives related to cost reduction and optimization of available
resources.
The
bottlenecks will be diluted in the short term by the time the leader of the
operation will gain to plan how much and when the volumes demanded will leave
for the deliveries allowing even a redesign of the days and which localities to
be met versus days of the week, according to daily demand, allowing the
visibility and forecast of delivery, opening the opportunity to create a
channel of information for the customer regarding its delivery in addition to
making the CD of Guarulhos have visibility of the volumes stored enabling the
control of the performance of the HUB operation which was not performed in the
old scenario.
The new
layout will also help the collected volumes not to be mixed with the ones that
will be distributed, avoiding delays caused by operational errors.
5.4.
What
is the Real Impact of Restrictions Raised on Research?
The perception
we had was that the restrictions are external, such as vehicle plate rotation
and traffic schedules or internal restrictions such as scheduling schedules,
priority customers, do not affect the operation as much as the lack of planning
and strategies for the distribution and collection of volumes.
The
operations assistant has no technical knowledge or is not implemented in the
day to day operation and the lack of support of the CD of Guarulhos when it
comes to sending a car from the house to assist in some deliveries is
precarious and the result of this could not be different, the company loses in
performance, loses in quality in services, loses in costs, since there is no
pro-activity in optimizing what is available or the lack of vision for these
resources, which end up getting very loose and dependent on a good management.
According to
Rodrigues and Mayerle (2014), logistics presents strategies to leverage the
company's business through improvements in the management of processes related
to the movement and storage of materials and the corresponding information.
With efficient management, a company can be managed with fewer resources and
costs, thereby obtaining a better return on invested capital.
The theory
of constraints applied to logistics contributes to the identification and
improvement of bottlenecks as a method of systemic management which aims at
correcting anomalies identified in the operational flow, we applied the ToC,
Theory of Constraints
Figure 5: ToC - Theory of Restrictions Applied to HUB
Operation, having as constraint the operating time bottleneck of 8 hours for
execution of demands.
Source:
Prepared by the authors
Applied to the HUB operation, having
as a constraint, great time, the work day limited in 8 hours daily which
ensures that customers will be served within business hours.
With the
correct use of this tool, the constraints are easily identified and improved
preventing greater impacts on the performance indicators results.
6. CONCLUSION
It was
considered that the study carried out in the company Fortrans is of great value
to increase the knowledge of students and employees of the company itself,
besides emphasizing the importance of good management that is related to the
fleet, people or activities. The technical knowledge in line with daily
experience and business knowledge effectively collaborate in reducing costs;
gain in operating time and activities and especially in the final results which
can be measured by a significant feedback from the company: its customers.
The
theoretical framework approached gave us the opportunity to better evaluate the
issues raised in the field since we brought experts and renowned authors in the
subject to base our analyzes, in addition to all the context studied during the
Technology in Logistics course which allowed us to identify many examples
discussed in the classroom and in day-to-day situations in the companies we
work with.
The
simulations carried out using the Road Show software, kindly provided by the
company Routing enriched the analyzes performed providing simulations with
several variables and scenarios and proved that the HUB operation is pertinent
to Alphaville, where there is a leaner operation with reduced costs and labor
besides fulfilling the function, it proposes to expedite the deliveries and
collections demanded for this operation.
However,
changes were necessary for the operation to flow in a desirable manner, for
which, some changes were suggested so that these results could be achieved
without changing costs, such as layout changes which started to gain movement
and organization to streamline and behave properly its functionalities which respond positively
to the questions raised in research and match the hypotheses.
The correct reading of the mode and means of
distribution, directly affected the results, passing from transit point, where
the loads should not be stored previously for their distribution and should
behave fluently but this did not occur in the HUB operation that caused
bottlenecks and delays due to the lack of planning in the volume distribution.
With the re-reading of the scenario it was proposed that the company adopt the
means of cross docking distribution where the cargo is stored for a short time,
that is, this lead time provides the correct volume distribution planning
according to demand and agreed deadlines .
The transfer
of delivery loads arriving in the transfer vehicle allowing the delivery routes
to be planned for distribution, according to the physical space of the cars,
delivery times and regions to be served, so that time, space and costs are
optimized in the distribution of goods, guaranteeing the company's credibility
and customer loyalty;
Despite the
optimal results of the simulations, they do not satisfy the basic operating
principles of keeping costs down and operating only with the available
resources. There was an increase in the number of cars in the fleet which does
not correspond to the objective, however, redesigning the layout and
distribution loads arriving the day before will allow the leader of the HUB
operation to plan the distribution favoring the optimization of available
resources, discarding the possibility of increasing the fleet to meet daily
demand, which will be observed in the short term with the dissolution of
bottlenecks.
It was also
observed that external constraints do not affect so much when one has a good
planning, knowledge and creativity to deal with these Hindrances, in the same
way was observed with respect to the internal restrictions.
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