Alexandre Navarro da Silva

Caracterização e desempenho logístico das indústrias laticinistas da Zona da Mata e Campo das Vertentes em Minas Gerais, Brasil

In order to evaluate the logistics activity in the dairy companies operating in Zona da Mata and Campo das Vertentes in Minas Gerais, Brazil a research has been promoted on 40 industries that represent the sector assessed. The questionnaire answered by company employees, contained variables that allowed obtaining information about company identification, gathering and distribution logistics, internal management, marketing and commercialization. Factorial statistical analysis was very important to enable the construction of an index representing the logistics performance of each company and was also used to perform the grouping of these industries into 4 groups containing similar characteristics. The index logistics (IL) showed that companies in the study area still need to improve their activities which were measured to make the logistics a competitive advantage. Moreover, the groups formed also allowed to evaluate that is not enough the improvement at only a part of logistics activities, but is necessary to improve the set of variables that can positively influence the final result in the logistics competitiveness and leadership.

A spreadsheet for calculation of ingredients for standardization of requeijão cremoso

The standardization of requeijao cheese quality characteristics is a processing stage which is directly influenced by the chemical composition of the raw material. Fat and water concentrations are the main factors that cause variation in quality properties of the requeijao and, when not thoroughly controlled, may cause a lack in standardization of the food. Calculations of ingredients for effective standardization must be made in relation to the final product through of iterative calculations, which makes the manual process unfeasible. Thus, the objective of the present study was to develop a spreadsheet for ingredient calculation, with restrictions being the different concentrations of fat and water in order to standardize the final products. The spreadsheet was developed using the Excel 2007® Solver function, with just four input data: quantity of mass, water and fat content of the mass and fat content of the cream. The optimal solution was that which maximizes the amount of final product while meeting the stipulated constraints of fat and water. Results obtained with the spreadsheet were validated by processing the requeijao cheeses and comparison of the theoretical and practical parameters using the t-test. There was no significant difference between fat and water contents (p>0.10) estimated and verified in practice. Therefore, the use of the spreadsheet proved to be efficient for standardization of requeijao formulations.

CONTRIBUTION OF COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATION FOR LAYOUT ANALYSIS IN A WOODEN FURNITURE INDUSTRY

1 Received on 07.10.2013 accepted for publication on 01.11.2016. 2 Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Engenharia de Produção e Mecânica, Viçosa, Minas Gerais Brasil. E-mail: <alexandre.navarro@ufv.br>. 3 Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Mestrado em Engenharia Agrícola. E-mail: <adolfo.araujo@ufv.br>. 4 Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Engenheira de Produção. E-mail: <lorrainegodoy@gmail.com>. 5 Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Engenharia de Produção e Mecânica, Viçosa, Minas Gerais Brasil. E-mail: <minette@ufv.br> and <jaqueline.suzuki@ufv.br>. *Corresponding author.