João Gilberto Mendes dos Reis

Supply Chain Quality Management in Agribusiness: An Approach of Quality Management Systems in Food Supply Chains

It is widely accepted that Quality Management Systems approach is indicated to ensure quality of products and services. Furthermore, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, ISO Standards and Hoshin Kanri have established as important management systems for quality guarantee in many production processes. Unfortunately, these systems are not familiar to agribusiness companies. The aim of this study is to analyze the benefits of application of traditional QMS in food supply chains. For the purpose of analysis, this paper investigates a case study in a Poultry Slaughterhouse company. The results showed that whether the company adopted the traditional QMS, it was able to solve the problem of temperature variation in the freezing tunnel in a short period an effective way. This article is part of a work to identify Supply Chain Quality Management applications in agribusiness companies.

Knowledge Management in Public Transportation: Experiences in Brazilian Bus Companies

The Brazilian public transportation system is composed of small and medium size companies. These companies may not be prepared to thrive in a competitive environment because, generally, these firms are managed like a family business. Thus, Knowledge Management (KM) can be defined as an efficient and simple way to solve day-to-day problems and drive the quality of services. Knowledge Management System (KMS) is a business process developed to encompass a basic investigative process, which consists of a synthetic diagnosis of the general conditions and the establishment of programs aimed at the generation of improvements based on the reduction and or elimination of wastefulness. This paper presents KM methodology (KM and KMS) applied in three case studies in Brazilian bus companies. The results indicate that application of this methodology allows companies to reach a competitive advantage. This paper is a result of consulting services in these companies.

Method for Quality Appraisal in Supply Networks

The study of supply networks or supply chains is an emerging theme in the world of Production Engineering. The complexity of how companies relate to their networks cannot be resolved through a single management strategy anymore. At the same time, quality can no longer be seen as something inherent to individual companies. This paper studies the alignment of three important aspects: product type (functional or innovative) network strategy (agile, responsive, flexible or lean), Quality Management System - QMS (Hashin Kanri, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma and / or ISO Standards). To do this developed a method that aims to check the alignment mentioned and suggest to companies the quality management system best suited to each situation. The method presented an accuracy of over 90% in its use in research conducted.

Knowledge and Quality for Continuous Improvement of Production Processes

This work aims to show the scale of the use of tools and concepts for quality management and knowledge. In addition, it seeks the improvement of industrial processes and products, which we also need the conscious and motivated employee participation. Moreover, it seeking their commitment with the changes to be implemented. An illustrative case of application is performed on company of aluminum smelter, with significant results.

Relationships and Centrality in a Cluster of the Milk Production Network in the State of Parana/Brazil

The objective of this research is to evaluate the relationships of the network formed by the important milk cluster in the city of Umuarama, State of Parana (PR)/BRAZIL, using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) focusing on the collective gains and competitive advantages of this cluster. The methodology used was qualitative and quantitative. Questionnaires were applied to the network for the characterization of the existing relationships between them, and also to present the analysis of network measures using the UCINET software and the graphics schemes of networks. It was found that this milk production network appears to be diffuse, and that there are few solid relationships, which have no central coordination; the network did not present governance relationships nor a defined empowerment with significant transaction costs relationships. The relevance of this paper is to present a procedure of study in networks that can be reproduced in future researches.

Brazilian Corn Exports: An Analysis of Cargo Flow in Santos and Paranagua Port

The world’s population is projected to increase to 9 billion till 2050, increasing feed demand. Corn is one of the most important grains in food supply chains (FSC), and growers have an essential role. This article aims to investigate the flow of Brazilian corn among origin, main ports, and international markets to address a panorama of corn production in Brazil. With this objective, we collected data from the Brazilian Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade, and we analyzed this data using Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools. The results showed that corn exports in Brazil use two main ports, with Santos being the most important one.

Passenger Transport Drawbacks: An Analysis of Its “Disutilities” Applying the AHP Approach in a Case Study in Tokyo, Japan

Passenger transport is a key player in urban mobility. However, it imposes some disadvantages, such as: time wasting, cost of fares and other costs, insecurity, discomfort and damage to the environment. These disadvantages herein called disutilities affect passenger choices and therefore it is necessary to consider them encompassing all modes of transportation. In this study, an analysis of these disutilities was conducted with the purpose of measuring its drawbacks. To this end, a case study in the Greater Tokyo Area (Japan) was carried out and assessed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The results showed that from 0,000 to 1,000 automobiles produce the highest level of disutility (0.182) compared with seven other modes of transportation.

Neural Network System to Forecast the Soybean Exportation on Brazilian Port of Santos

Agricultural products are an important part of the Brazilian economy. In soybean production, the country is the second largest producer with 114.0 million tons in the 2016/2017 harvest. Mato Grosso state is the largest Brazilian producer with 30.5 million tons and the port of Santos is mainly requested by being the largest port in Latin America. However, the poor infrastructure of the transport road causes bottlenecks when dispatching soybean through the major ports. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used worldwide in logistics; therefore, we propose to design, train and simulate an ANN on MatLab\(\copyright \) software to forecast the demand of soybean produced in Mato Grosso and exported through the port of Santos. The value of 9.0 million tons was predicted for 2017 as an increase of about 26.5% compared with the 2016 movement of 7.1 million tons. In addition, it was noticed that 5.9 million tons were moved only in the first five months (Jan–May) of transactions in 2017.

Impact of cargo railway transportation service quality on enterprises in Piauí, Brazil

ABSTRACT Railway transportation is critical to the flow of goods, primarily those with low added value and high cargo volume. In this paper, we report findings from a case study featuring interviews with five companies regarding the railway situation in the state of Piauí, Brazil. The results reveal that the railway system loads adopted in Piauí are restricted due to the low availability of routes and poor-quality infrastructure, which increase lead times. Moreover, we found that since the railways are not connected along main production routes, trains cannot be used to export goods.

TRANSPORTE PÚBLICO DE PASSAGEIROS: ANÁLISE DE REDE DA ÁREA NORDESTE DA CIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

The physical expansion of the cities and the urban demands growth made the use of public transport system essential for measuring urban quality of life in medium and large metropolises. The public transport use favors the environment due reducing pollution from burning of fossil fuels, improve socialization of the public areas, driving in urban public transport reduce the traffic congestion. This paper aims to study the flow of passagers in public transportation by bus in the East Zone of Sao Paulo city, the most populous region of city with more than three million inhabitants. Transported passagers flows were analyzed using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The results showed the complementarity public transport by bus to subway system and indicated that several challenges still have to be overcome to make the efficient system and atractive to the users.