Kazuo Hatakeyama

WMS -Warehouse Management System: adaptação proposta para o gerenciamento da logística reversa

With the advent of the globalization, warehouses serves distant markets and presents a very low stock turnaround time. In this process, huge quantities of materials are discarded at the end of the logistics chain. These materials represent a considerable financial ammount and, if improperly discarded, can cause an environmental disaster. In order to avoid these problems, reverse supply chain management techniques are used. On order to implement these techniques, reverse supply chain management systems are needed. As this kind of systems are almost inexistent, this article suggests the adaptation of the traditional WMS systems in order to be useful in the management of the reverse supply chain management. The proposed methodology shows that the major functions found in present WMS systems can also be used for reverse supply chain management.

Formalização da logística de suprimentos: caso das montadoras e fornecedores da indústria automotiva Brasileira

O setor automotivo apresenta iniciativas consideraveis na gestao da cadeia de suprimentos (GCS), que merecem ser destacadas. O objetivo principal da presente pesquisa foi verificar o nivel de formalizacao na logistica de suprimentos (LS) das montadoras e fornecedores da industria automotiva brasileira. Para tanto, realizou-se uma pesquisa aplicada, exploratoria e descritiva, por meio do metodo indutivo que, do ponto de vista da abordagem do problema, caracteriza-se como qualitativa. O procedimento tecnico utilizado foi o levantamento de dados, e a coleta foi realizada por meio de questionarios de pesquisa. A amostra foi composta de 23 montadoras e 50 fornecedores provenientes da industria automotiva brasileira. Constatou-se que as praticas adotadas por ambos sao convergentes, o que se constitui em aspecto essencial na implementacao efetiva do conceito de GCS, no entanto ressalta-se que nas montadoras essas praticas estao mais desenvolvidas.

Processo sustentável de produção de carvão vegetal quanto aos aspectos: ambiental, econômico, social e cultural

Brazil accounts for approximately one third of the worlds charcoal production, and around ninety percent of that is destined to the Brazilian production of pig-iron, alloys iron, pure silicon, among others. Almost 75% of the charcoal is still produced through the traditional handcraft method, and almost half of firewood still derives from native forests. The pressure for ecologically-right, socially fair and economically feasible production has driven the search for cleaner and more efficient technologies. Researching a metallic vertical cylinder at an industrial charcoal production unit and a traditional handcraft unit, both located on the State of Parana, this paper intends to show that the industrial production process can replace the traditional one. According to the sustainability pillars, this industrial process may enable the saving of 25% of firewood, pointing to economical feasibility and an ecologically-right and socially fair process under the Brazilian labor legislation.

Level of knowledge and formalization of logistics and SCM in the Brazilian automakers suppliers

The logistics and supply chain management - SCM concepts in Brazil are not well developed yet; in many companies these concepts are frequently confused. Automotive sector, even though, presents considerable initiatives in logistics and SCM and, deserves to be noticeable. The main objective of this research was to verify the level of knowledge and formalization of logistics of the Brazilian automakers and its suppliers. In order to reach this objective, it was accomplished an applied, exploratory, descriptive and not only quantitative but also, qualitative research, through inductive approach. The technical procedure used to collect the data was a survey. The data collection was carried out through questionnaires sent by the post office mail and, e-mail to 50 suppliers and 23 automakers of automotive industry. It was noticed that, among several factors considered, the difficulty of implementation of the SCM concept is detached as the incoherence in the culture of the companies researched, concerning the partnerships and the information exchanging among the involved members. Furthermore, it also has noticed the evidence of the needs to spread SCM concepts throughout the value chain in the business concerned are the key factors for the competitiveness.

Return on investment for technology supported by business process management

Regarding the actual experiences although interest in return on investment - ROI methodology and its use has increased, people from business area argue that the use of this approach for technology application is difficult, which constitutes one paradigm to be broken. On the other hand, the benefits obtained with the use of technology in business process management - BPM have been increasingly in many companies of various sectors. The results from those earning opportunities are generating increased demand for technology application to automated process., however, in the most of the cases the gain evaluation is qualitative and subjective. This paper aims to present some factors to leave the exercise more clear using BPM approach and use it to prove Losses reduction based on date and facts using ROI methodology, speaking the sponsors language and avoiding long speeches. The suggested ROI approach was planned be tested in the manufacturing enterprise of household appliances to improve the present practice.

Technology surveillance of the solar refrigeration by absorption/adsorption

In order to establish networks of cooperation looking for not to duplicate research and even to make use of existing research in a remote form, it is necessary to identify and classify (around the world) the researchers and laboratories, that are researching in the topic of solar refrigeration by absorption/adsorption. The methodology consists in: i) the technologys classification, ii) technological trajectory Identification, iii) a thematic bibliographic review, and iv) patents analysis. In this way, with the previous determination of keywords, will be identified main authors and their respective institutions. With the same keywords, are determined the licensed patents (in certain span of time). In addition, the analysis of publications, patents, and commercial products give us an opportunity to establish comparisons between prototypes and tests (in several conditions). The larger results implicate the use of actors network and the remote access to the data and tests, for a collaborative research, overcoming the lack of laboratory resource and accelerating the knowledge acquisition.

Six Sigma application in small enterprise

Six Sigma has been used by large companies to improve the performance of their manufacturing processes. However, the interest and the application of this methodology in small- and medium-sized enterprises is something emerging, despite being little widespread in the literature. This article shows the applicability of Six Sigma in a small Brazilian company, explaining the application strategy and its impacts. This work presents a revision about Six Sigma and DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) method, which had been mostly successfully used by large-scale industries and it is suitable for this case, and approaches the particularities of small business that could have some impact in this application. Then, it details the application of Six Sigma with DMAIC in a small surface treatment company of mechanical components. This article shows the feasibility, applicability, and impact of Six Sigma in this small company, which obtained a rework reduction of approximately 20% on their zinc coating process.

Knowledge networks to improve the technological capability in a solar energy enterprise cluster

The sector of renewable energies is studied for the possibilities that offers to take care of the environmental and energy save. In the production areas, it is need to understand some topics like the technological capability and absorption capacity, to identify the patterns of learning, to improve the knowledge generation, innovation and competitiveness. This is applied specifically in the cases of small enterprises that belong to an incipient cluster, in a region with availability of solar energy resources, like Arequipa in the south-west of Peru. In this context its developed a study to identify the technological capability and learning aspects, for a solar enterprise cluster acting in Arequipa. The methodology is the case study, through applying a questionnaire to seven enterprises. The questionnaire was formulated according the theoretical backgrounds regarding to this theme. The results of the research are useful to planning the local development through the application of tools as the technological surveillance, technological forecasting, and also for the local technology improvement through the incentive of knowledge networks.

As vantagens logísticas e tributárias obtidas com a implantação do RECOF na indústria automobilística

With the fall of customs barriers, that leads to the intensification of foreign commerce that demands greater reduction of bureaucracy in the customs processes, aiming at the reduction of logistics costs and tributes. Currently, Brazil shelters the main world-wide groups of automotive segment which develops the export business in this sector. A recent study of the World Bank demonstrates that, while the Brazilain products take in an average 39 days to gain permits, in the remaining of the world, this process takes only 27 days. To solve this problem, customs regimen RECOF appeared in 1997. The objective of the present article is to analyze the logistics advantages and taxes revenues with the implantation of this regimen in the automotive sector. This research is regarded as an applied and exploratory research, whereby the methodological procedure was a case study. The main advantages accrued from this regimen are represented by the reduction of the logistics costs and the return of the capital spent in the payment of the incident taxes in the purchase of raw materials and components.

Level of knowledge and formalization of logistics and SCM in the Brazilian automotive industries suppliers

The companies of vanguard understood that the real competition is not made among companies, but among supply chains. The supply chain management (SCM) concept is the logistics extension, while the logistics management is concerned with the organization flows optimization. This paper intends to divulge the level of the knowledge and the formalization of logistics and SCM already set up by the suppliers of Brazilian automotive industries. The SCM recognized that the internal integration is not enough for the competitiveness achievement. The automotive segment can be considered representative in logistics and SCM practices in Brazil deserves to be noticeable. In order to achieve this, it was accomplished an applied, exploratory, descriptive and qualitative survey, through inductive approach. The technical procedure used was a survey. The data collection was carried out through questionnaires sent to fifty representative suppliers of automotive industry, with the return of 64% answers. The results of the survey showed that the main impediment in the implementation of the SCM concept is precisely the incoherence in the culture of the companies surveyed about the logistics and SCM, concerning the partnerships and the exchange of information.