Dinâmica do suprimento de cana em usinas sucroalcooleiras: efeitos do uso de frota mista

Abstract

This study evaluates, using a discrete-event simulation, the supply of a sugar and ethanol mill that operates with a mixed truck fleet, composed of road trains and trucks with two trailers. For the sugar and ethanol industry, logistics represents a key issue since it is responsible for the continuous supply of sugarcane to the mill throughout the harvest. The mixed fleet coordination represents a challenge, given the operational differences between the various vehicle types. This paper evaluates a mill's supply system by varying the fleet composition, the number of unloading points, and how these points are serviced. Discrete-event modeling and simulation are used as a tool to represent the mill's supply operations. To analyze the scenarios, the risk of mill supply shortage, storage, mill utilization, the amount of sugarcane delivered daily, and the time the vehicles remain in the mill are the indicators evaluated. The system’s performance was evaluated with different configurations to find viable alternatives for each fleet composition mix. The scenarios with greater participation of road trains showed better performance. Furthermore, the challenges of operating with a mixed fleet, also found in the literature,1 were stressed. These challenges are such as the dimensioning and coordination of the different types of vehicles and the adoption and interpretation of indicators to evaluate the performance of the fleet.