Estratégias operatórias para a colheita mecanizada de cana-de-açúcar: contribuições para o desempenho
Resumo
Introduction - The current production rates of the mechanized sugarcane harvest, below those
expected at the beginning of the mechanization process, motivate countless researchers to make
several quantitative methodological attempts in the different dimensions of the activity, in order
to understand how the variables of the mechanized cutting process are correlated and how they
interfere in the performance of the harvesting equipment. However, from a speech by a
harvester operator: “It is the cane that shows the ability for you to walk”, the intelligence of the
worker's practice in his/her activity is revealed, showing his/her fundamental role in the
operational performance through his/her reading of the cane field. Objective - Evaluate how
the technocentric and quantitative variables used in the calculation of the global efficiency of
the sugarcane harvester are influenced by the operator's action, from the perspective of the
ergonomics of the activity. Methods - Qualitative research, the main results of which were
assessed through the Work Analysis of the sugarcane harvester operators under the Course of
Action ergonomic method. Triangulation (observations and interviews) was used as data
collection procedures. Twenty visits were made to the work teams of a sugar-energy plant, in
which 17 were carried out on the sugarcane cutting and loading work team and the other three
on the teams of fertigation, fertilization, planting and harvesting of seedlings, on different days
of the week, in different shifts, varying between 2 to 9 hours in duration. On each visit to the
cutting teams, an operator was accompanied during his/her work shift, from inside the
harvester's cabin. Workers' courses of action were recorded in chronicles and then analyzed in
graphs of tetradic signs. Results - The analysis of the courses of action revealed an operational
logic that is imposed on workers by mechanization and, at the same time, hidden by the
productive indexes. The operator perceives the context of his/her own work and the work of
his/her colleagues to make decisions, prioritizing sometimes the cleanliness of the harvested
mass, the fuel consumption, the losses of cane in the field and the loading flow in the
transshipment; sometimes, the harvesting strategy, the number of maneuvers, the maintenance
of the implements and the release of overflows. This prioritization of actions directly affects
performance indicators, which can be calculated using the data indicated by monitoring
software. Despite this, the OEE was not shown to be sufficient to evaluate the performance in
mechanized harvesting, due to the limitation and loss of data; the extrapolation of what would
be the active time; the disregard for the sugarcane productivity; and, the failure to contemplate
the real conditions of the harvesting equipment and, not even, the operating strategies that the
operators are submitted to develop to create satisfactory indicators for the plant. Conclusion -
Because of the partial availability of the harvester, where problems coexist throughout the
harvesting process, and because of the instability in the production of cane cultivation, which
has variability that automation does not master, the operator is asked to use his skills to do your
job. And, therefore, the greater this competence, the greater the possibilities for action to
generate better indicators.
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