a b s t r a c tIn this paper a new revised multi-choice goal programming (RMCGP-LHS) model is proposed to deal with uncertainty in sugar cane harvest scheduling for sugar and ethanol milling companies. The RMCGP-LHS model uses a weekly decision-making horizon and takes into account the time and condition of land management, cane cutting decisions, and agricultural logistics. Its objective is to obtain information in order to harvest sugar cane plots in the period closest to the highest saccharose levels, while also minimizing agro-industrial costs. The RMCGP-LHS model was applied to a real case sugar and ethanol mill, and its optimization has provided harvesting policies that were validated by the company's managers. Besides that the RMCGP-LHS model is a very practical tool for simulating in a fast way different scenarios involving uncertainties on model parameters and helping the managers in decision making process in real time.
The mass production companies need to seek high efficiency in the use of equipment and human resources, as well as in the consumption of their inputs. One of the key methods to address these challenges is the adoption of Overall Equipment Effectiveness, derived from Total Productive Maintenance. This work aims to propose a new efficiency indicator, called Overall Machinery Effectiveness, to be applied in an automotive company in Brazil that adopted Overall Equipment Effectiveness indicator. The studied company made available production data from ten months, associated to two Press machines, generating twenty Decision Making Units for Data Envelopment Analysis and Bi-Objective Multiple Criteria Data Envelopment Analysis models application. As results, Press #2 was identified as being the most critical because, among the first ten DMUs in the efficiency ranking, seven are associated to Press #1. The targets values recommended by the new indicator were considered feasible to be implemented by the company, thus validating in practice the new proposed procedure for the management of machines effectiveness. Moreover, the identification of the relevant variables (input and output) for the Press #1, and Press #2, allowed the decision maker to act in the best way to increase their efficiency.
This study aims to characterize the microstructure of the complex phase steel (CP). Using the conventional and colored metallographic analysis with 3% Nital etchant, sodium metabisulfite 10% and LePera. Techniques were applied in this work of optical microscopy, using, besides the lighting in bright field, dark field illumination of the reverse contrast in bright field illumination, the method of polarized light, which generates colorful contrast, providing a complementary identification phases present in the microstructure, and the system by differential interference contrast (DIC). The results obtained by metallography CP indicates that the steel has a microstructure composed of ferrite, retained austenite, bainite and martensite and precipitates arranged in a refined and complex morphology. Besides bright field illumination others optical microscopys techniques such as dark field illumination were applied.
Resumo: A Programação por Metas (Goal Programming -GP) é uma abordagem multicritério da Pesquisa
Palavras-chave: Programação por Metas Fuzzy; Orçamento de capital; Ambiente econômico sob incerteza.Abstract: The Goal Programming (GP) is a multi-criteria approach of Operational Research that has been used for solving complex decision problems. This paper proposes a new Fuzzy Goal Programming (FGP) model to handle the process of capital budget of companies in an economic environment under uncertainty. For performance comparison purposes, the FGP and another recently published model developed for the same purposes were applied to data from a company that was the object of the study. The modeling and optimization were made with the GAMS software -23.6.5 and using the CPLEX solver. The results obtained from the FGP model provided higher improvements than those obtained with the alternative model, as for example: increased profitability index, reduced payback and better application of the capital available in the budget. Furthermore, the FGP model has flexibility features that allow the manager to simulate, quickly and easily obtaining results about scenarios under uncertainty.
This work has been developed in a large steel industry in Brazil, which produces railway and industrial components, and whose aim was to reduce casting defects. Usually, in industrial processes, identifying the causes of defects and their control are relatively complex activities, due to the many variables involved. In this context, the production processes of seven products, involving 38 process variables (inputs and outputs), have been evaluated adopting a new and innovative procedure. Initially, using a Weighted Goal Programming ‐ Multiple Criteria Data Envelopment Analysis (WGP‐MCDEA) model, we identified the most relevant input and output variables, and the studied company validated the results. Next, using the multiple regression technique, empirical functions were constructed for two response variables chosen by the company – number of external cracks and number of internal cracks. Then, to model the real processes adequately, we introduced the occurrence of uncertainty on the coefficients of these functions, considering them as random variables, according to triangular probability functions. Finally, applying the optimizer Optquest, optimization via Monte Carlo simulation (OvMCS) was performed, and with the Ordinary Least Square technique, we obtained the best fit for the two response variables. Specialists from the company validated the proposed procedure. They found that the values of input and output variables obtained by OvMSC, as well as the values of the response variables, belonged to the database available in the ERP system of the company. These results showed that the procedure proposed herein provided feasible and useful solutions to improve the industrial processes under study.
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