Improvement of the supply chain for the sugar cane exportation process employing discrete events simulation techniques/Improvement of the supply chain for the sugar cane exportation process employing discrete events simulation techniques

Current paper proposes a reduction on all logistic costs involved in the sugar cane exportation process for an important medium-size cargo harbor in South America. The strategy consisted in studying and improving the efficiency of the logistics transportation flow of merchandise between the sugar cane mills and the cargo ports by employing discrete events simulation as a methodology and the ProModel software as a simulation platform. The simulated scenarios show 89% reductions in additional costs for inventory management; 50% of the resources used for loading the containers; and an 11.4% increment in the efficiency of operations. In addition, the new planning strategy was also evaluated with either a positive or negative variation of the demand. It should be underscored that the improved scenarios (out of those simulated) do not involve investments in facilities or in machinery purchasing. Keywords: simulation, sea port, logistics, transport. O objetivo desse trabalho e encontrar uma reducao de todos os custos logisticos envolvidos no processo de exportacao do acucar de cana de um importante porto de carga de porte medio na America do Sul. A estrategia consistiu em estudar e melhorar a eficiencia do fluxo logistico de transporte de mercadorias entre os engenhos de cana de acucar e os portos de carga, utilizando como metodologia a simulacao de eventos discretos e o software ProModel como plataforma de simulacao. Os cenarios simulados, levam-nos a obter reducoes de 89% nos custos na gestao de estoques e 50% dos recursos utilizados para carregar os conteineres, tambem permitiu obter um incremento de 11,4% na eficiencia das operacoes. Alem disso, foi possivel avaliar uma nova estrategia de planejamento com variacao positiva ou negativa da demanda. E importante destacar que os cenarios melhorados (daqueles simulados) nao envolvem investimento em instalacoes nem na compra de equipamentos. Palavras-chave: simulacao, porto maritimo, logistica, transporte.