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 Main subject - mar/apr 2005
Logistic, from production to seed
distribution
Dr. Arlei Roberto Krüger
Sementes Roos
arlei@sementesroos.com.br
Dr. José Francisco Martins
Sementes Agro-Sol
jose.francisco@grupoagro-sol.com.br
Dr. Gloverson Moro
Syngenta Seeds
gloverson.moro@syngenta.com
Dr. Rui Rosinha
Pró-Sementes
lascuritiba@terra.com.br
The logistics - art of administering the businesses in an integrated way, optimizing the available resources, seeking the global earnings - it gets more and more prominence in the business scenery, being able to constitute important differential or even making unfeasible an activity. Actually, the possibilities of costs reduction, as well as of sales increase through logistics procedures, are countless and they depend on creativity and knowledge of the main involved foundations.
The planning processes, implementation and control of flow, efficient storage of raw materials, final product and related information are included, from the origin point to the consumer, with the objective of assisting the customer's requirements. In an industrial context, it can be defined as the art and the administration science and engineering to obtain, to produce and to distribute materials and products to a specific place and in specific amounts.
As it couldn't be different, the approach of this matter is related to the seed section. Its content is based on the experience of important entrepreneurs of the sector, heard by our staff: Arlei Roberto Krüger (Sementes Roos), José Francisco Martins (Agro-Sol Seeds) Gloverson Moro (Syngenta Seeds) and Rui Rosinha (Pró-Sementes).
The most important administration tool for a seed producing company, in Rui Rosinha is opinion, executive of the Pró-sementes (specialized in soybean and wheat seeds), besides the quality control, a quite significant item is related to the marketing area, in that the tool of fundamental importance is the database of the clients. It is "through that one can know a lot of the customer's profile and then conduct the efforts in the sense of assisting the identified demands", he argues.
He believes that the companies need to leave a little bit the technological aspects and to reinforce also in this business area. We are "very linked to the quality control subjects, tests and everything else, that are indispensable, but, fundamentally, the companies need to sell otherwise they will stop progressing", says Rosinha.
"In the current world, in that the competition is stronger and stronger, the most agile are the ones that will win, not the strongest ones. The fundamental is the agility of the company in knowing to recognize its market and to have perception of the movements that market does. With the most dynamic information, the changes are very fast and sometimes they are not followed by the companies", the entrepreneur observes.
Questioned on what is considered to be necessary for the company to put in practice those tools, Rosinha says that it bets in a work of human resources capable to make the whole company to move in the direction of deeply knowing the customer. "Computerized administration tools are also necessary, because the sum of information is very high, and it can't be managed on the tip of the pencil. It is necessary an administration instrument of compatible database with the needs of the company". In the entrepreneur's opinion, the most loaded atmosphere inside of the companies, originates from the lack of information. "The important thing is that through a well conducted system the information are available for all of the people", he emphasizes.
Personnel's training is also an indispensable aspect, starting by the education level, at least with high school. According to Rosinha, even if someone can find some virtuoso, the ideal is that the education level is, in the minimum, the medium teaching. "It cannot be playing by the ear, it is necessary to play for music! "It summarizes. The work should result of a medium term strategic planning, developed in a continuous way, what also lessens the costs of the investments.
Harvesting and storage
In the following lines, we will try to bring up what is involved in the logistics of those processes. Actually, everything can be summarized in two words that constitute permanent objectives: agility and efficiency. Let us see, initially, the experience of the company Sementes Roos that in each harvesting receives around 500 thousand bags of seeds, of 20 soybean cultivars. All of this concentrated in a single month. After having it processed, production is about 20, 000 tons.
Our initial inquiry: What is done so that the great production volume is not mixed and avoid the trucks waiting too long? Who answers is entrepreneur Arlei Roberto Krüger: "Basically, the process begins at planting time, with the choice of the cultivars, where a planning is already done per farmer, or per farm so that certain variety, even coming from different farms or different farmers, arrive in the same period at the seed conditioning plant (SCP). Then, the early varieties are initially addressed and, in the sequence, the medium and late ones. In other words, it is looked for to concentrate the reception of each variety in the shortest period possible. "This is the planning that we do from planting time - a lot of times, depending on the climate, the execution is not so easy, but it is an action adopted to soften the wait for the truck to unload."
According to Krüger, it can enter in one day up to 30 thousand seed sacks in the SCP, which corresponds to about 80 trucks per day, what demands a very good structure of storage and a great unload capacity. Special vehicles are hired for the service.
When arriving at the balance, the seed lot is checked for moisture, purity, varietal mixes and weeds. Everything is done at once and by sampling and a loss simulation is also done. All those registrations are made with the help of software, an integrated system that is in permanent updating process. "At the seed laboratory, when doing the analyses, the system is fed with the information. The program shows the available seeds for sale. The software integrates all the data", the entrepreneur observes.
Another subject: How communication between the SCP and the production fields is carried out, especially in relation to harvesting authorization? Krüger explains that there are several inspections during the productive cycle, giving the necessary technical support, and at pre-harvesting who is producing requests the company authorization to start harvesting.
The liberation is made and the personnel of the SCP are already prepared to receive certain variety of certain field. Everything is already prepared, no load arrives in surprise."
For the Agro-Sol company, that works with an average of ten soybean varieties, where the number of harvested bags reaches the average of 250 thousand, corresponding to 400 trucks of 27 tons each- which are received in a 60 days period. The formula to avoid the mixture of materials on the field is also by maturation process, going from planting early varieties to the medium cycle and late ones, that later on are harvested in the same order. The planting capacity of the company is of 200 ha/day, what demands a corresponding capacity of harvesting", José Francisco Martins observes. According to him, the SCP should be prepared to receive the materials, therefore to avoid mixtures - separate silos, and individualized bins are used.
"The seed conditioned lines are also separated up to bagging, where the seeds begin to be individualized by the lot number and screens, eliminating the possibility of mixture", he explains.
page 2 ->> Logistic, from production to seed distribution
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