Mariana Guersola, Maria Teresinha Arns Steiner and Cassius Tadeu Scarpin
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) transportation risks depend on aspects such as the total length of the trip and population density along the route. Choosing to deliver the product…
Abstract
Purpose
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) transportation risks depend on aspects such as the total length of the trip and population density along the route. Choosing to deliver the product on non-busy days and reducing distances travelled may help to reduce these risks and lower the level of air pollution generated by the transportation trucks. The purpose of this paper is to reduce LPG delivery impact.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-stage methodology is proposed. First, rules are created in order to choose which clients have to be visited each day to avoid deliveries in downtown areas during business days. Second, an Iterated Local Search (ILS) metaheuristic is proposed for the capacitated p-median problem to group the chosen customers. Finally, another ILS is proposed to solve the Travelling Salesman Problem, for each truck to follow a better route while visiting its customers.
Findings
The methodology resulted in a 24.8 per cent reduction in distances travelled, representing an annual reduction of 32,716 kg in CO2 emissions. The average amount of product sold per kilometre travelled improved by 72 per cent.
Originality/value
The literature shows a clear need for companies to consider sustainability in their daily decisions. However, especially in developing countries, there is a fear that protecting the environment may cost money. This main contribution of this paper is that it presents a real solution, serving as a guide for companies to improve their transportation system, resulting in environmental and economic benefits.
Details
Keywords
Fernanda Assef, Cassius Tadeu Scarpin and Maria Teresinha Steiner
The purpose of this paper is to present a precise comparison between a pre-determined time rules and the evaluation performed with the help of a manual chronometer using data from…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a precise comparison between a pre-determined time rules and the evaluation performed with the help of a manual chronometer using data from a line assembly in an automotive industry besieged in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Nowadays, it is possible to verify several tools of measurement of task times, some taking less time and causing less wear of the evaluator than others, but not being in accordance with the real conditions of the workers of a certain industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The developed paper has its methodology based on two methods of time analysis, one of them being an adaptation of the MODular Arrangement of Predeterminated Time Standard (MODAPTS) method – called MODAPTS 2. This method is used by the industry in analyzed in this work and the other through the use of simple manual timing, through the digital timer, of the stages developed in a workstation.
Findings
The study shows that for each operation analyzed, thus presenting a situation of minimum waste, it becomes possible to judge which reasons exist for the operator during manual timekeeping not to reach the optimum times generated by the system of pre-determined times and movements (PMTSs) questioned.
Research limitations/implications
This study is conducted on an automotive enterprise in a period of confidentiality, which means that only a single workstation is able to be studied. This means that the comparison obtained between the time measurements methods used, and the evaluation of the MODAPTS is carried out with the best possible movements and gestures, disregarding then that the wastes can still be postulated to the whole assembly line.
Originality/value
With the automation in industry, where assemble tasks are usually developed manually, it is believed possible to discard the option of measuring task times in its classic and manual form, using a timer, yet during this process, there will be variables that may not be considered by pre-determined measurements methodologies. The work developed by this paper presents different variables that are not examined by the methods of PMTS, not frequently seen in the literature, as well as the difference that occurs between the measurement of times with stopwatch and the use of PMTS, which, in its original form, disregards the wastes that the operator has in their movements.