Quaestum

Growth and instability of the 1992/93 - 2016/17 soybean crops in the main producing states of Brazil

Osvaldo Chacarolli Júnior, Priscila Fortes — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The expansion of world demand for food and energy has
resulted in increased agricultural yields and production. Soybean
production, specifically, is among the economic activities that have
shown significant growth at national and global levels in recent decades.
In this context, policymakers and other agents involved in the soybean
production chain must pay careful attention to the instability with which
yield and production increases occur over time. Therefore, the objective of
this study was to evaluate this instability and growth in soybean planted
area, production, and yield in the main producing states of Brazil over
the 1992/93 to 2016/17 crops. We measured instability by applying the
Cuddy-Della Valle index and growth rates calculated using a log-linear
regression with post decomposition analysis. We observed that all
variables, in all states, presented a tendency of growth—particularly that
of planted area, which was the main production-defining element. We
additionally found low levels of instability for planted area, production,
and yield in most analyzed regions.

The benefits and challenges of a continuous improvement area in a manufacturing plant

Carlos Vinicius Vasconcellos de Magalhaes Castro, João Batista de Camargo Junior — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A continuous improvement area is a department of a company
that seeks to support the implementation and execution of tasks focused
on the improvement of processes, which can add additional value
to production lines. As such, the goal of this paper was to identify the
benefits of a continuous improvement area to plant production and the
main challenges a rolled aluminum plant faces when implementing this
program at all levels of manufacturing. The methodology used to achieve
this goal was composed of qualitative interviews with 24 professionals
from the company under analysis—including mechanical technicians,
electrical technicians, and area leaders from the first, second, and third
tiers of the company—and a comparison of our data analysis with that of
the literature. The main results of this paper indicated that the benefits
of the plant’s continuous improvement area on production included the
reduction of waste, the training of the workforce, and the translation of
corporate goals into tangible goals for the plant. Meanwhile, we found
the main challenges faced by the continuous improvement area during
the application of this program to be an unwillingness of employees to
change the way they perform their jobs and the identification of the best
way to communicate with those involved in the program.

Editorial Quaestum

Humberto Francisco Silva Spolador — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000