En la empresa de café Picorana se identificaron los principales problemas y se analizaron los indicadores mediante los cuales se pudo realizar un diagnóstico del área de producción de la empresa, con ello se tuvo que su nivel de servicio había representado únicamente un 78%, eso se debía a que la empresa tenía rotura de stock ya que no podía atender todos los pedidos; sumado a ello había un 17% de actividades improductivas, sus ingresos no percibidos eran de S/ 811 755, la eficiencia del proceso de 50% y por ende su colchón de capacidad de 50%, así como una eficiencia económica de 1,28 y una eficiencia física de 88%; por ello para dar solución al problema principal se propusieron las herramientas de Teoría de Restricciones, dentro de lo que también se incluyó la estandarización de tiempos, balance de línea y además igualar las ventas, concluyéndose finalmente que con las mejoras planteadas se aumentó el nivel de servicio, se redujeron las actividades improductivas, se aumentó la eficiencia física hasta un 100% con el aumento de la productividad a 10 bolsas por operario y además un aumento de la eficiencia económica hasta un 1,8; se redujo el colchón de capacidad y la eficiencia del proceso aumentó hasta el 100% representada por la producción máxima de 320 bolsas de café. Con ello finalmente se desarrolló el análisis de viabilidad económica donde se obtuvo que la propuesta era viable pues por cada sol que se invertiría en la propuesta se obtendría una ganancia de S/ 4,70. De esta forma se logró realizar la mejora del proceso productivo. / In the Picorana coffee company, the main problems were identified and the indicators were analyzed through which a diagnosis of the company's production area could be made, with this it was found that its service level had represented only 78%, that was It was due to the fact that the company was out of stock since it could not fulfill all the orders; In addition to this, there was 17% of unproductive activities, their income not received was S / 811 755, the efficiency of the process of 50% and therefore its capacity buffer of 50%, as well as an economic efficiency of 1,28 and a physical efficiency of 88%; For this reason, to solve the main problem, the Theory of Constraints tools were proposed, within which the standardization of times, line balance and also equalizing sales were also included, finally concluding that with the proposed improvements the level of service, unproductive activities were reduced, physical efficiency was increased up to 100% with an increase in productivity to 10 bags per operator and also an increase in economic efficiency up to 1,8; The capacity cushion was reduced and the efficiency of the process increased to 100% represented by the maximum production of 320 bags of coffee. With this, the economic feasibility analysis was finally developed, where it was obtained that the proposal was viable because for each sol that would be invested in the proposal, a profit of S / 4,70 would be obtained. In this way, the improvement of the production process was achieved.

This thesis addresses the Vehicle Routing Problem with Interdiction (VRPI), an extension of the classic Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) that incorporates the risk of route interdiction due to events such as natural disasters, armed conflicts, and infrastructural failures, among others. These interdictions introduce uncertainty and complexity into logistics planning, requiring innovative approaches to the routing process. This research employs both exact methods, using the CPLEX solver, and heuristic methods, particularly using the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP), to solve VRPI with different instance sizes. This research’s key contributions include successfully implementing the GRASP algorithm on large-scale benchmark instances, representing a significant advancement over prior implementations that focused on smaller, randomly generated instances. A flexible framework was also developed to adapt the GRASP methodology for different VRP variants, including the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) and Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem (SDVRP), with and without interdiction. A feasibility analysis for small instances was developed using CPLEX, highlighting the sensitivity of VRPI solutions to interdiction probabilities, particularly in scenarios with tight capacity constraints. The findings of this analysis are extended to large instances. Additionally, a 3-fold logic was incorporated in the GRASP implementation—focused on minimizing cost, minimizing interdiction, and minimizing demand—proved crit- ical in facing the VRPI challenges, and provided high-quality solutions with reduced computational effort. Including the minimum demand logic in GRASP was instrumen- tal during the implementation and numerical experimentation for large benchmark in- stances. The implications of this thesis are significant for operational research (OR), particularly in high-risk environments where route interdictions can occur. Future research directions include generating more diverse benchmark instances for VRPI, exploring the impact of variability in interdiction probabilities on solution quality and computational time, and applying exact methods like dynamic programming to solve large VRP instances. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / Crop insurance, in recent years, has displaced U.S. federal farm program payments as the most important safety net for net farm income. The business climate that crop insurance purchasers and providers face in the future is one of increasing premiums for producers and decreasing commissions for crop insurance companies and agents. The primary objective of this thesis is to assess the desirability of crop insurance agency acquisitions to increase market share for Farm Credit Services of America, considering the significant uncertainties in the future subsidy levels and commission levels for these products. Financial analysis and modeling crop insurance agency acquisitions is completed under a wide range of future economic and political scenarios. The wide range of assumptions, however, does contribute to a wide range of potential purchase prices and rates of return on crop insurance agency acquisitions. The crop insurance industry faces uncertainty in the future and general industry profitability will likely decline. However, an expansion strategy in a period of reduced commissions can be profitable if acquisitions are priced appropriately and can be made in locations where existing support services can be leveraged to support the acquisition.

Esta tese busca, de início, pesquisar comparativamente, com a abrangência possível, os métodos e processos pelos quais as empresas componentes do setor siderúrgico nacional avaliam - sob o ponto de vista da viabililidade - a tomada de suas decisões relativamente a seus peculiares e vultosos investimentos em equipamentos de tecnologia avançada de manufatura. Revisita primária e metodologicamente amplo repertório de métodos de avaliação consagrados pela prática e pela literatura, tendo como cenário o setor em referência representado pelas várias modalidades industriais que o suportam. A pesquisa é realizada com base no estudo de múltiplos casos realizados em grandes empresas siderúrgicas, a partir de visitas a suas instalações e entrevistas com seus especialistas de análise de viabilidade de projetos de investimento. Ao final, oferece modelo de avaliação a ser adotado complementarmente aos critérios utilizados pelo setor em referência, a partir das observações e discussões efetuadas em campo. / This thesis initially seeks to search, in a comparative basis and with the permissible largeness, the methods and procedures through which the companies comprising the national siderurgic sector appraise their decisions referring to their peculiar and huge investments in AMT equipments, under a feasibility point of view. A primary review is made, in a comparative way, of a large well known evaluation methods repertoire, in a background at which act the various concerned industrial modalities. The search is accomplished based on the study of multiple cases realized at big siderurgic companies, by visiting their installations and by interviewing their specialists in investment feasibility project analysis. Eventually offers an evaluation model to be adopted by this sector, based upon the observation and discussions made in the related field research.

Esta tese busca, de início, pesquisar comparativamente, com a abrangência possível, os métodos e processos pelos quais as empresas componentes do setor siderúrgico nacional avaliam - sob o ponto de vista da viabililidade - a tomada de suas decisões relativamente a seus peculiares e vultosos investimentos em equipamentos de tecnologia avançada de manufatura. Revisita primária e metodologicamente amplo repertório de métodos de avaliação consagrados pela prática e pela literatura, tendo como cenário o setor em referência representado pelas várias modalidades industriais que o suportam. A pesquisa é realizada com base no estudo de múltiplos casos realizados em grandes empresas siderúrgicas, a partir de visitas a suas instalações e entrevistas com seus especialistas de análise de viabilidade de projetos de investimento. Ao final, oferece modelo de avaliação a ser adotado complementarmente aos critérios utilizados pelo setor em referência, a partir das observações e discussões efetuadas em campo. / This thesis initially seeks to search, in a comparative basis and with the permissible largeness, the methods and procedures through which the companies comprising the national siderurgic sector appraise their decisions referring to their peculiar and huge investments in AMT equipments, under a feasibility point of view. A primary review is made, in a comparative way, of a large well known evaluation methods repertoire, in a background at which act the various concerned industrial modalities. The search is accomplished based on the study of multiple cases realized at big siderurgic companies, by visiting their installations and by interviewing their specialists in investment feasibility project analysis. Eventually offers an evaluation model to be adopted by this sector, based upon the observation and discussions made in the related field research.

Before launching a new business it is suitable to test the feasibility of the idea and its potential success or failure. That is why the goal of this thesis is to process the feasibility analysis of the Women Centre. Based on it will be recommended or not to proceed to the writting of the business plan.

[pt] A aplicação de soluções e sistemas prediais sustentáveis em edificações, em especial em habitação, tem sido promovida pela adoção recente de leis pertinentes e pela maior consciência sobre o tema da sustentabilidade. Isto tem levado à iniciativas pontuais que visam redução de custos e de consumo de recursos como energia e água. Porém, é pouco comum verificar no mercado habitacional do Rio de Janeiro o surgimento de novos lançamentos imobiliários que já contemplem soluções sustentáveis em seus projetos, mostrando falta de atenção por parte dos incorporadores imobiliários e clientes compradores com relação à adoção de práticas sustentáveis e de gestão de recursos durante o desenvolvimento e operação da edificação. Este trabalho analisa parâmetros de incorporação e custos de operação de um empreendimento residencial hipotético, com oito pavimentos tipo, na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, no qual é avaliada a inclusão de quatro sistemas: geração de energia solar fotovoltaica, reuso de águas cinzas, captação de água de chuvas e uso de hidrômetros individualizados. A análise financeira é realizada através da montagem de seis cenários de avaliação, o primeiro considerando a edificação sem nenhuma solução sustentável, os quatro seguintes com cada uma das soluções aplicadas separadamente, e a última considerando todas as soluções implementadas simultaneamente. Os resultados financeiros são comparados para avaliar dados do interesse do agente incorporador, como custos de incorporação, necessidades de correção nos preços de venda e disposição a pagar do consumidor, e dados de interesse do cliente comprador, como economias geradas durante a operação e payback do investimento. / [en] The increase in the global population and the ever-increasing development of cities have given rise to various challenges to be overcome in environmental, social, cultural and economic terms. This situation makes it important to encourage the use of new technological solutions to build more sustainable cities and the real estate market has an important role in this process, because the incorporation of sustainable practices into buildings is decided upon during the design of real estate developments. With respect to the Brazilian market, the managers of developers currently bear the responsibility of being the decision-makers on the use of sustainable building systems and on the reduction of energy consumption over the lifespan of buildings. On the other hand, within the real estate market in the city of Rio de Janeiro, it is unusual to find multi-family housing developments that already feature such solutions integrated from the beginning into their designs, thereby demonstrating that real estate developers and buying customers overlook resource management during construction. Notably, financial considerations govern market relations and it is supposed that the implementation of sustainable solutions is still an unknown variable in terms of financial results, since the probable increase in the cost of initial construction still does not lead to visible, immediate gains for real estate developers. In addition, consumers do not have clarity on the gains tied to acquiring sustainable buildings. Information is lacking on the benefits in ecological terms and mainly, in financial terms, relating to the reduction in operating costs from the use of energy and natural resources during the lifespan of the building.

For the past several decades, we have experienced the tremendous growth, in both scale and scope, of real-time embedded systems, thanks largely to the advances in IC technology. However, the traditional approach to get performance boost by increasing CPU frequency has been a way of past. Researchers from both industry and academia are turning their focus to multi-core architectures for continuous improvement of computing performance. In our research, we seek to develop efficient scheduling algorithms and analysis methods in the design of real-time embedded systems on multi-core platforms. Real-time systems are the ones with the response time as critical as the logical correctness of computational results. In addition, a variety of stringent constraints such as power/energy consumption, peak temperature and reliability are also imposed to these systems. Therefore, real-time scheduling plays a critical role in design of such computing systems at the system level. We started our research by addressing timing constraints for real-time applications on multi-core platforms, and developed both partitioned and semi-partitioned scheduling algorithms to schedule fixed priority, periodic, and hard real-time tasks on multi-core platforms. Then we extended our research by taking temperature constraints into consideration. We developed a closed-form solution to capture temperature dynamics for a given periodic voltage schedule on multi-core platforms, and also developed three methods to check the feasibility of a periodic real-time schedule under peak temperature constraint. We further extended our research by incorporating the power/energy constraint with thermal awareness into our research problem. We investigated the energy estimation problem on multi-core platforms, and developed a computation efficient method to calculate the energy consumption for a given voltage schedule on a multi-core platform. In this dissertation, we present our research in details and demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approaches with extensive experimental results.

En el presente existe una tendencia por el cuidado de la alimentación, debido a que el consumo excesivo de los alimentos procesados hoy en día es una de las principales causas del sobrepeso. En nuestro país el consumo de pasta se encuentra ubicado en el cuarto lugar, los habitantes están acostumbrados a este consumo dado que cuenta con un precio asequible, tiene una preparación fácil y por eso se encuentra dentro de la canasta básica. Por lo que surge la necesidad de cambiar los componentes de los fideos para aportar los nutrientes necesarios y así reducir el riesgo de sobrepeso y sus consecuencias. Sin embargo, en la ciudad de Chiclayo no se ha implementado una fábrica de producción de fideos a base de quinoa. El propósito de este estudio es determinar la viabilidad del proyecto para la construcción de una planta de fabricación de fideos de quinoa. Como objetivos específicos se tiene, desarrollar el modelo de negocio del proyecto, determinar la viabilidad estratégica del proyecto de inversión, determinar la viabilidad del mercado para la construcción del proyecto, determinar la viabilidad técnica del proyecto de inversión, determinar la viabilidad organizacional del proyecto de inversión, determinar la viabilidad económica y financiera del proyecto de inversión. Como resultados de la presente investigación se obtuvo que, existe una tendencia creciente del sector farináceo, además se pudo evidenciar que diversas instituciones promueven el consumo de una dieta a base de cereales andinos por sus valiosas cualidades con aportes nutritivos, es así que se evidencia una oportunidad para el desarrollo del proyecto aprovechando el dinamismo del sector, dada la preferencia del consumidor por un producto nacional con un alto valor nutritivo. / At present there is a tendency to care for food, because the excessive consumption of processed foods today is one of the main causes of overweight. In our country, pasta consumption is located in fourth place, the inhabitants are accustomed to this consumption since it has an affordable price, it is easy to prepare and that is why it is within the basic basket. Therefore, the need arises to change the components of the noodles to provide the necessary nutrients and thus reduce the risk of overweight and its consequences. However, in the city of Chiclayo, a quinoa based noodle production factory has not been implemented. The purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility of the project for the construction of a quinoa noodle manufacturing plant. The specific objectives are to develop the business model of the project, determine the strategic viability of the investment project, determine the viability of the market for the construction of the project, determine the technical feasibility of the investment project, determine the organizational viability of the investment project. investment, determine the economic and financial viability of the investment project. As results of the present investigation, it was obtained that there is a growing trend in the farinaceous sector, it was also possible to show that various institutions promote the consumption of a diet based on Andean cereals due to their valuable qualities with nutritional contributions, thus, a opportunity for the development of the project taking advantage of the dynamism of the sector, given the preference of the consumer for a national product with a high nutritional value.

Submitted by LUIZ CUNALI DEFILIPPI FILHO (luizfelippe10@yahoo.com) on 2013-07-04T10:26:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Luiz Cunali Defilippi Filho_final.pdf: 2932347 bytes, checksum: 11a66698a5eb6774673ebdb60a6a2846 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2013-07-04T11:23:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Luiz Cunali Defilippi Filho_final.pdf: 2932347 bytes, checksum: 11a66698a5eb6774673ebdb60a6a2846 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-07-04T11:49:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Luiz Cunali Defilippi Filho_final.pdf: 2932347 bytes, checksum: 11a66698a5eb6774673ebdb60a6a2846 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-18 / O setor sucroenergético brasileiro vem se destacando como uma nova opção para a geração de energia elétrica do país de forma renovável e sustentável. Torna-se cada vez mais frequente o uso do palhiço da cana-de-açúcar como fonte adicional de biomassa combustível além do uso tradicional do bagaço. As usinas com centrais termelétricas que comercializam os excedentes de bioeletricidade normalmente operam durante a safra da cana-de-açúcar e ficam paradas durante a entressafra. Este estudo analisa a viabilidade econômica de aproveitar a capacidade ociosa de uma unidade de geração de energia elétrica durante a entressafra, através do estudo de caso de uma usina de cana-de-açúcar na cidade de Iacanga no interior do estado de São Paulo. O trabalho tem como premissa utilizar o palhiço como combustível na safra adicional ao bagaço e armazenar o bagaço para a geração de bioeletricidade na entressafra. Os investimentos necessários para o processamento do palhiço na safra, armazenagem e movimentação do bagaço e custos de operação e manutenção do sistema de geração de energia são apresentados. As análises econômicas do estudo são feitas utilizando os métodos do Valor Presente Líquido (VPL) e da Taxa Interna de Retorno (TIR). São feitas também análises de sensibilidade com os dois principais fatores de impacto à rentabilidade, que são o custo do palhiço posto na usina e o valor da energia elétrica vendida. As análises são apresentadas em três cenários variando o total de dias efetivos de geração na entressafra, sendo de 30, 60 e 90 dias. Os resultados indicam que a geração adicional de energia na entressafra, aproveitando a capacidade ociosa da planta na entressafra, tem um VPL de R$-1,136 milhão, R$ 0,698 milhão e R$ 2,511 milhões e uma TIR de 5,47% a.a., 16,98% a.a. e 25,88% a.a., respectivamente. Esses resultados consideraram o custo do palhiço a R$ 70,00.t-1 e a venda da energia a R$170,00.MWh-1. Conclui-se, assim, que o aproveitamento da capacidade ociosa do parque de geração de energia a partir da biomassa da cana-de-açúcar na entressafra tem potencial e viabilidade econômica conforme: o aumento do seu uso; a disponibilidade de biomassa residual (palhiço) a custos competitivos; e preço de venda da bioeletricidade. / The sugar ethanol industry has emerged as a renewable and sustainable option for electricity generation in Brazil. Besides the more traditional use of bagasse, sugarcane trash has become increasingly frequent as an additional source of biomass fuel. The mills with power plants, which sell surplus bioelectricity, normally operate during harvest season and are idle during the off crop. This study examines the economic feasibility of using the idle capacity of electricity generation units during the off crop, through the case study of a sugarcane mill in Iacanga, São Paulo. The analysis assumes the use of sugarcane trash as additional fuel to bagasse and the storage of the excess of bagasse to generate bioelectriciy in the off crop season. The study presents the necessary investments for processing the trash during the harvest season, for storage and handling of bagasse, and the operation and maintenance costs of the power generation system. The economic analysis are performed using the methods of Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Also, sensitivity analysis is made using the two main factors that impact the profitability: the cost of trash at the plant and the amount of electricity sold. The analysis considers three scenarios varying the total days of effective bioelectricity generation during off crop: 30, 60 and 90 days. The results indicate that the additional power generation during the off crop, taking advantage of the mill’s idle capacity, provide a NPV of R$ -1.14 million, R$ 0.70 million and R$ 2.51 million, respectively, and an IRR of 5.5%, 17.0% and 25.9% per year, considering the cost of trash as R$ 70,00 / ton and the sale of energy as R$ 170.00 MW/h. As conclusion, the study shows thatthe use of the mill’s idle capacity for power generation from the biomass of sugarcane in the off crop season has a good potential and presents economic viability, as its increased use generates competitive biomass waste (trash) and if there is competitive prices in the sale of bioelectricity.