Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Keith Harris / The organic food industry experienced rapid growth over the past several decades. Typically, the majority of this growth is associated with the produce sector, but as consumers demand organic options for more food products, organic grains, dairy, and animal meat have emerged as viable food alternatives. There is currently a shortage of organic grains, specifically corn, to feed the livestock that provide organic meat and dairy products. This shortage has led to increased imports of organic corn in order to satisfy the domestic demand. Previous research comparing organic corn prices and profitability to conventional corn have shown organic corn production to be at least as profitable as conventional. With the declining value of cash receipts for conventional corn and the potential profitability advantage of organic corn, very few farmers are devoting acreage to organic corn in the U.S. This study seeks to determine potential economic reasons for this discrepancy. This research develops numerous production scenarios for organic corn in order to observe potential break-even yields a farmer could experience. For example, a nine-year low for price per bushel of organic corn was substituted in to actual values for current production to represent a possible break-even yield that could occur. In this study, the elasticity of organic corn is also calculated. The price elasticity of demand for organic corn gives insight as to how sensitive the demand is to a change in price per bushel. The findings in this study are expected to add insight to the reasons why U.S. farm production of organic corn is less than its domestic demand. It is hoped that famers will benefit from the results in this research in order to better understand organic corn production.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-10-07T12:27:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 GUSTAVO DA SILVEIRA SCHIAVO_.pdf: 641437 bytes, checksum: a5146989f88be72663f399ff194b02e8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-07T12:27:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 GUSTAVO DA SILVEIRA SCHIAVO_.pdf: 641437 bytes, checksum: a5146989f88be72663f399ff194b02e8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-20 / Nenhuma / A indústria de alimentos está a enfrentar desafios devido ao aumento da complexidade operacional, mudanças dinâmicas das necessidades dos clientes, novos regulamentos, a globalização dos mercados, reformas tecnológicas, menor tempo de vida de produtos, e diversificação das demandas dos consumidores. Devido a isso tem surgido um interesse renovado da literatura acerca da aplicação de ferramentas de planejamento avançado na gestão da cadeia de suprimentos de produtos alimentares frescos. Também ao fato das técnicas de planejamento existentes que abrangem as cadeias de suprimentos de produtos frescos são tarefas cuja complexidade é agravada pela natureza perecível destes produtos. Essas peculiaridades da indústria de alimentos requerem uma cadeia de fornecimento inteligente e ágil para gerenciar as necessidades dos clientes. Para tanto, estratégias de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos emergem na literatura oferecendo uma estrutura que identifica três tipos de estratégias: enxuta, ágil e leagile. Com isso, a proposta da pesquisa é o desenvolvimento de um modelo para tomada de decisão estratégica para gestão da cadeia de suprimentos de produtos perecíveis na indústria avícola, partindo de prioridades competitivas e uma seleção de fatores de expectativa dos clientes em relação aos produtos. A pesquisa apresenta fatores que podem influenciar na escolha estratégica, na forma de prioridades competitivas, qualidade, custos, flexibilidade e tempo. Estes fatores podem nortear as empresas na aplicação dos esforços para a adoção das estratégias enxuta, ágil ou leagile. Também apresenta os principais aspectos de qualidade demandada por varejistas e restaurantes em relação ao fabricante para satisfazer as expectativas do cliente final. Tais resultados são apresentados individualmente e podem ser consideradas na escolha estratégica quando o foco no atendimento for varejo, restaurantes ou ambos. Desta forma a decisão estratégica das empresas pode ser tomada com foco no atendimento das demandas de seus clientes. / The food industry is facing challenges due to an increased operational complexity, dynamic changes in customer needs, new regulations, the globalization of markets, technological reforms, shorter life of products, and diversification of consumer demands. Because of this, literature has been showing a renewed interest on the use of advanced planning tools in supply chain management of fresh food supplies. For the existing planning techniques covering fresh products supply chain have a very complex compounded by the perishable nature of these products. These peculiarities of the food industry require an intelligent and agile chain to manage customer needs. Therefore, supply chain management strategies emerge in literature providing a framework that identifies three types of strategies: lean, agile and leagile. Thus, the aim of this research is to develop a model for a strategic decision-making for the management of perishable products supply chain in the poultry industry, from competitive priorities and a selection of customers’ expectation factors for products. The research presents factors that can influence the strategic choice as competitive priorities, quality, cost, flexibility and time. These factors can guide companies in implementing efforts for the adoption of lean, agile or leagile strategies. In addition, this research presents the main aspects of retailers and restaurants demanded quality in relation to the manufacturer to meet the expectations of the end customer. Such results are presented individually and can be considered in the strategic choice when the focus is in attending retail, restaurants or both. Thus, the strategic decision of companies can be made with a focus on meeting the demands of their customers.

Purpose of engaged task is elaborate a functional mechanism to emergency brake for escalators company Otis. To this purpose is gradually reached up in several phases. In primary phase was taken view on similar products from competitive company and do not get in conflict with patent right, in second phase was needed delimitate working space for brake and exact specification of straining. In next steps the proposal and test phase is blending together. In this moment emergency brake has own shape and first tests are showing the functions, but as well necessity modification of same elements on brake and on escalator.