An Obsolete Problem
Until recently, when the harvest is at it's peak, no mill could keep up with the deliveries from the fields. In this instance, cane was piled up in stacks around the base of the wash rack. Specially designed front end loaders pick the cane up and put it on the conveyor. When equipment breaks down, cane stacks up as well. Cane will last quite a while after being cut before it starts to turn bad. The weather in Lencois Paulista is moderate, so there isn't a problem.
Oracle® databases and hand-held computers are used to track materials and to perform the complicated calculations required to manage the flow from raw materials to finished products.
Using River Logic’s Enterprise Optimizer® to model both its agricultural and industrial processes, the team focused on inbound transportation of sugar cane and mill allocation. The Enterprise Optimizer® Model determined that pooling all harvesting and transportation resources so that they could be allocated where needed during the harvest season, rather than restricting them during the harvest season to a designated mill, improved profits.
This gain was realized through improved use of transportation resources, reduced maintenance costs, increased mill efficiencies, reduced labor costs, and improved yields. Zillo was also able to reduce the number of fields it leased and implement better agricultural policies to ensure that future harvest yields would adequately respond to market demands.
Now, let's see how they clean the cane before the milling takes place.