Jahresbericht 2009 - Biba - Universität Bremen

Improving Global Supply Chains
Brazilian-German Collaborative Research Initiative on
Manufacturing Technology – BRAGECRIM
Migratory flows of Germans
arrived in Santa Catarina (Southern
Brazil) between 1828 and 1900.
They founded villages, acquired
small properties, started businesses,
and prospered. Later, many of
these businesses became industrial
conglomerates with great relevance
for the Brazilian economy.
More recently, in the 70’s, German
businesses founded many factories
in Brazil, turning São Paulo into
one of the major concentrations of
German companies in the world.
Both ventures personify different
stages of modern globalisation, i.e.
the flow of persons, information,
raw materials and products across
borders.
Today, globalisation is embodied
on material and information flows
along global supply chains, as well
as on internationally decentralised
manufacturing and logistics systems.
The improvement of alluded
global supply chains is the objective
of our German-Brazilian collaboration
in the project LogGlobal. Our
Brazilian partners are the Federal
University of Santa Catarina (UFSC),
the Federal University of Ceará
(UFC), and the State University of
Campinas (UNICAMP). The project
comprises cooperative research,
exchange of students and researchers,
as well as working missions.
LogGlobal is one of the founding
projects of the Brazilian-German
Collaborative Research Initiative on
Manufacturing Technology (BRAGE-
CRIM). The aim of this initiative is to
build a network that can act as a
framework for fostering the bi-lateral
cooperation. BRAGECRIM intends
to support the achievement of the
highest level in production technology
in both countries. Therefore,
supported projects are centred on
strategic research topics, which
deal with the demands and deficits
in Germany and Brazil. The initiative
is supported by the Brazilian Ministry
of Science and Technology (FINEP/
MCT), Brazilian Ministry of Education
(CAPES/ME) and the German
Research Foundation (DFG).
The motivation for LogGlobal is
derived from the perception that
in present manufacturing systems,
information concerning logistic
capabilities and employment levels
are not appropriately utilised to
determine most effective production
plans. Thus, cost and lead-time
savings obtained with new global
manufacturing strategies might be
impaired due to the unbalanced,
unsynchronised and unstable integration
of information and material
flows. The research focuses on
improving informational interfaces
between globally distributed manu-
facturing and logistic systems.
Therefore, complementary research
objects are investigated:
• the influence of dynamic con-
straints arising from production
processes for transport and dis-
tribution logistics
• the impacts of perturbations in
logistics for production planning
• monitoring of inter-organizational
interactions
• analysis of the deployment of
information and communication
technologies in logistics industry
• transactions of information bet-
ween overseas industries and
off-shore carriers
• inter-functional, inter-organisational
and cross-national barriers
along global supply chains
• the effects of different types of
relationships and managing po-
licies in supply networks
At the Bremer Institut für Produktion
und Logistik (BIBA) the development
of a heuristic scheduling scheme will
be pursued. One that is applicable
to a supply chain comprising several
production facilities in a row and
takes the current production and
transportation capabilities as well as
employment level into account. Furthermore,
we will propose methods
for overcoming inter-functional,
inter-organisational and cross-national
barriers.
Together, BIBA and its Brazilian research
partners will contribute to the
development of concepts, methods
and technologies that support a balanced
integration of manufacturing
and logistics along global supply
chains.
Enzo Morosini Frazzon
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