How to measure the efficiency of the means of transportation in a Cuban rice farm

Summary

The present work was carried out in the areas of the La Gabina farm belonging to the CAI Fernando Echenique in Granma. It shows the behavior of the means of transport through various indicators that evaluate the energy efficiency of the transport process. Some component elements of the photo-timing of the working day were used for the transport process, with the aim of determining the indices that characterize the efficiency and use of the means in this process.

Abstract:

The present work was carried out in areas of the farm “La Gabina” belonging to the Rice Industrial Agricultural Complex Fernando Echenique in Granma. The behavior of the means of transportation is shown through several indicators that evaluate the efficiency of the process. Some component elements of the Phototiming of the labor day for the process of transportation were used in order to determine the parameters that characterize the efficiency and the explotation of the means of transportation in this process.

1. Introduction.

Transport within the rice harvest is of utmost importance, it acquires a different characteristic within each country, depending on the specific conditions of its areas, its climate and other factors; therefore, there will be in each of the cereal producing areas a wide range of methods that are used to transport the rice to the reception center once it is harvested.

Cuba has seen the need to develop other branches of great importance for the economy. Inside the rice branch; it has been obliged to modernize the machinery park in its entirety, with the aim that the process is carried out with greater quality, this aspect of utmost importance to which the attention it requires must be paid.

But in what way to achieve such a purpose? Only if we are able to correctly exploit the machinery, eliminating downtime, introducing new production technologies as far as possible.

The production process is closely related to transportation, loading and unloading; integrating production in conjunction with this process; it allows to obtain a good organization and adequate planning in the productive process that is developed, mainly due to the search that is carried out to achieve greater efficiency and precision in the plan; which brings as a consequence a reduction in losses due to harvests, as well as, obtaining a higher quality in production and, therefore, a lower production cost.

During the transportation of the fundamental mass, it is essential to carry it out along embankments, roads and fields whose surface is in good condition in order to avoid that the productivity of the work is affected, independently that the exploitation of the equipment becomes more difficult on bad roads. conditions, product of the increase of the index of breaks of these.

Due to the aforementioned, this work is carried out with the aim of determining the indices that characterize the efficiency and use of the means of transport on the La Gabina farm.

2. Development.

Farm organization.

The agricultural farm number two La Gabina, belonging to the CAI rice producer Fernando Echenique of the Granma province, is located in the Río Cauto municipality, on the eastern limits with the municipality of Bayamo. This farm is specialized in the production of rice for seeds and for this it has an extension of 198.03 physical cab and 101.8 cultivable cab. In its structure it has 10 rice lots, a mechanized unit and the administrative direction with five departments.

Due to its characteristics as a seed producer, there is a rotation system where only 95 to 100 cab of rice are sown annually; giving rest to the area or using it in the grazing of cattle and the extensive breeding of ducks.

The mechanized unit is in charge of providing the soil preparation, harvesting and shooting services, personnel transportation and other services to the farm's agriculture, as well as to other entities of the province once the farm's production plans have been met.. For this, it has a fleet of 16 tractors belonging to three FIAT lines, VALTRA VALMER, MTZ; two combined, two transport hoppers, 28 implements for soil preparation, 15 rice trailers among others for the transport of personnel and supplies and other services. It also has a workshop where maintenance and repairs are carried out on machinery, which has the condition of a model.

Materials and methods.

In order to carry out this work, the methodology for the doctoral thesis of Ing. Raúl Companioni was used, in which some component elements of the photo-timing were used for the transport process. Ten observations of the shift were made, the values of which are shown below.

Observation days.
Measured parameters.	one	two	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Time traveled with load.	0.93	0.98	0.53	0.97	0.96	0.93	0.95	1.16	0.94	0.99
Time traveled in vacuum.	0.76	0.82	0.51	0.85	0.80	0.83	0.75	0.81	0.88	0.89
Working speed km / h	8.3	8.8	8.4	8.5	8.6	8.3	8.7	8.8	8.4	8.9
Deployment speed km / h	4.1	4.7	4.2	4.3	4.5	4.4	4.7	4.8	4.3	4.9

As a result of the study carried out, the following mean values of the different times were obtained, in hours.

Transfer time to the workplace. 0.11

Time to load each trailer that makes up the unit. 0.23

Time to unload each trailer. 0.22

Operator's lunch time. 1.00

Daily technical maintenance time. 1.00

Transfer time from the discharge center to the base. 0.22

Transfer time with cargo per trip. 0.96

Return time empty. 0.80

The observations were made in the month of May 2001, oscillating the transportation distance by embankments and roads at 8 km

The methodology used to carry out the calculations of the different technical exploitative indices that characterize the transport process was the one used.

Presentation and analysis of the results.

N ^or	Indexes evaluated.	U / M	Outcome
one	Hourly performance.	t / h	2.16
two	Yield per kilometer traveled.	t / h	21.3
3	Coef. Use of Load Capacity.	-	0.9
4	Technical speed.	km / h	8.6
5	Route Utilization Coefficient.	-	0.44
6	Time utilization coefficient.	-	0.53
7	Exploitation speed.	km / h	4.5
8	Number of units.	-	3
9	Utilization coefficient of the work shift.	-	0.54
10	Coef. Dynamic use of load capacity.	-	0.89

The performance of this unit is really low, mainly limited by the utilization coefficient of the load capacity and the working speed, which should be between 15 and 20 km / h, according to Jróbostov, 1977; in working conditions it gave us a value of 8.6 km / h; This is due to poor road conditions that do not allow high speeds to develop.

In the case of the load capacity utilization coefficient (0.90) it behaved below the permissible values when compared to 95% that can be transported, essentially due to poor road conditions, which are not the ideal for this activity. To improve this coefficient, a removable truss could be built for when these situations occur.

Analyzing the coefficient of use of the route, the really efficient would be 0.50 to 0.70, according to Jróbostov, 1977; since the unit must necessarily return empty, the value obtained was 0.44, which indicates that the out-of-route journeys are still excessive, since the unit should park at the loading point (platoon) to reduce that distance, and it does so. in the brigade.

Analyzing the obtained value of the time use coefficient (0.53), it can be considered acceptable because when there are two units, the waiting time to form the transportation train is prolonged. If the mass to transport this coefficient were increased it would be considerably increased.

Analyzing the result of the degree or coefficient of use of the work shift (0.54) it is low, because there are two transport units and the volume harvested is really low, so the transport units do not give trips continuously, This represents that each unit must give at least two trips a day.

The result obtained in the dynamic utilization coefficient means that the transport park was used at 89% of the nominal load capacity, which in this case is a low value, due to the amount of damaged paddy rice and vain rice in the panicle that existed in the harvested mass.

Finally, the exploitation speed is low, 4.5 km / h, mainly due to the high number of stops that the aggregate makes along the route traveled between the field and the dryer.

In graph # 1 it can be seen how the working time with load behaved as a function of the observed days, it fluctuated in an interval of 0.53 and 1.16, which means that the working time with load is not stable due to the low amount of mass and the poor condition of the roads (see annex 1).

Graph # 2 shows the behavior of the exploitation speed based on the days observed, the same oscillation between 4.1 and 4.9, which shows an instability of the intervals in the process, mainly due to the large number of unnecessary stops. (see annex 2).

Graph # 3 shows how the work speed behaved as a function of the days observed, oscillating its values in 8.3 and 8.9, showing the irregularity of said speed throughout the process, essentially due to poor road conditions (see annex 3).

Graph # 4 shows how the empty travel time behaves as a function of the days observed, its values fluctuate between 0.51 and 0.89, meaning that it has a tendency to stabilize in the last days of observation, this is not beneficial Because the ideal would be that this time should decrease or be minimal, here the fact that they park the unit in the brigade influences, among other factors (see Annex 4).

Economic valuation.

Not	Indexes evaluated.	U / M	Outcome
one	Direct operating expenses of the aggregate.	weight / h	9.05
two	Direct operating costs of the tractor.	weight / h	5.29
3	Direct expenditure Operation of the machine.	weight / h	3.76
4	Personal salary that works with the machine.	weight / h	0.8
5	Fuel and lubricants cost.	weight / h	1.08
6	Amortization Discount.	weight / h	1.76
7	Maintenance and Repair Cost.	weight / h	1.65
8	Machine Amortization Discount.	weight / h	1.98
9	Maintenance and Repairs Cost.	weight / h	0.98

The efficiency of the mechanization of the works and, as a result, the reduction of the cost of agricultural products depends considerably on the level of utilization of the fleet of tractors and machines.

The time, labor and operating materials expenses required to carry out the mechanized works determine the operating costs of the machinery.

Knowledge of the factors that affect them is of utmost importance for taking measures in order to reduce them to economically advantageous levels. It should be noted that even in our country the elements of current repair and maintenance expenses are accounted for as general production expenses, although there are projects to implement these elements separately, such as replacement and capitalized repairs.

Proof of this is that the elements that we determine in this economic analysis are practically unknown to the producers of the brigade where it was carried out.

As we study an aggregate we will only focus on the expenses of said aggregate.

An element to analyze is that due to not completing the nominal capacity of the trailers, 260 qq, that is to say 11.96 t for each transport unit, are being left to transport, if we consider five trips at least in one day, then They stop transporting 59.8 t, this only in a brigade, if we take it to the approximate four-month duration that the harvest has on the farm, it stops transporting 7176 t, considering that at the CAI level there are six brigades, 43 056 t.

Analyzing the aforementioned and knowing that in the ten days observed, 11.96 tons were not transported, we can affirm that 3,588 trips stop being given during the harvest.

3. Conclusions and Recommendations.

1. The performance of this transport unit is low.

2. The load capacity coefficient behaved below what was established.

3. The working speed of the set is low.

4. The route utilization coefficient is low.

5. The utilization coefficient of the work shift is low.

6. The dynamic utilization coefficient of the load capacity is low.

7. The exploitation speed is low.

8. A total of 43 056 t are no longer transported at the CAI level during the planned harvest time.

Recommendations.

1. That the access roads to the reception center be considerably improved to obtain higher technical speed values.

2. Place a removable truss to improve the coefficient of utilization of the load capacity.