Revisão da política de manutenção e compras para maximizar a disponibilidade de frota da VLI

Abstract

Throughout its history, VLI has built a solid reputation with its unwavering commitment to operational efficiency and the relentless pursuit of exceptional results. These principles have been evident in recent years, up to the time of this analysis. However, the excellence in the results obtained has come at a cost, which lies in the sacrifice of the preventive maintenance plans for its fleets. This approach has provided, in the short term, greater asset availability and notable financial savings through a reduction in parts inventory. Neverthless, our detailed analysis identified the challenges inherent in this model in the long term. The significant shutdown of part of these assets has resulted in a significant reduction in fleet availability, decreasing by approximately 3% (three percent) in the period from 2020 to 2022 and, consequently, in the company's transport capacity, reducing capacity by more than 1 million tons per year. The impact of this translates into a substantial annual loss of revenue, estimated at R$328,000,000.00. A critical aspect of this problem lies in the management of on-demand parts, which, due to their expensive and rarely used nature, seemed to justify the policy of keeping minimum or zero stocks of these items. Nonetheless, the considerable delay in the replacement time of these components, often more than a year, has generated considerable financial impacts when locomotive problems occur. This highlights the urgent need to re-evaluate the company's stock and supply strategy, balancing the costs associated with keeping these parts in stock and the financial risk arising from their shortage. Our thorough analysis also revealed that more than 50% of the locomotives at a standstill are due to a lack of parts on demand, which emphasizes the critical importance of the proposed change in the company's purchasing profile. Implementing these changes has the potential to reduce the number of idle vehicles by up to 43%, which will have a substantial impact on fleet availability and therefore on the company's transportation capacity. This action, when combined with other strategic measures, aims to enable VLI to regain its operational efficiency and its prominent position in the logistics and transportation sector in Brazil, re-establishing its ability to offer excellent services to its customers.