Brazilian Industry Research Articles

Solar energy, an alternative for cost reduction in shops and industry in Brazil

Solar energy, an alternative for cost reduction in shops and industry in Brazil

Impacts of COVID-19 on the oil and gas industry in Brazil.

This study aimed to analyze the progression of COVID-19 cases on oil and gas workers in Brazil. This is a descriptive research based on secondary data available in the COVID-19 Monitoring Bulletins of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and news about outbreaks on digital media. The findings show that the numerous news reports published on digital media indicate unhealthy working conditions, and workers' representatives appear as the main source of these findings. Managers' failure in health surveillance of this working class were also observed as to the frequent omission of official data and compulsory notifications on the health and safety of oil and gas workers.

Physics teaching in youth and adult education: paths and reflections

Historically in Brazil, education aimed at young people and adults was characterized by the formation of subjects prepared for professional practice, considering the different stages of development Brazilian industry. Over the decades, this need continued to permeate the initiatives education and public policies, with few developments of a humanistic nature. However, with the changes generated by the economic scenario of the last 40 years, thinking about Youth Education andAdults only directed to the world of work means restricting the potential and the social protagonism of these subjects. Therefore, from the modern conceptions about Education of Young People and Adults, we seek in this article to reflect on the teaching of Physics in this modality of teaching, highlighting the role of this field of science in the scientific and emancipatory education of citizens, schooled, fit for professional practice, and capable of understanding the nature around them. The role of Physics in the professional and school formation of these professionals will be discussed in a critical-reflective way. subjects, highlighting the teacher's pedagogical performance in teaching the different contents that characterize the curriculum of this discipline in view of the current training parameters that guide this modality. This study has a qualitative bibliographic character, presenting research results carried out in the last decade, reverberating the important role of Science Teaching in schooling for the social exercise and for the world of work, contrasting with the old conceptions based on only in filling jobs.

What do packaging labels tell us about industrialization and the brazilian reality? – an interdisciplinary report

The purpose of this work was to explore the packaging labels of products consumed in everyday life by students, seeing them as textual and geographic and biological information genres and thus, through them, introduce the curricular contents in ten (10) 1st year classes of the Integrated Technical Education of CEFET-MG, in Belo Horizonte - MG, Brazil, in an interdisciplinary view in the subjects of Geography and Biology. Topics concerning the progress of industrialization in the Brazilian territory and the quality of products were discussed, especially those consumed by the population (nutritional data and its technical vocabulary, processing of industrialized foods, malnutrition and food exports, expansion of agribusiness...), associating them with the movement of globalization of the world economy. Among the topics studied, we also highlight: history and spatialization of industry, transformation of geographic space, stages of Brazilian industrialization, urbanization, concentration of infrastructure, consumer market, internationalization of the economy, labor qualification, degree of nationalization by industrial sector, privatization, industrial decentralization, precariousness of labor rights, among others. Exercises were carried out based on the data collected using printed maps, in addition to the use of the Google Earth app, devices used to locate industries in the country, which also contributes to a better perception of cartographic images. In a didactic investigation that combined prosaic resources - packaging labels - with geotechnology - the Google Earth application, the need for diversification of instruments and methodologies used in the classroom is evidenced, which together with adequate planning can help students to achieve meaningful learning, as happened in this reported experience. The theoretical-methodological foundations that guided this work are present, especially, in the theories of David Ausubel and Jerome Bruner.

Qualities of coffee beans, from ripe fruit, kept in clean water for up to five days

The use of compatible techniques, which allow family coffee growers to form larger batches of coffee, to be dried in commercial dryers and within their production reality, is very important in view of the scarcity of labor and demand for superior quality. As natural drying, depending on climatic conditions, may not produce high quality coffees, it is necessary that farmer maintain small daily harvests in conditions that can be transformed into a larger batch compatible with the capacity of conventional dryers, offered by the Brazilian industry. The acquisition of a dryer, which does not meet the entire harvest, can derail the process, with increased costs of acquisition, operational and incompatibility of the harvest / post-harvest systems. If the dryer capacity does not meet the harvest schedule at the peak of coffee maturation, when there will be a need for extra labor to avoid fruit fall, there will be losses due to reduced product quality. To solve the problem, this work was carried out on a farm with potential for coffee of superior quality, with 1100 meters of altitude located in the district of Embiruçu in the municipality of Mutum-MG, using the water storage technique, proposed by Machado (2005) for coffee harvested by hand striping, and confirmed by (Coelho et al., 2019) in the treatment of green coffee fruits, originated in wet processing. The results of this work show that the technology of immersion of fruits, recently harvested in water, for up to five days, did not impair the quality of the cup-proof and positively influenced the physical parameters used in the evaluation of the coffee type, indicating the possibility of aggregating small batches to enable the use of conventional dryers in the small coffee farms.

The Industrial Front and the Pandemic Crisis in Brazil: The Missing Agenda

The article seeks to identify the government initiatives to mobilise the Brazilian industry during the pandemic crisis. The motivation for the work stems from evidence showing the omissions at the federal level, with relevant implications for the death figures in Brazil. Public policies agenda and a conceptual review was carried out on industrial reconversion in severe emergency conditions, including international experiences in the current scenario. A documental survey was conducted with the federal government and selected state governments. The survey was carried out on the official portals of governments, related agencies and business entities representing the industrial sector. Lack of industry-coordinated mobilisation is given by the combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors concerning the pandemic crisis, industrial reconversion is another relevant absence at the public agenda. Weak answers of Brazilian government regarding the industrial mobilisation for fighting the pandemic crisis, leading to further hypotheses on the structured agenda of possible effects. The study shows weakness of federal measures coming from the Brazilian government also in the economic front, adding the industrial reconversion absence in the policies agenda as another remarkable feature on the health impacts of COVID-19 pandemics.

Analysis of the Level of Adoption of Business Continuity Practices by Brazilian Industries: An Exploratory Study Using Fuzzy TOPSIS

The COVID-19 outbreak caused several negative effects in industries of all sizes and in all parts of the world, leading academic and practitioners to ask whether organizations could have been better prepared to face disruptive situations. This paper aims to analyze business continuity practices performed by Brazilian industries. A survey was conducted with academics who work in the field of organizational resilience and business continuity and are familiar with the reality of Brazilian companies in the industrial sector. The participants assessed 16 practices (P) proposed by the ISO 22301:2020, considering two categories: large industries (LI) and small and medium-sized industries (SMI). Data analysis was performed using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, frequency analysis, Fuzzy TOPSIS and sensitivity analysis. For LIs, P4 (leaders conduct periodic critical analyses of practices) was considered the practice with the best application rate, while for SMIs, P2 (understand stakeholders’ needs and expectations, and use information in business continuity management) was chosen. In all scenarios tested for LIs and SMIs, P8 (well-structured systematic processes to analyze the impact of abnormal situations on their business and the potential risks of a disruption) and P16 (periodic audits of their business continuity management activities to identify opportunities for improvement, and information record) are in the bottom quartile. When compared to LIs in the Brazilian context, SMIs exhibit more profound deficiencies in terms of applying business continuity practices. The findings of this study can be of great value to assist managers in improving organizational resilience. Organizations should be better prepared to face future disruptive events, whether biological, social, technological, or economic.

Regional expansion of the beef industry in Brazil: from the coast to the Amazon, 1966–2017

ABSTRACT A regional approach to the study of Brazil’s beef industry is increasingly relevant as deforestation takes centre stage in policy debates worldwide. To what extent has beef production expanded toward regions hosting sensitive ecosystems such as the Amazon? Important data limitations remain to answer this question, especially regarding slaughterhouses, fundamental to the beef supply chain. This paper addresses the data gap on slaughterhouse location and history and provides novel regional analysis. We map the beef industry’s evolution into Brazil’s interior over the last six decades and quantify changes in market concentration between 2006 and 2016. To accomplish this, we triangulated across fiscal and animal sanitation data sources to produce the first longitudinal dataset with information on the opening and closing dates, locations, and production volumes of 2602 slaughterhouses. We show the linear movement of slaughterhouses and cattle herds to the Amazon by tracking their geographical centres of gravity. We also show the clustering pattern of slaughterhouses. Until the 1960s, all the geographical clusters were located south of the capital, Brasília. By the early 2000s, clusters north of Brasília were almost as extensive. Finally, we assessed the degree of market power that the largest beef-processing companies possess. The results indicate that market concentration increased in regions of more recent settlement further away from the coast, and that it remained relatively stable in states near the coast (Minas Gerais, São Paulo). The results shed light on the relationship between displacement toward the Amazon and Cerrado regions and economic concentration.

Bossa Mundo: Brazilian Music in Transnational Media Industries

Bossa Mundo: Brazilian Music in Transnational Media Industries

Perspectives on the use of biolubricants in the brazilian industry

Perspectives on the use of biolubricants in the brazilian industry

Competitiveness of Food Industry in the Era of Digital Transformation towards Agriculture 4.0

Industry 4.0 and its technologies can potentially increase business competitiveness in the age of digital transformation through the implementation of its technologies. These digital technologies are increasingly present in the food industry, characterizing the concept of Agriculture 4.0. This digital transformation is a reality; however, it is unclear which digital technologies are most useful for each industry sector. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the current state of implementation of digital technologies in different industrial sectors and which digital technologies should be leveraged to increase the performance of the agribusiness system. To do so, we used secondary data from a large-scale survey of 28 industrial sectors, representing 2225 companies in the Brazilian industry. Analyzing the different industrial sectors allowed us to present a framework of digital transformation to boost food industry competitiveness towards Agriculture 4.0. The results show that the food industry usually uses only one digital technology, showing the need for simultaneous and joint investments in the other technologies presented in this research. Public policies must be directed to encourage the expansion of digital technologies in the food industry.

The DAWN readiness model to assess the level of use of Industry 4.0 technologies in the construction industry in Brazil

PurposeConstruction industry (CI) has great prominence for the world economy, and it is expected that, with the use of the innovative technologies and approaches of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the new industrial paradigm, construction can reach higher levels of productivity. This study aims to develop a model (readiness model) to assess the level of use of I4.0 technologies by the construction sector in Brazil and its most relevant applications.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used was bibliographic research, design-science research and a survey to validate the model, carried out with 162 companies, considered among the main ones in the sector in Brazil. The literature review revealed 13 technologies of I4.0 applied to construction; hence, the views of industry experts were based on these technologies.FindingsThe Digital Advancement Within CoNstruction (DAWN) readiness model was proposed, showing that among the 13 evaluated technologies of I4.0 and their applications, the Brazilian construction companies had a low level of utilization; both high and middle-income companies presented this low level of use; some technologies with a greater number of scientific publications were less used in practice in the Brazilian construction.Originality/valueThe originality and theoretical contribution are to present a readiness model to assess the level of use of I4.0 technologies and their most relevant applications in the CI in countries with an economy similar to Brazil’s, making it possible to measure the level of adoption of these technologies.

A multi-start local search heuristic for the multi-period auto-carrier loading and transportation problem in Brazil

This paper deals with a variation of the Dynamic Multi-Period Auto-Carrier Transportation Problem (DMPACTP) applied to real-world problems in the automotive industry in Brazil. The problem consists in finding the set of vehicles to be loaded into auto-carriers over a planning horizon of multiple days while minimizing the total transportation cost and fulfilling the loading constraints and meeting the delivery deadlines. Our study considers that the loading sequence policy at each stop is not required, and a minimum cost of auto-carriers is calculated on a per trip basis. We propose a Multi-Start Local Search Heuristic (MSLSH) to solve large-scale instances that arise in practice. Computational experiments compare the solutions obtained by means of our heuristic with the exact solutions for four medium size instances faced by a major Brazilian 3PL as well as with the manual allocation for two larger instances comprising 3,865 and 3,809 vehicles that could not be solved using the exact model. The results show that the proposed heuristic is able to obtain the optimal solutions for all the tested medium-sized instances. For large-sized instances that cannot be solved to optimality, we could obtain significant total transportation cost reductions (up to 15.40%) and lower number of vehicles delivered after the promised due date compared to the 3PL manual allocation. The 3PL was satisfied with the results and intends to deploy it into production environment as the MSLSH is robust, does not require extensive parameter calibration and it is easy to implement.

How social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy moderate the relationship between occupational stress and knowledge hiding in Brazilian software industry

PurposeSoftware industry, one of the most knowledge-intensive industries, in Brazil has increased opportunities of evolution. Its competitive advantage relies on the efficiency of the organizational knowledge management, but the knowledge hiding, its antecedents and moderators are still understudied. This study seeks to identify a new antecedent to knowledge hiding, such the occupational stress.Design/methodology/approachThe author focused on the moderating effect of social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy in the relationship between occupational stress and knowledge hiding in software industry in Brazil. The author collected data from 189 software industry Brazilian employees in 30 firms using a time-lagged research design.FindingsThis study demonstrated that employees with high levels of social self-efficacy (SSE) and emotional self-efficacy (ESE) or both have more tendency to engage on knowledge hiding behavior comparing to their colleagues with low SSE and ESE. This study showed that SSE and ESE related positively to rationalized hiding, evasive hiding and playing dumb.Originality/valueThe author’s main contribution relies on the finding related to the joint role of social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy on engaging employees under occupational stress conditions in knowledge hiding behaviors.

Zoonotic Undemocracy

Abstract On a surreal day in August 2019, smoke clouds rising from the burning Amazon plunged Sa?o Paulo into darkness. Pasture-clearing cattle industries in Brazil, largely responsible for these fires, soon became a matter of global concern. A different sort of crisis took hold half year later—the COVID-19 pandemic, which likely originated in a bat. These two events, though seemingly disconnected, involve consuming animal bodies in ways that have compromised planetary habitability—one through deforestation and greenhouse gases, the other through confinement and a novel coronavirus. This essay argues for the urgency of re-thinking politics from a posthumanist perspective, one that considers the impact of environmental harm caused by the uses of nonhuman animals. Democracy is shaped by such eco-political realities, as demonstrated in the multi-species authoritarianism of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's “bancadas de bi?blia, bo?i, e bala” (“senate seats filled with bibles, beef, and bullets”). This essay focuses on Wilson Coutinho's experimental short film Cildo Meireles (1979) as well Meireles art installations that incorporate nonhuman animals. Coutinho and Meireles were prescient in their attention to the role of nonhuman animals within the histories of colonialism/neocolonialism and the immiseration of indigenous communities at the hands of such undemocratic forces as corrupt politicians and ranchers. Their work offers a multi-species analysis of global warming, biodiversity loss, racist food politics, and the incubation of zoonotic illnesses—all of which have led to a withering of democracy within Brazil's borders and beyond.

Challenges for lean construction adoption in the Brazilian industry: a study in construction companies, universities and class organizations

PurposeThis paper aims to evaluate the current level of knowledge about lean construction (LC) practices in construction companies, universities and class organizations in Brazil and identify the barriers to implementing LC in the Brazilian construction industry and prioritize them through comparison with global challenges.Design/methodology/approachThis multiple case study was carried out through a questionnaire answered by 56 construction companies, 15 universities and 10 professional associations. The questionnaire evaluation allowed the authors to determine the level of knowledge about the LC, its adoption and barriers to its adoption in the Brazilian industry. The results were statistically analyzed using the weighted average (MIS) of results using the Kruskal–Wallis test, which compares sample distribution among groups, and Cronbach’s alpha test to measure the questionnaire reliability.FindingsThis study points to universities as the main ones responsible for the low adoption of LC in Brazil and points to the need for an integrated action among construction companies, universities and class organizations to overcome the traditional project management culture and raise the level of knowledge about LC.Originality/valueThis study evaluated the current LC situation in an emerging country, Brazil, and compared it with the principal international challenges observed in studies of other developing countries – China, India, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Singapore – least developed countries – Bangladesh and Nigeria – and developed country – UK. These studies evaluated construction companies located in the listed countries. Based on that, 22 international challenges were established for the LC adoption. Additionally, this research also evaluated universities and working-class organizations in addition to construction companies. This addition can contribute to a better result understanding that can be explored by Brazil and other countries.

Study on the implementation of reverse logistics in medicines from health centers in Brazil

The need to implement innovative sustainable production processes is a topic of important social relevance in this current century. Environmental tragedies on different continents have revealed that humanity needs to understand how nature belongs to a system that needs to be balanced in order to maintain its existence. One of the major sustainability challenges globally is the management of solid wastes (SW). The rapid urbanization coupled with the increase in the world population has resulted in a consequential increase in the use of various products and their associated generated wastes. Of such SW that is complicated to manage are medical wastes which are deemed hazardous. Thus, the various industries including the health industry must implement a reverse logistic methodology in the disposal of solid wastes in order to efficiently and effectively manage their wastes. Countries such as Brazil, have incorporated reverse logistics into their National Solid Waste Policy (NSWP) thereby ensuring adequate disposal of various solid wastes and co-responsibility among the generators of various wastes. In this study, the strategies adopted within the scope of the Unified Health System (SUS, in Portuguese) in Brazil related to the reverse logistics of medicines consumed in the health industry were investigated. As a methodology, qualitative research such as literature review and documentary were utilized in order to obtain knowledge about the major information about the health industry in Brazil. The findings and discussions provided in this paper revealed that reverse logistics applied to pharmaceutical products in Brazil is still incipient. Although there is consolidated literature on the subject in national studies, there is a lack of evidence that indicates effective models of reverse drug logistics in the country, in a scenario of growth of 10% per year in the generation of this waste on average in the country. It is concluded that reverse drug logistics in Brazil is in an embryonic process, strengthened by the construction of regulations and laws that may encourage industries to adopt good practices in the production and management of drug wastes, and which, when implemented, can generate a reduction of around 12% in the volume generated per year. • Implement a reverse logistic methodology in the disposal of solid wastes. • Application of reverse logistics in hazardous solid health waste. • Increased generation of healthcare waste due to COVID-19. • Management and management of health waste in Brazil.

The politics of algorithmic rank systems in the Brazilian erotic webcam industry

ABSTRACT This article examines the structuring of algorithmic rank systems in the Brazilian webcam industry. The article questions the criteria behind those automated systems and their impacts on the working conditions of performers. The research comprises a four-year digital ethnography (from 2016 to 2020) of Brazil’s two major webcamming platforms, Camera Hot and Camera Prive. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with cisgender women performers. The results reveal that rankings rely on axes of difference, centrally gender, race and age, foregrounding young white cisgender women. The unequal distribution of visibility affects the work conditions of the performers who do not fit platforms’ patterns, pressing them to negotiate with ranking criteria to succeed on camming. As the Brazilian camming business promotes the homogenization of services and prices, ranking stratifications hamper performers’ opportunities to engage and thrive on platforms. The research argues that inequalities imposed by rankings are already seen in the Brazilian sex trades.

Tail risk exposures of hedge funds: Evidence from unique Brazilian data

This paper examines tail risk in the Brazilian hedge fund industry. We rely on a unique data set of daily returns for every hedge fund in Brazil, dead or alive. By employing the universe of hedge funds, we ensure the absence of selection, survivorship, and instant history biases. We estimate tail risk measures based on the cross-section of both equity and hedge-fund returns. In particular, we rely on the expected shortfall of the cross-section distribution both under the physical and risk-neutral measures. We find that tail risk estimates are very different not only across asset classes (equity vs hedge fund), but also across probability measures (physical vs risk neutral). We also show that, although hedge funds in Brazil seem to exhibit more contemporaneous exposure to equity tail risk, which also partially explains the cross-section of their expected returns, hedge fund tail risk entails higher predictive ability to performance over time.

The Agrarian Roots of Divergent Development: A Case Study of Twentieth-Century Brazil

The literature on development has long highlighted the role of international trade and developmental states as key factors in explaining divergent processes of economic development. A country’s position in the world economy and its state’s capacity to promote industrialization are seen as fundamental to understanding its development path. Yet, these approaches are often inadequate for explaining the actual contours of industrial and economic growth across the Global South. In this study, an in-depth case study of Brazil reveals the limits of the mainstream approaches and illustrates the centrality of the underlying agrarian economy for understanding the country’s development path. Archival and quantitative data show that both the timing and location of industrialization in Brazil are better explained by the agrarian dynamics that unfolded in the country in the twentieth century. This has broader implications for understanding development processes throughout the Global South.