Production and logistics planning considering circulation taxes in a multi-plant seed corn company

Enterprises that experience rapid growth, changing towards multi-plant configurations, face a wide range of opportunities in terms of cost reduction in production and logistics activities. In the case of seed corn companies, splitting the industrial processes into preparing raw materials and processing dried grains can be relevant to effectively configure a logistics network, taking into account the impact of goods and services circulation taxes and additional costs of drying spikes, besides transportation cost. In this paper, we study the application of a linear programming model to support decisions in the tactical planning of production, storing and transportation of seed corn in a whole season of a typical Brazilian multi-plant seed corn company. The results showed important opportunities for production and logistics cost reduction by using the proposed model, particularly because of the consideration of tax planning. Based on these results, decision makers of the company changed some transport policies, working shifts and process conceptions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.