The supply of tomatoes for the manufacturing process is a quite complex activity. Everyday large amounts of vegetables and fruits to be processed need to be stored. Their perishability has to be considered and the harvest is still manual in the majority of producing areas. Evidences show the existence of high levels of losses in the supply logistic process. A mathematical model was developed with the objective of allowing better knowledge of the whole process and investigating possibilities of optimization. The simulation using the model can generate scenarios that when compared with real performances show the importance of an accurate management with evident potential of expressive financial gains in the supply chain process with the reduction of time, losses and costs. The losses of products, which are regularly more than 2%, could be reduced to less than 1% and the option of not operating at full production capacity could also lower the costs generating higher revenues. To a plant with a processing volume of 336 thousand tons per season, the improvements of the supply process could result in gains estimated in R$ 6 millions.
Supply; Tomato; Losses; Harvest; Logistics
