Improving productivity in the coffee growing sector using 4.0 technologies: the CAFETOL Coffee Association case

Abstract

The Toledo Specialty Coffee Producers and Marketers Association (CAFETOL) is dedicated to the production of specialty coffee with high quality standards, associating twenty-two (22) coffee growers that guarantee the quality of the bean, complying with international regulations for export; however, the association has presented problems in the fulfillment of orders, reprocessing and inefficient handling of the product, negatively impacting the cost and delays in production; for the above, the information of the variables that affect the productive efficiency in terms of quantity, cost and time was analyzed.

For the above, a diagnosis was made in the scenario under study, 3 producing farms were taken (sample by convenience), analyzing the process flows, storage operations, handling and transportation; it was determined that the low level of technology transfer and training of the labor force are factors that directly influence the productivity of specialty coffee of the association. With the above and as a test pilot, the drying and sieving processes were automated, in addition a photosensor with AI was incorporated in the selection process, which allowed identifying contaminated grains or those that were out of specification standards, increasing grain quality by 98.2% and an operational efficiency of 100%; the cost-benefit ratio was estimated, determining a correlation between +1.02 and +1.06, which in terms of productivity represents 12,000 kilos of grain added to the export volume.

Finally, the productivity and profitability of the proposal was evaluated for the selected sample, showing effective results of the proposed improvement.