Scrap Reduction of Railroader Axle on Carajás Railroad.

During the wheelset maintenance process, the number of the axles is reduced by scrapping which makes it difficult to comply with the wagon maintenance plan. To re-establish the number of wheelsets, it is necessary to purchase new axles at a cost U$ 2,386.36 per unit. The average number of scrap axles is 26.44 units or 5.4% per month, which raises the maintenance costs of the wagons. Thus, the problem was identified, the goal was defined based on history, and it was stratified with tree diagram, pareto, sequential graph, boxplot and histogram. From the tree diagram, we identified the components involved with the problem of the high scrap rate of axle 6.1/2x12 by groove in the sleeve. Then, the brainstorming session of the causes of the groove was elaborated, the causes were prioritized for study by correlation, q-square test, boxplot, histogram and soft flexion test. Then, the proven causes for treatment, elaboration and effective action plan were prioritized. The result was that, while 3,03% of the groove axes studied were scrapped up to 5.47 months, 35.43% of the tested axles (127 units) went through this period without groove. The expenditure avoided with the 127 axles of the sample was about U$ 223,810.98. The projected avoided expenditure 4 years (large scale application) is about U$ 1,562,583.81. The completion of the work was by the pilot test and serves as a basis for largescale application of the solution in the fleet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]