Estimated repair and maintenance cost of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) harvester

Abstract

Brazil is the largest sugarcane producer worldwide. Harvester’s repair and maintenance cost is high, and it is more representative than that of fuel. Equipment maintenance costs mainly comprise spare parts, third-party services and manpower. In addition, it is also closely related to the intense use of the equipment and to the increased mechanized operations. The current study aims to evaluate the proposals used to estimate the total costs associ­ated with repair and maintenance of sugarcane harvesters. The initial value and useful life in hours of the equipment were used in the calculations. For the development of this work was adopted the data modeling, using methodological proposals and their results were generated using the Excel^® spreadsheet. Among the proposals considered, two are according with reality because it reaches the useful life in hours at a cost of US$ 396,059.75, which corresponds to the initial value of the equipment. The longer worked hours increased total repair and maintenance costs. The equipment must not be used when it reaches its lifespan limit in hours.