ABSTRACT
The food market contributes significantly to the Brazilian economy (in 2007, the food industry grew 9.5%, around RS 240 billion, equivalent to 10% of Brazilian Gross Domestic Product). To meet such growing demand, companies in this field have demanded greater reliability of machinery and equipments, while maintaining the highest level of their products quality, thus producing food free of contamination. One of the challenges faced by the food industry is lubrication, as the lubricant required for the operation of machinery is also a risk of contamination to the food. This article presents the application of inferential statistical tools which compose a method to determine the key factors affecting the machinery operational failures, as well as the food contamination hazards related to lubrication tasks in the food industry environment. A method application is performed on a food enrobing machine to demonstrate its effectiveness to increased reliability and availability.
