Milling & Baking News - October 10, 2017 - 7

Editorial

Automation's past success in milling

rain-based foods, particularly flour milling, finished products in mills to the work of engines and
played a key role in one of the first times au- conveying systems. Much has been improved since
tomation was a force in business in the devel- the first modern mill Mr. Evans worked on, including
oped world. The early lead does not mean that con- steel roller mills and modern-day pneumatic systems,
tinuing progress along the same lines will see milling as well as new and increasingly efficient equipment.
and baking avoid being charged with replacing huWhen Oliver Evans spoke of his new automatic
man work with machines. This is especially true even system to mill wheat, he frequently estimated that it
if the industry's progress at this stage might seem lim- would reduce employment in a mill by at least half.
ited. Assessing such possibilities has been made ur- Later improvements in milling that have continued
gent by the focus during the last presidential election to this day usually focused on flour quality as well
on causes of unemployment in specific areas. Indeed, as achieving constant gains in production efficiency.
blaming unemployment on the failure of government Commercial baking, which lagged milling from a
stood as perhaps the most influential force in bringing time viewpoint, has embraced numerous systems and
Donald Trump to the White House.
machines aimed at reducing employment. It is baking
When it comes to measuring
that operates the largest truck
Except for a few instances, the
the likelihood of automation
fleet of any single manufacturreduced employment that has
looming large in the United
ing industry, and thus baking
occurred in milling, baking and
States and in Europe in the
is where attention must be fograin farming has prompted
not-too-distant future, agreecused on what driverless velittle protesting.
ment is startlingly widespread
hicles might mean in the future
that it appears imminent. Advances in various ele- for delivery of baked foods.
ments of technology, especially computer power,
Grain-based foods also has participated in an inhave made it almost certain that a number of indus- direct way in another great automation that turned
tries will see rapid adoption of automatic machinery farms from employing huge numbers to cope with
to carry out tasks that are now being done by human crops like wheat to industrial operations where peobeings. Without meaning to identify one spot where ple numbers are small. Except for a few instances, the
automation will have its nearest and greatest influ- reduced employment that has occurred in milling,
ence, the most popular target appears to be automatic baking and grain farming has prompted little prodriving of motor vehicles. Such a possibility is fore- testing. Reading about the strikes and even riots that
cast by a number of experts who say this will happen occurred in England when automation first came to
within a few years' time, thus forecasting a revolution knitting mills and similar facilities is a reminder of
in transportation as well as in driver employment.
what may occur. That is especially the case as warnHistory assigns to flour milling the start of automa- ings about automation lead many news reports.
tion when machinery first replaced people in jobs that
Nothing is far-fetched about efforts that may be
had been demanding for generations. It was in the brought forward to shy away from automation ad18th century that this all began when James Watt, an vances, especially those driven by robots and other
Englishman, invented the machine powered by steam computer/electronic gear. Stepped-up education efthat could be used in turning millstones in what was forts to provide jobs for people who might lose to authe way flour mills ground wheat to make flour. It was tomation appears the most sensible solution. Regardtoward the end of that century that Oliver Evans, an less of what is proposed to counter automation, grainAmerican engineer, utilized Mr. Watt's steam engine based foods is an industry that may proudly note its
not just to drive the roller mills but to move conveyor leadership, not in eliminating labor, but in focusing as
belts throughout a flour mill, thus changing what had efficiently as possible on its production of mankind's
been very hard human labor in moving grain and most essential food. MBN
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Milling & Baking News - October 10, 2017

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