World Grain - June 2021 - 36

SOSLAND PUBLISHING
years
THE FUTURE OF MILLING: art versus science
Over the years but especially in
recent decades as technological
advances in the milling industry
have accelerated, a common topic
of debate among millers has centered
on the question: To what degree
is milling an art as opposed to
being a science?
And as milling plants become
more automated with huge volumes
of real-time data available to
analyze every conceivable aspect
of the operation, is flour milling
becoming less of an art?
" Absolutely, it has become less
of an art, " said Merzad Jamshidi,
chief executive officer and managing
director of KFF Mills, Tehran,
Iran.
" The only part where it still remains
a bit of an art is how millers
mix and match their raw material
to produce the ideal product, "
he said. " Milling is like any other
business. You look at the aviation
industry where the emphasis is
more dependent on automation
and less on pilots' input and performance
- I believe the mills are
also heading the same direction. "
Still, many millers are adamant
that despite mills being equipped
with state-of-the-art
automation
technology, the human senses of
millers still have a major impact on
how successfully a mill operates.
" It is absolutely still an art, " said
Troy Anderson, vice president of
operations at Ardent Mills. " The
technology provides quicker validation
that the art is on target. We
still need our millers, and they still
need their sense of touch, sight,
smell and sound to set up our mills
and to know when we have an issue.
At the same time, we have a
lot of great technology that is getting
better at beating those senses
to solve the problem. "
Milling industry consultant Jeff
36
Gwirtz, president of JAG Services
Inc., and a former milling science
professor at Kansas State University,
said he feels strongly that
even though computer-controlled
systems have enabled millers to
start a mill with the push of one
control-room button rather than
a series of buttons located on different
floors of the plant, it is still
important for the milling operative
to understand the logic behind the
series of events that unfold when a
mill ramps up.
" Even though you push a button
to start the systems, you should be
able to sit in the control room and
say, 'I know this system is starting
because I pushed the button and
not only do all the lights turn green
along the way, but I can hear it
start up, " Gwirtz said.
" Sometimes you need to tie the
pushing of the button to a series of
events that should have to occur
that have a practical and physically
observable evidence of happening
other than just the green light going
on. "
The same goes for when a problem
is occurring in the mill.
" If you have to wait until an alarm
goes off and a red light flashes to
understand you're having a problem,
then you weren't running the
system, the system was running
you, " Gwirtz said.
David Jansen, vice president of
production for Siemer Milling, said
the advances in automation, particularly
regarding data collection,
have helped millers spend more
time on the parts of the job they
enjoy most.
" I don't think the art is gone
and I absolutely believe the need
for the miller is still there, " he
said. " I'd like to think that the
advanced technology is helping
millers today do more milling and
less of the mundane tasks. "
Perhaps someday Artificial Intelligence
(AI) will progress to the
point where the human touch of
a miller is no longer of value. But
most agree it will probably take
many years for such a scenario to
play out, if ever.
" Every wheat kernel is different,
just like every person is unique,
and we have to have people who
are good at responding to that, "
said Anderson, a 30-year milling
industry veteran. " To a degree, AI
someday may be able to do that
but we're nowhere close to that
today, so being good at marrying
the art with the science around
technology - we feel that's the
sweet spot of being really effective
at what we do. "
Even the manufacturers of the
increasingly automated equipment
used in today's mills foresee
trained millers remaining as a valuable
part of the milling operation
in the years to come.
" The concept of the art of milling
will certainly change and therefore
also the way today's millers
are used to working, " said Marco
Galli, technological manager at
Ocrim. " There will be an increasing
comparison of numbers because
the data will be what guides
and supports millers in their choices
every day.
" Imagine the potential that
could be achieved by combining
the experience of a miller with data
collection and the relative analysis
of this data, for example, in managing
the energy consumption of
milling based on the wheat mixing.
What I see in the future of the
miller is the capacity to optimize
the processes using supporting information
made available through
the collection and processing data
from the field. "
June 2021 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - June 2021

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