Miller Magazine Issue 108 / December 2018

62 MILLER / DECEMBER 2018 COVER STORY integrated facility suitable for growth, and the capacity of the factory will be increased gradually. In addition to flour, bran, razmol, red, and wheat germ are produced as a by-product. The factory carries out special products based on product variety and produces the most quality product with minimum energy consumption. The factory will close an important gap in the produ- ction of industrial flour and will sell its products to the market beside meeting the raw material need for Torku. Torku Flour Factory will also contribute to the supply of raw materials for biscuit factories in cities. As far as I know, Imas has built the production line in the factor. Can you tell us about the advantages that this modern facility brings to you and the Torku Group? First of all, all technologies related to milling were in- vestigated during the establishment of this facility. All details are discussed, and we reached the decision. In or- der to contribute to the domestic and national capital, we preferred domestic companies. Thus, we wanted to pro- ceed with Konya-based Imas Machinery. In a short period of time, the machine assembly was begun while the factor was building, and the factory is put to use very quickly. “NEW FACILITY PROVIDE SUSTAINABLE QUALITY TO US” The most important contribution of this modern facility is to provide Torku - a growing company - the sustai- nable quality that is one of the most important factors for growth. In other words, the most important input for products like biscuit, cake, and wafer is flour. If the stan- dard and quality criteria of flour are not consistent, there will be a serious difference in the customer’s taste. For this, our priorities are the quality and the sustainability of the quality. One of the biggest advantages of this facility is that we can produce flour with different characteristics for each product. In addition to this, the flour factory zeroed the deli- very cost of flour used in Torku’s integrated plant, and the flour factory contributed positively to other facilities’ management productivity. One of the biggest contributions of Imas is that the company responds quickly for the service requests, and also it is open to the research and development studies with its customers. What do you think the biggest problems faced by flour industrialists? If we talk about the biggest problems we faced, two important difficulties are noteworthy. The first one is raw material, and the second is the lack of qualified personnel. For example, if we will talk about the flour production for a biscuit, unfortunately, the region in which the factory is located does not produce flour for a biscuit. That’s why we cannot use the advantage of being close to the raw material. Additionally, the yield of wheat types cultivated for biscuit ten years ago is too low per decare, and farmers do not cultivate the low-quality wheat because the incre- ase of wheat price is too low; and those who produce this type of wheat act on the rationality that, “It is not worthy of money. I don’t want to spend money on its medicine and fertilizer.” So, we have a lack of raw material. When we look at qualified personnel issue, there were milling departments at high schools twenty years ago. As a step forward, “Flour Production Technologies’ De- partment” was opened in universities. Unfortunately, this department at Konya Selçuk University was closed down in 2005, saying that there is no demand. In 2014, this department was reopened with the cooperation of Konya Necmettin Erbakan University and the industry. However, the number of registered students is low. Tho- se who graduated from the department and developed their skills can find a job at the quality department of the flour factories. However, a problem for the production side that needs personnel persists. So, masters who spent years in the sector try to train unskilled people to meet the shortage. However, they do not improve themselves and believe what masters told them is enough. What are your expectations from the machinery and technology companies that carry out production for the milling industry? In which areas do you need innovative solutions? When considered the last ten years of the milling sec- tor, companies that invest in the research and develop- ment have improved and generated added-value. Let me give you few examples: Almost all companies use ener- gy-efficient motors; quality parameters, instant efficien- cy monitoring, and factory operation are carried out by full automation systems; studies on color distinguishing devices like Sorteks are carried out. Machines are being developed that carry out more effective cleaning in unit time while more ergonomic designs are being developed