Miller Magazine Issue: 122 February 2020

65 ARTICLE MILLER / FEBRUARY 2020 systems, best of class hoppers, silos, mills, plansifters and the whole range of process components is certainly a plea- sure for the eye, but not always a pleasure for the mind, as in many cases, and more often than not, these systems are not adequately interfaced or not adequately designed from input of raw material to output of finished product. Industry has learned from the past: individual systems cannot have a successful output if not interfaced and co- ordinated with the rest of the process line, and even the best-coordinated system will face productivity shortsteps if not designed together with the previous step, i.e. the port terminal that will feed the grain to the mill for example… At the other end, even with all co- ordinated lines, the system will again find a pace stopping situation if there is no sufficient space for the storing of finished products or for the adequate capacity and speed of re delivering to the market. Design today looks at the actual drawing of systems that will be strate- gically thought of in speeds, capacities, volumes and all other parameters to the needs of the line, from A to Z. In other words, mathematics first, algorithms applied then, and design to follow by value engineering. Process lines are never alone! Neither process design! A correctly calculated input of raw material will ensure the needed feed into the production line, but this is not enough. Production lines may need unexpected stops, fee- ding conveying lines may also have occasional breakdowns and maintenance, inbound vessels, trains or trucks may have delays, and even all going well the grist may need to be changed or altered due to quality requirements to be fine-tuned… In the same way, the feeding of the final product to the bagging lines and from these to the delivery point or loa- ding bay may have its own time schedule and time prog- ramming of deliveries on to the receiver of the goods. It is here where the strategic design comes in, program- ming and planning together with the end-user, the industri- al facility, the correct speeds, capacities, quantities and vo- lumes to be fed, stored, the buffer volumes, the adequate spaces to be designed and the delivery program together with the input of raw material program. DESIGN OF A SYSTEM BEFORE DESIGNING PRODUCTION LINES The first question to be asked is “where does it all start?” The answer would be to define the final product that will be consumed or fed to the market but it is more ahead than what the designer will need to look into. The first question in a more elaborated project manner will be “where from, how and when and in what quantities my industrial process needs the input of wheat or raw material?” The first para- meter a project designer will have to look at is the input of raw material, and where they originate, how they arrive and how they are handled previously to be fed into the produ- ction line. From the industrial revolution onwards the progress made would be difficult to quantify, but the last 20 years have seen more applied design development than ever, not as much related to new machinery or new processes, but the design thinking approach to industrial processes and their interface and intercoordinated pace.