Miller Magazine Issue: 123 March 2020

50 MILLER / MARCH 2020 Regardless of business size every food pro- ducer needs to know how much raw material is entering their plant relative to the volume of product produced. This is the basic metric where profit is to be found. And there is no better way of keeping control of such a critical equation than to meticulously weigh, record and ana- lyze every raw ingredient entering a plant and every finished product that leaves, which is why Bühler has recently launched its Bühler In- sights-based Yield Management System (YMS). Initially targeted at the milling industry the YMS uses specialized intake scales to weigh every ingredient that enters a production plant and sends the data to Bühler Insights for analysis. Output scales then weigh all the finished prod- ucts leaving the plant, again sending the data to Bühler Insights. Producers now have the data to be able to tweak a recipe and see what impact it will have on yield. They can assess yield over time, visualize and compare production lines within a facility or see which plants are oper- ating most efficiently in different geographical regions. And it all happens in real time. SPEEDY ANALYSIS One of the most significant benefits of YMS is the immediacy with which data is collected and analyzed. It means producers get instant feed- back on how changes in production parameters impact yield. Alarms can be set so that when yield falls below set parameters operators are instantly alerted to make adjustments. The presentation of data can also be customized. Customers are able to interpret the data picked up by the scales in an optimal way and then distribute the results to whoever requires it. The chief executive, plant manager, miller and operator receive the same up-to-the-minute information and so are all in a position to immediately contribute to key pro- duction decisions. For large scale food producers operating in highly sophisticated automated envi- ronments this may already be underway. But food producers are a diverse community. Whether it is your geographical location, size, product type, scale of output or level of prior investment, there In October, Bühler launched its new Bühler Insights Yield Management System in a bid to drive up production rates in smaller, often family-run milling operations in Asia, India, and Africa. Interest in this system is spreading to larger automated producers in all regions as early adopters report higher profitability from increasing yields. Increasing yield with data* Gernot Ruppert Bühler Program Manager Smart Mill