Miller Magazine Issue: 123 March 2020

56 MILLER / MARCH 2020 Things like IoT (Internet of Things) and Smart Manufacturing have been in vogue for a certain time in large process industries like oil refining and car-making, but due to high cost and lack of trained professionals have failed to find their way into the milling industry. The First Industrial Revolution was about the use of steam and rivers as power sources, and also about the discovery of cheap productions methods for steel. Both innovations compound- ed and launched the highest jump in the quality of life in the history of mankind. The Second Industrial Revolution copied the mass production methods out of slaughterhouses and implemented them into automobile manufac- turing and every other mass consumption item. The Third Industrial Revolution started with computers, automating intellectual activities the same way the First and Second did with manual labor. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about the internet, massive amounts of information, and connecting every electronic item to each other, creating self-sufficient artificial organisms. Think that Skynet is coming and we are doomed. Now that high-speed internet is widely avail- “Workplace inefficiencies could be virtually eliminated by smart manufacturing, by allowing the continuous recording of all processes and machines, and implementing automatic actuators that regulate the variables of the processes. For example, grain mixtures can be adjusted, roll pressure increased, sifting time increased, etc. A network of sensors gives you real-time data, as much as you want, as long as each variable can be defined by a numerical variable. With the advancement of this technology, manual adjustments will have to disappear, being replaced by actuators that can control every aspect of the operation of the machines.” New technologies come to the milling industry Prof. Gustavo Sosa Industrial Mechanical Engineer Licensed Grain Inspector MBA Project Management SOSA – Engineering Consultants Gustavo Sosa is a Mechanical Engineer and MBA, specialized in Project Management. He is the CEO of Sosa Ingenieria, a consulting firm doing construction project management, facility design and mechanical design. Gustavo has two decades of experience in grain handling and milling, doing engineering design and project management for projects up to 60 million USD. In the past, he worked 3 years as a professor, teaching fluir power, mechatronics, conveyor design and industrial instrumentation at UDELAR, the largest university in Uruguay. He also helped build the Mechatronics Laboratory there. Gustavo can help you maximize the value for your investment, by simplifying the design, avoiding mistakes and guiding the project to completion. His website is www.sosaingenieria.com . He can be reached at ing.gustavo.sosa@gmail.com and at +598 95302172.