Miller Magazine Issue: 129 September 2020

56 COVER STORY MILLER / September 2020 context of globalization, which is a necessity of the fourth industrial revolution, digital transformation is a necessity for all sectors. One of the sectors influenced by innovation and dig- italization is the food processing industry. It is vital to keep pace with this transformation for the milling sector just like for every sector. Innovation can meet the needs of the rapidly growing world population with digital in- vestments in a sustainable manner. Technology has the potential to bring greater advantage to all players in the supply chain, bringing greater efficiency to production processes. The companies that realize this are making in- vestments to adapt to the changing market conditions and to the digital age in order to meet the demand. Companies are working on innovative technologies to produce solutions that include a controlled production system, develop systems that conduct comprehensive data analysis, improve process efficiency, ensure easy and fast machine maintenance, and make a long working life possible. The milling industry, where the digital revolution shows its effect, still has a long way to go in this context. For the moment we are at the very beginning of the road, yet the direction is clear. With the development of technol- ogy, the era of self-determining and self-assessing pro- duction facilities, in which all components of machinery communicate with each other, is starting. More efficient facilities will be built in which inputs, particularly energy consumption, and resources and maintenance costs and periods are reduced. The milling business is essentially a matter of quantity management. A desired level of quantity must be pro- duced within a certain time with the minimum workforce and with the expected world’s population rise from 7.2 to 9.5 billion people by 2050, feeding everyone will be a global challenge, requiring contribution throughout the complex food value chain. Consumers also want to know where their food has come from and how it has been grown, harvested and processed. They are also interest- ed in its environmental impact and whether its’ growers were paid fairly. “Until now, the industry has only been able to dream of solutions for providing consumers with food that they can trust. But now, with the opportunities opened up by digitalization and automation system, we are closer to capturing sustainably the food system’s full value,” says Senior Milling Technologist Karan Singhal. “Technical philosophy should be to develop innovative technologies to improve process efficiency, sustainable usage of resources like energy, water, land and water in crop cultivation, continually monitor the level of bacteria that is being reduced during the milling process, gath- er information about temperature and humidity in silos to safe guard from unwanted bacterial growth, mould infection and mycotoxin contamination, compensate for wear, ensure dust-free environment, require minimal spare parts, provide easy-in-line maintenance, establish long term reliability, maintain a longer service life.” For healthy and nutritious food to be available to bil- lions of consumers around the globe each day, these commodities must be transported in bulk, stored, trad- ed, processed, and distributed through various channels. And while the commodities are in-transit, they can be exposed to various conditions like extreme weather, poor storage facility, physical, chemical or biological contam- inations. “However, digitalization is inspiring exciting new solutions that can address these issues, enabling processes to be adjusted to optimize yield, save energy, prevent wastage or contamination and remove defective produce,” Mr. Singhal notes. Digitalization has enabled in creation of numerous ap- plications and software which can be used on various terminal devices. It offers various opportunities to im- prove processes, increase value, reduce food wastage, better usage of resources, quicker decision making and transparent communication throughout the value chain. Besides, businesses that produce appropriate innova- tive solutions by observing emerging needs and demands during the pandemic period, will have important oppor- tunities. In the agri-food sector, food safety and food accessibility have come to the fore. In this respect, food industrialists will focus on technology and digitalization investments as much as possible, which will increase ef- ficiency and reduce food losses. For example, by creat- ing a blockchain infrastructure in the supply chain, flour industrialists can track information such as the origin of the seed, the rate of pesticide used, transportation and storage conditions for each party of the wheat and they can make all these data available to the consumers. The transparent tracking of the chain will not only provide food safety but also reduce intermediaries and product losses within the chain. What does digitalization mean for milling? What is the role of digitalization in the milling industry? How can we define the modern mill? “In addition to automatic con- trol systems, modern mills are also increasingly equipped with various sensors that detect diverse specific data and report these to a central control. This is where digitali- zation comes into play. The stored data are transformed into signals that can be further processed,” answers Pe- ter Striegl, Head of Business Development Wheat and Rye at Bühler. Prof. Farhan Alfin, who has a long experience in pro- viding consultancy in flour milling and milling science, also points out the big data. “If someone asks me about my imagination of the smart mill, I will say that it has to produce flour of a certain customer without any human intervention. This means that the mill has a big database include all mill parameters for example requirements of customers, quality characteristics of wheat that are in the mill silos and has the ability to produce that flour from