Miller Magazine Issue: 142 October 2021

61 COVER STORY MILLER / OCTOber 2021 nancial losses than labour savings that most millers focus on. Raw materials are the most expensive of all mill inputs and proper control of blending, monitoring of protein levels and controlled, accurate addition of gluten and other additives are all areas that can impact the bottom line significantly and quick- ly and all affecting the profit and overall yield. When raw materials prices increase, the importance of ex- traction is more than ever prominent. The ash content increas- es or colour changes towards darkness can be tolerated if ex- traction can be increased to the targeted level. The importance of thoroughly cleaning wheat and removing all broken grains is tending to diminish in many mills. Trieur or cockle cylinders and separators or are often being bypassed and screen rooms now comprise just a separator or combi cleaner, dry stoner and scourer prior to the tempering equipment. Tempering stations are fully automated in almost every mill and the accuracy of tempering, invariably tied to moisture monitoring equipment, is as reliable and accurate than before. The flour mills technology had dramatically changed, during the last 100 years. Advances technologies that have taken place couldn’t have been forecast a century ago, it’s not easy to imagine the level of the milling industry over the next 100 years. Techniques like PLC system, colour sorting machine for wheat cleaning, online water addition control “MYF E” online protein, ash and moisture monitoring “MYRA “and others be- came normal available technology in most of the mills today. Another thing that certainly will continue to be an advance is data collection related to every aspect of the milling operation. Our imaginations and vision lead us to expect and predict that a milling industry where the data collection and manage- ment will be increasing more relevant, making it easy, so that all decisions will be based on data collection and subsequent processing. Information and data will be processed through milling data management and compliance with parameters on automatic way. Today, it is possible to change the settings of the roller mills or redirect the products inside the line and con- trol the flow, automatically, based on information received and data processing through the software. The data will be allowing us to decide what raw materials to buy based on what finished products needed to be produced. All with the possibility of integrating this information with accu- rately updated market prices. Initially, the data will guide us to make the best choice based on the situation that has devel- oped, all in real-time, because that will be another crucial as- pect. These aspects are then linked to the use of new design techniques, of both machines and plants, to optimize costs as well as production times, always guaranteeing the maximum quality over time which we call it nowadays “Grist Optimization”, which is managed automatically. Since the mill operation will be very much dependent on data availability and data management, traceability and sustain- ability will be high priorities in the global milling industry and the solutions will continue to be developed to address mill perfor- mance. Environmentally friendly and clean operation free from CO2 will become a key sustainability indicator of milling companies. This will put pressure on the whole grain value chain process including grain handlers, millers, bakers and the solutions pro-