Miller Magazine Issue 137 May 2021

62 COVER STORY MILLER / may 2021 The wheat flour milling process involves breaking open the grain, scraping the endosperm from bran & germ, and then gradually reducing the chunk of the en- dosperm into flour by a series of grindings, with interme- diate separation of products by sifters & purifiers. When we talk about milling performance, it simply means the running efficiency of the milling and cleaning machines at optimum capacity. In other words, it means consistency in the operation of the milling equipment and production activities without downtime or break- down of equipment and maximum utilization of the mill- ing machines' capacity. Improving milling performance could have different meanings to many people like improving the machine performance, maximization of mill yield/extraction, re- duction of production waste, improvement in the prepa- ration of the raw material and, improvement in the fin- ished product quality. For the purpose of this write-up, three (3) key performance indicators (KPIs) will be con- sidered in evaluating mill performance; • Quality of the raw material. • Milling yield • Capacity Utilization. To achieve the above KPIs, improvement must start from the preparation of the raw materials (Wheat) which includes; the cleaning of the grains, conditioning and tempering of the wheat. Good preparation will have a positive effect on the mill performance. QUALITY Quality starts from the raw material preparations. It should be noted that this is dependent on standard mea- sured by the millers based on customers’ requirements which include; the moisture content, protein, ash, wet gluten, gluten index, starch damage. • Wheat quality: We start from the consideration that the raw materi- al meets the quality parameters needed based on the type of finished product quality to be produced and as defined by the industry standards. At the reception of wheat, an organoleptic test is carried out by visual checking, smelling and feeling, to confirm if it is the exact The assessment of how well the mill is performing involves measuring each production day’s flour yield for each milling unit. While variations between daily production yields are expected to occur, it is nevertheless important for the mill manager to understand what factors have the greatest impact on daily yield. These factors might include grain characteristics such as moisture content or kernel weight, or environmental characteris- tics such as temperature and/or humidity in the mill. Evaluating the mill performance Kehinde Peter Owonifari Mill Technologist Crown Flour Mills Nigeria