World Grain - March 2024 - 30

FEATURE: BIGGER BYTES: FEED INDUSTRY PROCESSING POTENTIAL OF AI
tions that are more consistent from a cost perspective.
BinSentry recently received a new patent for a
method to use AI to accurately determine the volume
of animal feed in a bin using a time-of-flight sensor
or other similar hardware.
" In the future, this ingredient data will be
tied to, and driven by, finished goods data
from every feed bin that a mill serves, "
Allen said. " This coordinated data stream
will reduce mill changeovers and emergency
delivery orders, both of which drive
operating costs up. "
Maier
Gero Zimmermann is head of technology
animal nutrition at Büher AG, which provides
complete solutions and services for sustainable
animal feed production. He sees AI tools that can
boost the performance of the feed mill manufacturing
execution systems (MES) by their unique capability
to deal with nonlinear and multivariate data systems.
" AI can clearly help to continuously optimize
the pelleting process, " Zimmermann said.
" Furthermore, if AI is applied to all core
processes - including mixing, dosing and
grinding - it opens up enormous potential
in terms of production stability and consistent
product quality. "
That consistency could be established
across the entire value chain from field to
end-use, creating an even tighter process
that squeezes better outcomes for profit margins,
said Bühler's Hug.
Zimmermann
" AI could, beyond automation, help to capture
data in the whole value chain from raw material,
weather conditions, rainfalls, etc. to final product,
even predict how fast an end user is going to use their
feed reserves, " he said. " With this data, one will be
able to improve process parameters to almost optimal
feed nutrition parameters while processing. "
It is that super-fast, humanlike " observation " quality
of AI that intrigues Maier at Iowa State, which
recently completed and began operating its Kent Feed
Mill and Grain Science Complex. While Maier said
the new facility contains state-of-the-art automation
technology and processes, it would not be described
as employing AI.
Where Maier sees generative AI's potential is its ability
to learn and create from knowledge already available
while observing processes at a feed mill. It would apply
acquired data and make predictions on how the process
could be further optimized and improved beyond what
people who are busy with day-to-day operations might
be thinking. AI would free up personnel to make the important
decisions and create new ideas.
" It would be like, AI is sitting there saying, 'I have
30
been monitoring your processes and have noticed a
pattern in your feed rations, that if you adjust it in
this manner that I am suggesting, you would get
10% more efficiency out of your process,' " Maier
said. " That is the power of something like generative
AI technology. "
Humans remain paramount in such a scenario, making
those final decisions aided by new information
generated through AI, Maier said.
While finding skilled employees for the feed industry
is challenging and automation has helped, " lightsout "
fully automated facilities seem to be a bit farther
down the road. Maier noted that even at today's most
advanced facilities, including the Kent Feed Mill, employing
predictive machines still requires human programming,
observation and action.
Technologies that improve
efficiencies and cut costs
are the most likely avenues
for (AI) adoption.
Ben Allen, chief executive officer, BinSentry
" There's a human being, software engineer that's
programming these control systems and how the sensors
are read and how the data is recorded and how a
decision might be made based on a sensor reading, "
he said. " I don't think we're going to see that much
in terms of AI replacing that operations technology
automation that we're already capable of doing. The
diagnostics of helping people with predictive analytics
or maintenance is where AI could be helpful. "
Where Maier sees AI potentially useful in the most
human sense is as an interactive repository of knowledge
gained by longtime employees that could be accessed
by newer workers with questions about how
to approach a problem within the mill. Perhaps this
new AI could even interpret all that gained knowledge
and personal experience in new ways that become
more useful.
" In the end, we're still producing food, fuel and fiber
that is going to come from a field that's going to
have to be aggregated someplace, that will have to
be processed in whatever form it needs to be for utilization, "
Maier said. " These are supply chain physical
processes that we, hopefully, can do in the future
smarter and more efficiently, but the physical processes
still have to happen. "
Allen said that " lights-out " plants with AI that never
sleeps, while aspirational, remains over the horizon
March 2024 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
Photo by of Bühler, Sosland Publishing Co.
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - March 2024

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