The document discusses the African Milling School (AMS) located in Nairobi, Kenya. It was established by Bühler to train mill workers in Africa to become professional millers. Some key points: 1) AMS is the only school that caters specifically to English-speaking African countries and focuses on training experienced mill workers. 2) It has state-of-the-art facilities including a full-scale training mill, classrooms, and well-equipped laboratory. 3) The 27-student inaugural class represented 14 different mills from 9 African countries, demonstrating the school's important role in the region. 4) The two-year program combines classroom and practical training to

1. W
hat is the miller?” this
was the question posed to
me by Martin Schlauri,
Managing Director of the
African Milling School
in Nairobi, Kenya. As
fast as the rhetorical
question had been asked,
the answer followed.
“The miller operates the plant, making sure it is clean, has a
good sound by making sure all the machines are aligned correctly
and of course there is a good quality of product with a good
output”; in fact Martin went on further to explain that the miller
is the supervisor of the plant 24/7. So, it is clear to all that a well-
trained miller is extremely important in the running of a mill, but,
where can people go to train as a miller?
This is indeed an interesting
question, particularly for training
in Africa. There are, of course,
options globally. There is the
very famous ‘Swiss Milling
School’ and the prestigious
‘Kansas State University’ as
well as leading manufacturers
offering training solutions like
‘Ocrim’ in Italy and industry
leading organisations like the
‘IAOM’ and of course the
‘DMSB’.
Outside of these elite
establishments of learning
there are a few regional solutions such as NABIM in the United
Kingdom, a school in Morocco, one in India and South Africa to
name a very limited few. All of these well recognised institutions
of learning play their global role in the training and development
of our future millers. However, within a mill you will have, as
with any business structure, different levels of operation and
management. For the sake of simplicity I will break these down
into three key roles, as highlighted in figure 1.
It is no secret that European Millers are respected globally,
with the majority of leading European mills putting their senior
production staff through courses such as those at the Swiss
Milling School or with Ocrim or indeed Kansas State. Many of
these courses focus on the higher level of management such as
Production Managers.
For example, Kansas State University (KSU) will give you a
world class degree, though there is a difference, a graduate from
One of the unique aspects of working in an ever-changing,
international industry committed to playing its part in feeding a
growing population is the fascinating places our quest for timely,
relevant and informative journalism takes us to. Last month, I had
the privilege of being the first western reporter to visit Bühler’s African
Milling School, located in Nairobi, Kenya to meet its students,
teachers and Martin Schlauri – the brainchild of the school. Opened
in March 2015, I visited the school to see the first batch of 27 students
undertake thier training - Darren Parris, Milling and Grain
“
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2. KSU will be highly educated and will be learning about the
running of a mill at the very highest level of management and
often though not always, will have worked only a limited time in
a mill. They will no doubt talk about purifiers etc. and often they
may only experience the majority of the practical applications
on paper or during an internship at a mill, regardless, the goal is
often mill management.
With the African School of Milling (AMS), it was clearly
evident to me that all of the students currently work in a mill and
the majority have worked in a mill for many years. They attend
the AMS to hone their skills and to learn many new things about
the better practice within the mill. As I mentioned before, there
are a few other establishments that focus on training the mill
worker to become a professional miller, but again there are some
obstacles, for example, the school in Morocco is primarily in
French, the Indian School is catering for the Indian market and
geographically is not logistical for African Millers, which is also
the issue with the Swiss Milling School and KSU etc. as is the
cost of both travel, accommodation and the courses themselves.
Therefore, it was evident to me that the African Milling School
(AMS) filled a very special and desperately required niche in the
African market. Being centrally located in Nairobi in Kenya, the
AMS is the only school in its class that caters 100 percent to the
English speaking countries of Africa and is 100 percent dedicated
in turning experienced mill workers into world recognised
professional millers, with further courses planned to educate
professional millers to the level of Head Miller. Not to mention
the price of just US$4,800 per year which includes lunch and
there is help with affordable accommodation sourced by Bühler,
so all round it is an affordable solution for African millers, who
with professionally trained millers on their staff will be able to
reap a return of one percent to multiple improvement in their
annual production, which will more than cover the costs of the
course within one year.
Furthermore, what is obvious in developing countries
in Africa is the very same problem that exists in Europe,
such as in the UK and France for example. In these
countries there is a chronic shortage of trade people such as
plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, carpenters and of course,
professionally trained millers. If a country wants to develop,
which of course the majority of African countries are focussed
on doing, then they will need professional trade people and
skilled workers. Over the years we see many companies come
to countries in Africa, compete for and complete a project in
one country then they are gone. Some would describe this
as opportunistic, as there is no service or aftersales support
available locally.
This is, quite frankly where I observed first hand Bühler
taking the lead in the marketplace. Talking further with Martin
AMS -
African
Milling
School
AMS –African Milling School
SMS - Swiss Milling School
KSU - Kansas State University
DMSB -
IAOM -
OCRIM
MILLER
Proffesional Miller
PRODUCT MANAGER
Figure 1
HEAD
MILLER
Supervisor
May 2015 | 37
F

3. Schlauri, Managing Director of the African Milling School, he
went on to explain, “I started dreaming of having an African
Milling School five years ago, apart from the fact that I myself
am a trained miller, I pride myself on my communication
with many customers that I have built excellent relationships
with over many years. Listening to their needs was key. I
was consistently receiving strong messages that many of our
customers at Bühler wanted to build more new mills, but they
were restricted, as they did not have the skilled staff to operate
them, they all are entrepreneurs and all wanted to expand their
businesses.”
Commitment to Africa
“Building this centre cements Bühler’s commitment to Africa,
as it is not just a state of the art mini mill for training purposes
with modern classrooms, highly qualified teaching staff,
sophisticated laboratory and onsite catering” Martin continued,
“It is much, much more than this, it is a complete service centre
with 10 fulltime engineers with facilities onsite to carry out roll
re-grinding, re-fluting etc. as well as our staff on the road who are
on hand to deal with any technological challenges but as well as
mechanical and electrical issues, it is a complete package, giving
piece of mind to all our customers.” And this is not the only
establishment Bühler has in Africa and the Middle East; I noted
they have split the region Middle East & Africa into five sub-
regions. With over 500 permanent staff they have offices in South
Africa, East Africa, North and West Africa as well as Middle East
and Central-Eurasia. With full time employees on hand to help
their customers grow and develop their businesses.
Talking further with Martin, he went on to explain “You
must understand Darren, working at Bühler is fascinating and
inspiring as it is not just flour milling, we have feed milling, pasta
technology, rice milling and also coffee and cocoa processing.
Africans love rice and this is growing in popularity and many
African Governments give support to develop the agroindustry.”
Continuing, “So this is why Bühler has a solid base. We have
many customers that want to diversify their milling opportunities
and we not only have the equipment solutions, we can offer the
after-sales service and training as well.
In the lab there was all the latest equipment from companies
such as Perten and Brabender to name but a few. Martin was
quick to point out that he was extremely grateful to all the
companies that had contributed to some of the cost in supplying
AMS with the latest equipment for students to use.
In the lab there was all the latest equipment from companies such as Perten and Brabender to name but a few.
Martin was quick to point out that he was extremely grateful to all the companies that had contributed to some of the cost in supplying AMS with the latest
equipment for students to use.
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4. First impressions
Having made my way via Turkey and the TUSAF conference
in Antalya to Kenya and Bühler’s African Milling School,
my first impressions of the school were of the awe inspiring
compound in which it is located with high walls, guard and large
electronic gate. Once I was checked through and made my way
to the reception I met with Martin Schlauri and had the initial
introduction as I have detailed above. It was then the grand tour.
Of the two beautifully built buildings in the Bühler compound,
I first visited one housing the service centre, where I witnessed
the rolls from many mills all over Kenya, with Bühler staff busy
re-grinding and re-fluting them. It was a privilege to be the first
western reporter to go behind the scenes of Bühler’s new modern
service centre.
From here we stepped out in to the 30-degree heat and walked
across the carpark with the flags flying proudly for Switzerland,
Kenya, the African Milling School and Bühler. On entering the
school for the first time it was evident of the high quality build
and attention to detail at every turn. This was no more evident
than when I entered the training mill, a mill designed for all
their customer’s needs, and most extraordinary was the fact that
this was a Maize mill and a Wheat mill, both integrated, and on
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5. talking with Martin he commented, “I am not aware of another
mill that does this.”
You can see from the images in this feature, that the pipe work
is really a work of art, and in many ways this pipe work sums up
the ultimate learning goal, as when the students leave and they
understand this, they are a real miller.
Walking through the full scale training mill there were cleaning
equipment, rollers, sieves and sifters, there was even a feed mill
with a conditioner, a pellet press and a cooler. The mill was
clinically clean and very open plan affording suburb space to
work, teach and practice, it really is what every milling school
would dream of. All the machines I inspected were exactly the
models sold to customers with no modifications whatsoever.
So, the students are really training on what they will end up
using. They even have a small grinding mill to practice on
before moving onto the larger mill, it was very impressive. And
that is not just my opinion. Meeting up with the 27 students, a
completely full class, I was blown away by their enthusiasm to
learn and the detail into which they went during the lectures.
In this, the very first class of the AMS 2015, there were 27
students of nine different nationalities from 14 different mills, a
really international group of students. On entering the modern
well equipped classroom for the first time, I was greeted by
Stephan Lutz the teacher, going into some significant detail, and
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6. in the limited time I spent in the classroom,
it was clear the whole group were following
every word of Stephan and asking quite
challenging questions. Being the first
group of students to go through the AMS,
there was an evident sense of pride that
was clearly visible on the students faces,
and being in the fourth week of the first
four week module of the course, there was
immense excitement from the students about
returning to their mill for 8 to 16 weeks so
they could start to implement what they
have learnt before they returned for the
second four week module.
This management of the modules is one
of the fantastic aspects of the whole course.
This is split into six, four-week modules
over a two-year period. In the first year
they will spend, for example, four weeks in
February, May and October covering such
topics as, but not limited to:
• Cereal Science such as cereal varieties
• Grain Intake / Storage such as machines for pre-cleaning, flow
sheets for grain intake/storage and conveyers
• Cleaning covering machines for grain cleaning, tempering and
conditioning of wheat, flow sheets for cleaning all backed up
with daily practical work
• Wheat milling learning about all the machines of a mill and
their respective flow sheets etc
In the second year they will spend, for example, four weeks
in March, June and November covering such topics as but not
limited to:
• Wheat milling which will cover break systems, purification,
sifting and practical work in the mill
• Maize milling learning about cleaning, degermination, flow
sheets and practical work
• Finished product sections covering the machines and handling
finished products
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7. • Quality Control, looking at various methods and practical work
in the laboratory
• Maintenance, learning about preventative and organising
maintenance
Whilst I have not covered every topic covered by the milling
course, you can clearly see how each class will have an intensive
four week module of eight hour days, with a strict one hour lunch
provided onsite with all lessons starting in typical Swiss tradition
– on time.
The mornings are spent in the classrooms, which is where I
first met this inaugural class, after which I enjoyed a relaxing
lunch with them in the Schools Canteen before the class was
split into two for the afternoon activities. Stephan took half of
the group for the practical work in the mill, which as well as
all the aforementioned machinery also includes learning about
conveyors, buckets and silos. Here, I noticed that Bühler had
teamed up with Agromatic and the students were being taught
about making sure buckets were aligned correctly. Unfortunately,
it can be commonplace for buckets to get hot and result in
explosions, so again this focus on preventative measures was
impressive.
I then spent some time with Martin Schlauri in the laboratory
with his half of the group, over the four days I spent in Kenya, it
was immensely clear that teaching in the Lab was what Martin
enjoyed most, it was like watching a conductor of music as
he guided each group of students working on their practical
experiments. And as an independent reporter that has visited
many mills around the globe, it was very impressive to see the
quality of the equipment in the AMS laboratory for the students
to learn on. There was all the latest equipment from companies
such as Perten and Brabender to name but a few.
Martin was quick to point out that he was extremely grateful
to all the companies that had contributed to some of the cost in
supplying AMS with the latest equipment for students to use. On
behalf of Martin, I pass his thanks on to all those companies.
With all the teachers busy and the students learning, I was free
to roam around the school at my own leisure and have included a
number of pictures taken throughout the mill. The whole complex
has space to expand should the need arise, as I wondered around
what in essence was the back garden, there were a number of
special trees, planted in traditional African honour of those key
people that had made the whole AMS project a success.
Whilst the teachers were busy, I met with Jean-Claude Baur,
the regional manager for Bühler East Africa, known more
affectionately to his colleagues as JC. I received from him a
detailed explanation on the economics and ROI that mills would
receive by investing US$4,800 dollars for a member of their
staff to attend this prestigious milling course. It is agreed by all
professionals that a professionally trained miller who has been
taught how to align machinery correctly, analyse data and product
correctly and is able to create and follow a mill flow chart with
optimum efficiency, as well as having the skills to correctly clean
and maintain all the machinery can, as a minimum add a two
percent value to the mill. Therefore imagine this:
- A mill receives 220 tons of grain daily with an 80 percent
conversion being – 220 x 0.8 = 176 tons
- Imagine the mill is operational for 250 days per year, which
would equal – 250 x 176 tons = 44,000 tons
- If the price per ton of corn is $350 the turnover of product
would be – 44,000 tons x $350 = $15,400,000 per year.
- Therefore an uplift of value in 2 percent because of having
a trained miller would add value of $15,400,000 x 2 percent
=$308,000
By anyone’s calculation this makes the investment of US$4,800
per year for two years US$9,600 worthwhile, even if the added
value was only 0.1 percent per year this is still add additional
US$15,400.
I think it is fair to say that it is no surprise that the course for
2016 is filling up very quickly. They will of course join the
returning 27 students from 2015 to complete year two.
As a final note, I would like to thank Martin Schlauri for his
generous time and detailed explanations and for the free pass to
wonder at my own leisure through this very open and transparent
school. And a big thank you to the Bühler Management for
allowing me to gain as a reporter for Milling and Grain, a unique
insight into this wonderful facility.
42 | Milling and Grain
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