F CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY
European quality standards in the heart of Africa Mark Wild, Sales Manager at Fawema, talks to Milling and Grain about a project in Kenya, that aims to have exactly the same high standards of efficiency, safety, hygiene, food-quality and equipment automation, as any mill in Europe or beyond
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icture this: Night has fallen in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya. The crickets are chirping in the acacia trees, the heady perfume of exotic foods being cooked over open fires fills the hot, humid, East African air, the chaotic daytime traffic has finally subsided and peace gradually descends on the dusty city. Suddenly the silence is broken by the shrill sound of a car horn. A taxi has pulled up at an anonymous gate on an equally nondescript plot of land close to the harbour, and a suspicious night watchman tentatively opens the gate to enquire who on earth is asking permission to enter at this late hour. Access is granted and the taxi slowly drives in. The plot is shrouded in almost total darkness, the long grass wildly overgrown and the sounds of nocturnal animals and grass snakes scattering in panic to avoid the approaching vehicle can be heard all around. A dim light powered by a small, spluttering generator shines out from a portacabin office which is nestled in the furthest corner of the overgrown field and inside, busily working at a laptop computer, sits a man who is about to enlighten me with a truly fantastic vision. The person in question is Munir Thabit, 54 years of age and a native son of Mombasa. As I take my seat at the desk, Munir looks me straight in the eye and confidently announces that what is about to commence the very next day on that desolate and weed-ridden parcel of land, would eventually result in a flour mill, here in the heart of Africa, that would have exactly the same high standards of efficiency, safety, hygiene, food-quality and equipment automation, as any mill in Europe or beyond. I let Munir's words sink in for a few moments while I gaze out from the office window into the darkness of the Mombasa night. Something suddenly clicks in my head, the sheer determination and conviction in Munir´s voice tells me that he´s the real deal. I turn towards him and say, …… “tell me more”. That first memorable, and almost surreal meeting, provided the foundation for what has developed into a solid and successful working relationship and today, in August 2017, Grain Industries Limited is up and running and producing top quality wheat flour, 96 | September 2017 - Milling and Grain
much of which is then packed into retail paper bag sizes of 500 grammes, one kilogramme and two kilogrammes, on state-ofthe-art Fawema servo-drive packing machines. The new mill dominates the skyline and is both imposing and majestic. Munir´s vision has come to life. Grain Industries Limited made the decision from the outset to select premium quality in each and every aspect of the new business. The main contractor was GERICO of France and the milling equipment selected was from Buhler of Switzerland. With a daily capacity of 750 metric tonnes per day, the plan was to pack 550 tonnes of home baking flour per day into retail sizes and Fawema of Germany was chosen to supply the packing machines for the small, retail packs. Munir explained, “We had a very clear vision for this project. We wanted to create a mill, which was on a par, if not better, in terms of quality, efficiency and safety with any plant either in Europe or elsewhere. To achieve this, we knew that we had to select the right partners and because the majority of the flour would be destined for the retail market, we absolutely had to ensure that our packaging section was equipped with the finest machinery that money could buy. The decision to choose Fawema was an easy one. They have supplied flour-packing lines to almost all of the mills in East Africa and have decades of experience in the field of flour packing. Furthermore, they recently established a branch office in Nairobi with service personnel who are Fawema-trained in Germany”. The Fawema packing lines installed are of the latest generation type FA217 which function using servo-drive technology. They are efficient, easy to operate, require very little maintenance and they are able to deliver the high output targets required on a daily basis on a three shift continual schedule. Each of the lines (there are 5 in total) is fitted with a check-weighing device. This ensures that if there is any change in product density which subsequently might affect weight accuracy, the device will automatically detect the erroneous weight, reject the bag from the system if it falls outside of legal weight limits and at the same time automatically adjust the filler on the packing machine to guarantee correct weights on the next bags being packed. At the end of each packing line there is a 'baling station' where the individual bags are automatically grouped into bales of either