TAAP Flour Milling Expert – Ethiopia and Tanzania

Opportunity Title:

TAAP Flour Milling Expert – Ethiopia and Tanzania

Short Description:

The consultant will be tasked with assessing the entire production line of identified mills, who have facilities in Ethiopia and Tanzania. In this capacity, the consultant will focus primarily on troubleshooting problematic machinery to provide a potential solution that would address operational inconsistencies, breakdowns, and efficiency bottle necks (First pass quality) as well as provide insights on how best to implement fortification global best practices.

Detailed Description

TechnoServe is seeking proposals from qualified consultants for the following scope of work. For information on timeline, application requirements, and evaluation criteria, please review the full Request for Proposals here. 

TERMS OF REF. – Flour Milling Expert to Conduct Holistic Mill Audit and Food Fortification Needs Assessment 

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS & SCOPE OF WORK

Assignment: The consultant will be tasked with assessing the entire production line of identified mills, who have facilities in Ethiopia and Tanzania. In this capacity, the consultant will focus primarily on troubleshooting problematic machinery to provide a potential solution that would address operational inconsistencies, breakdowns, and efficiency bottle necks (First pass quality) as well as provide insights on how best to implement fortification global best practices.

Location: Ethiopia and Tanzania

Duration: 4 Weeks (20 Working days) / Country

Reporting to: Deputy Program Director, TechnoServe

TechnoServe Background:

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of business and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.

The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development. But they face many challenges: low literacy, lack of access to jobs and markets, unpredictable political dynamics and, increasingly, the effects of climate change. For many women and young people, the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff, people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are amazing…when incomes increase and living conditions for families get better, they are able to access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off.

Program Description:

The first-year phase of the Technical Assistance Accelerator Program (TAAP) investment will lay the foundation for the development of the five-year main grant to increase relevant and sustained large-scale coverage of fortified foods by working with 100 food processors across targeted geographies. Under the initial phase of the TAAP, TechnoServe will develop, implement, and refine the model for the larger TAAP: understanding cross-cutting technical issues at an industry level; establishing a PPP platform; building and managing relationships with private sector partners; and developing scalable tools and program elements. It will also serve as an opportunity to engage critical industry stakeholders to deliver Technical Assistance aimed at not only improving fortification practices but overall production efficiency.

This will be particularly important in geographies such as Ethiopia, that just enacted mandatory fortification standards and Tanzania, where the program is focused on re-engaging processors that were part of TNS’ previous LSFF initiative – Strengthening African Processors of Fortified Foods (SAPFF) Program. The ultimate vision for the TAAP, is a public-private partnership (PPP) with Fortification Partners providing technical assistance (TA) and high-quality inputs to over 100 national food processors per year, helping to close gaps in their motivation and ability to comply with national fortification regulations. The TAAP will focus on 8 countries namely, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan, of which India, Kenya and Nigeria will serve as operational nodes.

This Terms of Reference is for a consultant (referred as “Consultant” herein) to undertake the aforementioned services captured in the above assignment section

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The consultant will be tasked with assessing the entire production line of identified mills, who have facilities in Ethiopia and Tanzania. In this capacity, the consultant will focus primarily on troubleshooting problematic machinery to provide a potential solution that would address operational inconsistencies, breakdowns, and efficiency bottle necks (First pass quality) as well as provide insights on how best to implement fortification global best practices.

The objective of this assignment will be to also analyze the company’s flour milling practices and determine whether the client is adopting the best strategies that will produce the highest yield of finely ground and uniform flour quality and consistency in the least time and most economically. Specifically, this will result in a deep analysis of the following machinery and processes within the mill:

1. Wheat intake
2. Cleaning/separator/aspiration
3. Raw wheat storage silo
4. Scourer
5. Grain washer/dampener
6. Tempering/conditioning silo/
7. Destoner/magnetic separator
8. Milling
9. Sifters
10. Purifiers
11. Conveying system (screw conveyer)
12. Dosifiers and fortification systems
13. Suction trunking
14. Dust collectors
15. Bran and shorts dusters
16. Master sieve
17. Finished product handling, i.e., packing
18. Milling documentation e.g. records
19. Overall plant layout- design and maintenance, optimizing the process and power usage.

DELIVERABLES

The Consultant will carry out the following tasks to achieve the stated objectives in this TOR for Seven (7) wheat milling companies in both Ethiopia and Tanzania (total of 14 across both countries), as needed after the assessment the consultant will arrive on the Five (5) by country for the remaining tasks:

1. Company Assessment: The Consultant will utilize quantitative and qualitative methods for data gathering. Collected data will primarily be based on flour mill visits and interviews with the client (senior management and plant operators). This assessment will be primarily focused on the entire process of flour milling.
2. Identification of Technical bottlenecks: The consultant will identify top technical constraints of the milling facility which might have implications on production efficiency, flour fortification, complying with safety and quality specifications. In order to check if the technical difficulties are linked with external factors (off factory control) or not, the consultant need to triangulate the challenges by conducting a 3 to 5 key informant interviews (KII).
3. Cost-Benefit Analysis: A cost-benefit analysis will be conducted as it relates to flour milling and the potential implications of machinery and system upgrades. The consultant should also take into account the financial value of intangible factors, such as the benefits and costs associated with downtime, staff competency, energy usage, and market-driven demand trends.
4. Development of Execution Plan: Ultimately, the consultant will be responsible for providing solutions to the company in the form of an execution plan. Within this plan, an improved strategy will be formulated as well as the identification of metrics that will be used to monitor general production improvements and increased efficiency.
5. Harnessing opportunities/ next outlooks: to be successful in the aforementioned deliverables as well as to find TAAP’s/TNS’s operating niche, perhaps taking into consideration of the viewpoints highlighted in the below table is helpful.

MILESTONE/REPORTING REQUIREMENT

The following milestones are expected to be completed within the listed period:

All deliverables shall be submitted electronically in editable formats. All photographs or other graphics/figures in the reports will be submitted as separate files.

The submitted assessment report should include at a minimum, the following:

• Review of production parameters and quality standards
• Proposed improvements to process and machinery in detail
• Validation of the capital equipment proposal offered by the vendor including other options that may be more cost-effective
• Proposed changes to operating procedures necessary to achieve the target batch time and quality that can be achieved with the current system as installed.
• Cost implications
• A practical guide on flour production, inclusive of fortification best practices
• Follow-up actions that can be undertaken by the company
• Any other findings

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The following weighting and points will be assigned to the proposal for evaluation purposes

TechnoServe reserves the right to award the contract to the organization whose proposal is deemed to be in the best interest of TechnoServe and the Donor.

The Consultant with the winning proposal will be notified in writing. Those who were not selected may or may not be notified, at the sole discretion of TechnoServe.