The origin of RimoMalt
The story of RimoMalt begins where others go on vacation. And where Johannes Kolb, Sales Manager Malting & Brewing, asked himself a question that could hardly be more in tune with today’s spirit and the customers' perspective in malting.
Kerstin Rosner, June 1, 2021
The year is 2019, when preparations for the Bühler Networking Days are in their final stages in August in Uzwil, Switzerland. Johannes uses the days between the “Inspire our People” event and the big customer event to go hiking in the beautiful Appenzell mountains. “In the process, I couldn’t stop thinking about one thing: We call ourselves the number one malting plant supplier, but we only have large malting plants.” Especially for medium-sized and smaller companies, Bühler is not an option at this point – and this in a strongly growing craft market.
This was the starting point for RimoMalt. The topic never left Johannes’ mind. “I had to keep thinking about what the ideal solution for smaller batch sizes would be and how it could be implemented.” This solution should be affordable and efficient, so that it would be able to cope with all requirements. And more than that: ideally, it should be able to grow with the customer's requirements and be as sustainable as possible.
Sustainability was the basic idea behind the product. After all, huge quantities of grain are currently transported around the world, whereas malt could also be produced directly where it is needed, and barley usually grows anyway. This regionality is an important approach when it comes to saving energy and CO2. Unnecessary transport routes can be avoided, which is not only good for the environment but usually also saves costs.
Johannes approached Aryna Jelinek, Project Engineer Mechanical, with his rough first draft as early as the beginning of September. The working title of the malting solution at the time: CraMa (Craft Malting). Aryna immediately began to work on the 3D designs. “Johannes was on fire. He was on his way to vacation in Tuscany when he sent me photos of his hand-drawn designs from the road,” she says. “We were at Castel del Piano in Tuscany when my girlfriend Sandra helped me put my ideas on paper. Based on that, I presented my idea to our Intellectual Property Manager Marion Michel. She was thrilled with the prototype Sandra made for me,” says Johannes.
As a result, things moved quickly. Manuel Kindle, Head of Malting and Brewing, and Reto Rechsteiner, Head of Business Excellence, got involved in October 2019. At the beginning of November, the new concept was presented to Mike Häfeli, Head of Grain Quality & Supply. The patent for the new solution was drawn up in December 2019 and filed with the European Patent Office on February 13, 2020. This was the only way to ensure protection of the RimoMalt concept. To start the M2M process at the end of January, among other things, a business plan and specifications were created.
In March 2020, Karl Jelinek, Lead Quotation Engineer, became part of the big journey. The team created sales documents and requested supplier parts. The latter are important for the price and delivery time calculation.
Finally, the only thing missing was a product name. The working title CraMa was easy to remember, but difficult to communicate internationally. Manuel Kindle, Johannes Kolb, and the GQ marketing team discussed a wide variety of ideas during numerous meetings. The decision was made in favor of mountain names for all future malting and brewing products.
“There are many reasons for this,” says Manuel. “We are at the forefront of innovation and sustainability, virtually at the summit. Sometimes the path for customers to a solution is not clear and easy, but we have the knowledge and experience to navigate them safely to the top. And like mountains that have stood for thousands of years, our products are durable and made to last.” From several name suggestions, the team decided on Rimo. Rimo is a mountain range in India that also consists of six individual Rimo mountains (Rimo I - Rimo VI) – the perfect metaphor for the modularity of the solution. RimoMalt was born.
“Another milestone was the Conception Workshop in July 2020,” recalls Johannes. The workshop lasted two days and was based on the FMEA concept. FMEA stands for Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. It is the process of reviewing as many components, assemblies, and subsystems as possible within a new product to identify potential failure modes in a system and their causes and effects.
“We want to ensure that the RimoMalt is the best craft malting solution on the market,” explains Johannes. Therefore, since the workshop until today, there are bi-weekly FMEA expert meetings to optimize RimoMalt. The team consists of Robert Harrer, Team Manager Project Execution, Franz Götz, Key Account and Relationship Manager, Berthold Klee, Head of Technology, Dominik Weber, Process Technology, Florian Müller, Project Manager, Florian Stöckl, Electrical Engineer Automation R&D, Marc Helmers, Product Manager, and Johannes Kolb.
While the development and optimization of RimoMalt was in full swing, the big launch on March 23, 2021, was already planned for the Bühler Virtual World. In the Bühler Virtual World, customers can easily explore the modularity of the system. Johannes Kolb himself presented the solution and took potential customers and interested parties on a tour of the first virtual RimoMalt.
Just one month later, the Malting & Brewing business unit announced its first success on the market. Regiomalz AG, a start-up from the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland, signed a Letter of Intent with Bühler. The four young men want to build the first RimoMalt.
Detailed plans for the realization of the Regiomalz AG project are already underway. According to Manuel, Bühler is a development partner of Regiomalz: “This means that we help the start-up with know-how and plant expertise, but in return we are allowed to use this project as a reference plant and show it to other interested customers.” And so, in less than two years of development, the idea on paper will soon be turned into a real product that will enrich the malting industry worldwide.
Gupfenstrasse 5
Uzwil
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