Plant Design Consultants
New Plant Design - Take a truly fresh perspective!
When building a new plant, introducing a new type of product, or embarking on a significant change to your manufacturing process, you get the unique opportunity to start with a blank page. Our recommendation is to take a cross-functional systems approach to planning your new plant design. Design it to integrate seamlessly into your overall customer order fulfillment process.
The planning stage is the time to expand your options:
Take a systems approach to manufacturing operations.
Consider various manufacturing methods: workcell, assembly line, batch or continuous processing, degree of automation, etc.
Develop layouts from several different perspectives: ideal, least disruptive, economical (initial and full life ownership costs), most flexible and adaptive, etc.
Challenge limitations and constraints.
Include data collection and information flow into the process.
Identify compatible material handling methods.
Provide for testing, inspection, maintenance, storage, and retrieval systems activities.
Incorporate logistics, receiving, WIP supermarkets, and shipping storage requirements.
Include safety and security considerations into the design.
Provide for organizational objectives (i.e. accommodating visitor access to manufacturing areas).
Our plant design consultants use several tools to assist in the plant layout design phase such as: process mapping, value stream mapping, spaghetti charts, simulation modeling, etc. Many organizations find it economical to utilize outside consultants who bring these specialized capabilities to complement their in-house staff during such significant major projects.