The Get Started Guide to Factory Planning: Where to Start
You’re planning to build a new facility from the ground up and you know you need an experienced design team. The right designers support your operation team, working together to achieve your goal of a new state-of-the-art facility.
When it comes to factory planning, the emphasis is on one thing:
Planning.
Every piece and process integrates, so the details matter as much as the whole picture. How well you plan the steps and prepare for possible contingencies matters.
The #1 goal is to design a facility that answers all your production processes.
It’s also not a job to try to undertake on your own.
Factory planning takes a team, and hiring the right one is crucial to the project’s success.
But as the head of the planning operations, you still need to know what to expect during the process.
This guide walks you through each aspect, from the beginning designs to compliance and regulations.
Exploring what you’re getting into before you get started makes the whole process of factory planning a little less complex.
1. Factory Planning Essentials
Your finished factory has to be equal parts accessible and safe. It’s designed around your specific product flow, production lines, material handling, product packaging, and shipping and receiving.
Along the way, the planning and action processes must be efficient. Otherwise, you’ll end up off schedule more than you’re on.
The team you choose to help you goes a long way in the productivity you see. But if you don’t know what to expect, it’s harder to make sure they’re on target.
The planning stage is where you design the steps intended to optimize and reach the goal through cost-saving measures.
What Goes Into Planning?
You have a vision in mind, but the methods to get there might not be as simple — or as complicated — as you think.
In your industry, you’re familiar with the concept of production planning. It’s how you use your resources effectively, from the employees and their activities to the materials available. The better you allocate these resources, the more cost- and time-efficient the plan is.
The same idea applies to factory planning.
Unless you take a holistic view of the process, you might get to the end result, but it won’t be an efficient journey.
Making the Planning Process Easier With Experts
The team of architects you work with can make the picture of factory design that much clearer. What you envision as the next step could mean many mini-steps to get there.
After initiating new factory blueprints, you'll consider factors like these:
Choosing a site
Choosing a building construction type to accommodate things like required building heights, structural bay spacing, and other layout needs specific to your factory
Integrating regulatory requirements into the planning stage
Establishing support space needs
The aspect of visualization can be complex.
You’re taking an image out of your head and instilling it into the minds of architects. That's why it's essential to go through the planning process together and one step at a time. It ensures you're all on the same page with the results before too much work is complete on the project.
Are you looking to set your factory planning off on the right foot? Let’s talk about your upcoming project.
2. Layout Planning Options
After choosing, evaluating, and approving the site for commercial use, the next part of planning is deciding the layout.
Since many options are available, the key to choosing the right one is to think about how you’ll use the production facilities.
What is your factory targeting?
What will your manufacturing process look like, including material flow and production processes?
The answers to those questions will aid in decision-making and improve the value stream of your business. With the preferred layout strategically chosen in the factory planning process, the essentials are accessible.
The Three Most Popular Layouts
Your building will be unique to your vision, of course.
Yet, there are three typical layouts that project managers choose from as a guideline:
Process Layout
A process layout emphasizes the use of each part of the manufacturing process over the style of the building. For example, everything needed to cut into walls, drill, and run wires is in one central area on the shop floor.
Using the process engineer’s or in-house facility operations manager equipment flow layout, the architect will establish the building plan.
Cell (Block) Layout
When the reason for the factory involves a lot of maneuvering, a cell layout — also called a block layout — is often the preferred option.
With this layout, a predetermined factor is a focal point. The design revolves around that factor to move from a cell to the resource area and then either back to the original cell or over to new modules.
The effect: streamlined workflow.
Product Layout
The third option, product layout, switches the main focus of the factory planning project to the equipment. The machines and equipment come first, and the product follows the machinery.
This factory structure controls where the product is at any given time, like an assembly line process. It works for manufacturing companies with similar production systems and process sequences.
Within each layout, the final design should include a few extra focuses. That includes automation, technology, sustainability, and efficient use of space.
3. Regulatory & Corporate Compliance
Compliance in all planning phases is vital. One accusation of non-compliance can halt or reverse your factory’s progress.
Corporate and regulatory compliance requirements are necessary for various reasons. For one, it ensures every operating manufacturer is meeting or exceeding specific standards.
Every business must follow regulatory and corporate compliance measures. Of course, they’re distinctly different, but each has its own value.
What Does Regulatory Compliance Cover?
Regulatory compliance involves various federal, state, and international laws and regulations. These vary based on the factory’s operations and the industry involved.
For instance, take a factory that involves toxic or flammable chemicals. This type of factory will face a higher level of regulations than one that produces personal care products.
What Does Corporate Compliance Cover?
Outside of government requirements lies the level of corporate compliance. In this area, a company looks at how its factory planning process includes its internal policies and procedures.
Consider a manufacturing business focused on sustainable living.
The project manager would take extra precautions in the architectural design phase. They'd make sure it uses only those processes and raw materials to comply with the company’s internal regulations.
In general, regulatory compliance is mandatory by local, state, and federal laws that govern the company’s industry. Corporate compliance involves following those laws and the company’s self-imposed regulations.
Examples of regulated categories include how a company protects its data, handles exports, and handles employment practices.
Some of the policies are at the federal level, although a company can enact stricter guidelines.
Common Regulatory Agencies
Throughout your planning data stages, you’ll come into contact with several regulatory agencies. Your team of architects and construction project managers is in charge of meeting regulations.
Yet, you should know the main acronyms and the categories each one regulates:
OSHA
The U.S. Department of Labor regulates workplaces via the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA’s laws are in place to ensure all workers have safe, healthful working conditions.
HACCP
Short for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, this agency addresses food safety. It’s part of the integral process for any business that deals with food products.
FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates food, drugs, biological processes, medical devices, beauty products, and many more categories.
Permits & Licenses
On top of compliance with all the regulatory agencies, you’ll also need permits and licenses. Depending on the purpose of the factory, the planning process includes knowing which licenses and permits you must have.
Some of these are blanket requirements for any business, such as a city or county business operation license and a state and federal EIN. Zoning and land use permits, sales tax licenses, and health department permits are among this growing list.
Industry-specific federal requirements are necessary for drug, tobacco, alcohol, or firearms manufacturing.
4. Hiring an Architect
Out of everyone you hire, the design architect is who you’ll work with the most closely. This person or team will take your dream vision and turn it into a reality.
The design architect puts the planning into place then sets it in motion.
Finding a team that can see your vision and help you ramp up the final outcome counts. Since every architect essentially does the job of turning a 2D blueprint into a physical structure, the key is to look at their style.
Are they able to articulate the vision you have?
Do they understand your goals?
Will they meet your timeline?
An architectural firm with a systematic method already in place makes the process more efficient. Instead of waiting for someone to figure out what happens next in the schedule, there’s a team ready to work on your factory.
5. Other Aspects to Consider
Let’s look at two more things to consider.
Choosing an Architect Team
This is where you’ll find that no two architects are the same.
Everyone has a unique style and process for how they approach design. Methodologies vary, as do communication styles.
Schedule a meeting with a professional design architect team in your area, like ZP Architect in Denver. Before hiring someone, let them know your ideas and listen to their responses.
You’ve chosen the ideal factory building layout to maximize the lead time of product development and ease the workflow. You’ve also considered the best ways to avoid bottlenecks and add value to the design process.
Even more, you’ve met with and hired an expert architect who understands your factory concept.
You’re well on your way but not ready to break ground quite yet.
The Finishing Touches
The lifecycle of factory planning has several other layers, as well.
The architectural team provides the map to get to the finished product.
A construction manager or general contractor will turn the concept into reality.
The contractor works in tandem with the architectural team. Together, they discuss feasibility, deadlines, milestones, and budgets. The project may also need special equipment before or during the construction.
Another factor to consider is whether you may want a possible expansion in your future. If so, the architectural design team can give you suggestions on setting up this structure to make a buildout easier and less expensive in the future.
The team you choose to use should establish each phase of the process optimally and with adaptability. If you’ve overlooked something, it’s their job to point it out and include it in the planning operations.
Conclusion
Achieving a state-of-the-art factory that satisfies your specific design criteria is the primary goal. To reach it, you need a thorough design process with an experienced design team when you’re building a factory.
That’s why an intensive planning process that takes more time is how you end up with a project that stays on schedule and close to the estimated cost.
An expert team like ZP Architects and Engineers — based in the Colorado area — will see your vision and develop it into a buildable factory design, manage regulation requirements, and advise you each step of the way.
Let’s chat about your upcoming factory project!
