Article
The 9 Guiding Principles for New Factory Design
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Setting up a new factory or layout is a complex project with multiple teams, service providers and vendors involved throughout its design & installation. Setting up a newer facility is an experience filled with excitement and challenges, along with a chance to explore new methods, operational strategies, automation & technology and to make it a benchmark facility for the industry.
The two broadly classified factory design projects are The Greenfield projects – where the plant is set up on an empty plot of land and The Brownfield project – which are typically expansion-related projects with an objective to improve capacity. Brownfield projects are more likely to be faced with constraints and challenges of material movement, pre-built structures, and adherence to existing operations. A third category of Plant re-design projects involves re-designing the existing layout of a few selected departments, typically to improve the overall efficiency or involving a change in production methodology.
At &diligence, our experts have years of experience being in charge of and part of teams designing and installing state of art factories. We have put together 9 important guiding principles, followed by our team during a new Factory design and installation.
1. Ensure there are clearly defined Objectives, Deliverables and a Wishlist for the new factory.
As management, setting a quantifiable objective for your team and service providers ensures a credible measurement metric of the efficiency of the design. Objectives should include metrics like increase in y-o-y capacity, target improvement in productivity, quality, overheads, and overall operational ratios to be achieved.
While quantifiable measures can be used to measure efficiency, qualitative objectives can include the level of automation, people engagement, safety levels, traffic and flow of man & material, and overall aesthetics.
Deliverables are resources and documents required to ensure the factory design and actual built structure are the same (or as close to each other as possible). Well-defined deliverables ensure higher overall efficiency and a significant reduction in non-value-adding details. These deliverables are typically be restricted to the final approved CAD drawing along with the finalized operational report.
Wishlist. While it’s more of a good to have feature of the layout, it can become a must-have as the design and operational setup progresses over time. A Greenfield / Brownfield facility’s primary objective is to go beyond the current demand and fulfill the requirements and demands of the future. This can mean the introduction of new products, technology, automation, and concepts. Hence, foreseeing this in the new factory and making available the right space and provisions for these Wishlists becomes a necessity.
2. Appoint an APEX Council & Sponsors to set expectations and budgets; Project Champion to manage the project; Service Providers & Suppliers, make up the team composition.
A new factory, expansion, or layout-related projects require major strategic decisions to be taken across various levels and departments. The decisions taken will have a long-term impact on the operations of the new layout. The below chart can broadly classify the teams involved in the project. A seamless communication channel is a must across these various stakeholders in order to eliminate any potential miscommunication.
3. Understand the products, whether existing or completely new.
While it is expected the Project Owners, Sponsors, and the senior management have good knowledge of the existing and the new products, very little access, and effort is put in by service providers and suppliers in understanding the products. In order to avoid siloed thinking, time and efforts have to be spent explaining to service providers and suppliers alike about the current and future product lines in order to have a more inclusive project execution. Having a limited number of channels to deal with definitely helps in streamlining and having effective communication to ensure all project members are on the same page.
At &diligence, we have been building a network of subject matter experts and vendors to tackle this very inefficiency. Becoming that single-source service provider that lowers the number of channel communication and constant on & off project knowledge sharing ensures not only a good experience for the project owners & managements but also great new ideas project to project.
4. Plan for a Flexible/Modular layout design. This way, budgets can be planned as operations scale.
The everchanging world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA World) demands that the management must seek new orientations and take a fresh approach to the present and future needs of the business. The automobile sector has rapidly grown from having less than 10 segments before the 2000s to close to 20 segments in just 20(+) years with EV being a different class altogether with its own segment line up. The consumer electronics lifecycle has dropped from initially being 40+ years to an average of 4-5 years. This hi-pace changing product lifecycle commands an equally flexible operations system to incorporate innovations, sustenance, and even obsolescence. Along with the product projections, the layout design should include a y-o-y growth plan in order to balance Capex and Opex along with its returns. Thus, analyzing the past and future trends of the products, factory layouts must be designed to absorb this variability.
5. Question Everything.
A greenfield/brownfield project is an empty canvas, where questioning everything has to be encouraged. You are looking to push the boundary way beyond the existing norms of operation through automation & technology, culture, investments, and products. Questioning processes having the smallest impact should be welcomed and a more effective solution should be integrated. Questioning the current basic manufacturing operations involving information flow, decision-making process & hierarchy will yield noteworthy results, which ultimately leads to a more efficient working environment.
6. Design cannot be looked at in Silos.
Once the concept designs are ready, constant reviews with the architectural, layout, equipment, and interior team would give everyone the idea of what design must be incorporated to fit them. A weekly interaction between these teams would ensure everyone is working in the same direction and any objections could be mutually discussed with the client being the main decision-maker. This also ensures that everyone is on the same plane from the beginning. Documenting these reviews in the form of MOM’s and sharing it with all partners ensures no missed communication.
7. Create a Manual the Team has access to, to answer any and every question during the design & build process.
Creating one universal document that all parties refer to and updates critical details of the project ensures no missed information and communication blocks. The project owner is the ‘owner’ of the document and is responsible for updating and sharing its information with the required stakeholders.
At &diligence, our Functional Specification Document (FSD) is that manual that includes all important data points from our Architect partners, Layout specialists, Operations specialists, equipment suppliers, and in-depth details on how every part of the manufacturing facility would have to function once it goes live. CAD designs, 3D CAD designs, Manufacturing lines, manpower deployment, TAKT & Cycle times, complete Lean Analysis, proposed capacity, proposed productivity levels, SKU selection, machinery & equipment, automation design to name a few.
8. Visualize the factory.
While a 2D CAD of the new factory project is a base level design to map space and general fitment of man, machine & material, visualization of the project goes beyond that. A step ahead of creating a static 3D CAD version of the factory is a simulation of the factory. Not only does this help visualize factory operation, but it can provide key insights into new system performance, new equipment performance, and predictive analysis on plant performance. Since we are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, creating a Virtual Reality walk-through of the factory creates an immersive experience to the factory’s design and any design flaws that could be rectified.
9. Lastly, it’s 2021, Lean Layout is a given, It’s the future everyone’s interested in.
Ensuring Greenfield/Brownfield projects or any layout design project should follow Lean principles, is already the norm. Factory teams or service providers designing these factories should be knowledgeable about how a Lean layout must be designed and follow its principles without it being an explicit requirement from the stakeholders.
Building a future-proof, data-driven facility will always yield higher results than any other change management-related project. A data-driven facility with smart technologies can provide a historical data map of the operational matrix, and thus aid in taking strategic decisions. This also ensures lower CAPEX investments to stay up to date or “with the current trend”.
The role of external consultants here becomes predominant in nominating industry-leading technology solutions and newer concepts due to their expertise and experience in this field.
From the above guidelines, one understands that an effective layout design has the influence of various parameters to make it efficient, cost-effective & futuristic, and going beyond the traditional components of lean principles.
At &diligence, our team is experienced in identifying the input parameters, designing and executing the layout projects keeping the above guidelines as a framework. Our clients have benefitted from higher productivity levels, cost-saving, efficient automation designs, and adherence to project timelines compared to their existing plans or factories.
We encourage you to engage with us for an open discussion on your layout-related experience or if you have a requirement.
