Great Project but Limited Budget

What are your options when the budget does not match the plant you would like to have.

My first reaction: Ask a number of questions.

• Will capital budget be available in the future to allocate to the plant.
• What does the business require today in output capacity.
• What will the business require in the future, 5 and 10 years ahead.

It is important not to be tempted into building a plant that is on paper fantastic, fully automated supplied by a bespoke engineering company manufacturing and supplying all component parts. Why is this in my opinion the wrong way to go.

• The supplier is providing you a plant for today within the very limited budget. All parts will be sized for today, sizing of components will minimised just to meet your current requirements. Increasing capacity in the future will be sacrificed as available space for larger feed equipment will most likely not be available. The mixer may be under sized, it may be difficult to clean for product change over as the lowest cost version was supplied. The packing line may not be expandable, the list of issues would be endless.

My recommended option is to take the 10 year forecast and sit down with the plant supplier ask them to provide a design that is fully automated and meets the 10 year capacity forecast. However be honest and explain the limitations of the budget and that you see the plant growing over time. Once you have the budget cost of the fully automated plant at the 10 year capacity you can start to delete what is not required today but can be added later.

• Examples are: the packing line your options, remove the palletiser, reduce the number of packing heads choose a model that can be added to. Today you only require one packing head but eventually it is easy to add up to 4. Limit the number of raw materials in silos but ensure you leave room for future silos to be added as per the design. All minor ingredients will be also manual but the concept for future automation through bin systems should be given the space for this addition at a later date.
• Ensure your electric cabinets are sized with the future expansion as there will be only a small difference in cost. On the automation side ensure this is easily expandable without serious intervention, this is a difficult area but you do not want to be forced into replacing the whole PLC.

These are only a few pointers of how at MMP (My Manufacturing Plant) we approach plant design and budget alignment with our customers and plant suppliers. Contact us and lets discuss your project sales@mymanufacturingplant.com