Plant facility and equipment planning

The standard requires plant layouts to minimize material travel and handling, synchronize material flow, and optimize value added use of floor space and to use a multidisciplinary approach for developing plant facility and equipment plans. 

For some types of production, the facility housing the equipment and machinery needed to create, move, and store product has to be designed. The pathways for raw materials and semi-finished product need to be thought out and the gangways for staff movement need careful planning to prevent hazard. 

You should develop a documented procedure for the facility planning activity that will ensure the provision of adequate information on which to base plant design decisions. The procedures should provide for a separate development plan with allocation of responsibilities for the various tasks to be undertaken and should cover the layout, specification, procurement, installation, and commissioning of the new or revised plant. 

The standard requires the supplier to develop methods for evaluating the effectiveness of existing operations and recommends appropriate metrics are identified and defined. 

Your procedures should detail your plant evaluation methods and require consideration to be given to the overall plan of the plant, automation, ergonomics, operator and line balance, inventory levels, and value added labor content. Reports of the evaluation should be required so that they facilitate analysis by management and auditors. 

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