FUTURE FACILITY CAPACITY PLANNING

future facility planning

SERVICE AREA:

IMEG partnered with a high-volume light and flagpole manufacturer to conduct a comprehensive facility capacity analysis. The objective was to evaluate work center utilization, optimize production flow, and develop future plant layout recommendations for a 335,000 sq ft facility.

THE PROBLEM

Long lead times due to bottlenecks and poor WIP (Work In Progress) control
High levels of WIP clogging up space without yielding productivity
Misleading production targets created a false sense of work center efficiency, showing over 80% uptime while significant underutilization or overburden persisted
No clear understanding what work centers are overutilized or underutilized
A lack of standardized methods for evaluating capacity and aligning it with projected product demand

work center analysis

THE PLAN

To transform the manufacturing floor into a leaner, more productive space, IMEG deployed a multi-phase capacity planning strategy:

Grouped products based on shared work center usage to streamline workflows
Conducted time studies to gather baseline data for each product group
Developed a comprehensive capacity model using historical and forecasted sales volumes to determine where additional capacity was needed
Calculated ideal WIP levels to sustain throughput and prevent work center starvation or overloading
Created future-state layouts that captured the space requirements for equipment, materials, and support areas, ensuring optimized floor space utilization
Used WIP levels to evaluate and plan facility space allocation

manufacturing capacity model

THE RESULTS

The implementation led to measurable improvements in productivity and facility readiness:

Increased operational efficiency by aligning work center capacity with actual and projected sales volumes
Enhanced layout design that supports smoother material flow, efficient space usage, and better alignment of equipment and resources
Data-driven decision making enabled the client to maintain lean operations and proactively manage future capacity expansions