How important can a site or location of construction be for factory? Well answer is yes. When technically looking – there is need to follow certain criteria required for site selection and it positively helps the manufacturing unit in various ways. Selection of suitable site for constructing a new manufacturing unit can be quite complicated due to factors such as location, climatic condition, soil type, utility availability, manpower availability and ease of constructability.
Selection Criteria for food facility
For selection parameter, certain parameter or factors might be more important than others but all major and minor points need to be kept in mind for selection. Below are the few points that shall help understanding the selection criteria.
Local Geography- Geographical area is important as different area abides to different government regulations, which can be strict at one and flexible at another, hence having knowledge and updated data shall help. If the process involves of high-water usage and draining, it is important to check the drainage facility of the local area and related laws and if they it fits in the requirements.
Daily Operations- It includes raw material incoming and finished goods outgoing from the facility. It is required to lay down few questions before constructing the facility at certain area- the most important being the source of raw material and the targeted market for finished goods. Does that require access to interstate or other country movement and what sort of transportation mode is, also to be defined, whether it will be road, rail, air, or water.
Utility and water availability and cost- Having your utility matrix ready at time of site selection helps. During site selection one just need to check the if the area will be able to suffice the needs of electricity, water and others and its availability. One should focus on reducing the cost incurred on getting utilities to facility.
Distance to Resources- Developing and having strategic matrix for minimizing the transportation cost, by being at the hub of supply chain and raw material supply source.
Environmental Issue-
- It is crucial to understand the nearby area for any environmental issues. 1. There should be no garbage dump area in the nearby vicinity of facility as t shall attract rodents, pest, and flies to the facility.
- Other Industry- In case the location has nearby industry, it shall be important to understand their chemical discharge, effluent discharge, and quality of air. Reason being chemical or effluent if consist of hazardous material, might contaminate the soil and water of the area that will indirectly affect the quality of the product being processed in your facility. Pollutant air being released will also affect the finished good product quality.
Labor cost and quality- Technology has profoundly emerged with using fully automatic plant with less human intervention for constant quality product, but still there are many factories that are depend on skillful workers for processing. Having skillful workers in the vicinity area of facility would add on the purpose.
In Food industry the supply uncertainty of raw material is extremely high, as they are dependent on factors such as season and site of production hence the best proposed location is always where risk can be reduced and mitigate risk.
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