1. COLUMN BY | MICHAEL D. VERDIER
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2. One critical area often overlooked
when increasing and expanding
manufacturing capacity is in the
approach to facility design and
construction execution. To remain
competitive, leaders of manufactur-
ing operations, particularly compa-
nies that are growing, must make a
shift from the traditional one-off
project-to-project execution ap-
proach to a more thoughtful and
strategic facility design and expan-
sion approach. Appointing a team to
study and define facility design re-
quirements such as, equipment gen-
eral arrangements, location control
plans, column spacing, roof slopes,
building clear heights or even room
lighting levels on one project, only
to have these design requirements
studied again on a subsequent proj-
ect is neither time- nor cost- effec-
tive. In addition, this is a significant
productivity loss for talented mem-
bers of an organization.
But what if there was an alternative
that allowed a business to grow while
simultaneously increasing organiza-
tional productivity, reducing the cost
of capacity expansion and acceler-
ating schedule without compromis-
ing quality or safety? Manufacturing
plantstandardization(MPS)provides
a proven and effective solution.
What is Manufacturing
Plant Standardization?
MPS is a design methodology that,
guided by a company’s short- and
long-term business and capacity
growth strategy, combined with
future innovation and automation
plans, seeks to define and document
a best-in-class global manufactur-
ing facility design. Once achieved,
the result is a design that is repeat-
able, scalable and capable of being
executed globally.
Commitment to MPS becomes
a key enabler and strategic advan-
tage to rapid global expansion and
growth where resources are limited,
facility expansion costs are high and
material and equipment lead times
are lengthy. When properly imple-
mented, an MPS strategy conscious-
ly drives repeatability and predict-
ability in design, building material
and equipment sourcing plans, cap-
ital spending, construction execu-
tion plans and execution schedules
not possible with a traditional one-
off manufacturing plant design ap-
proach. Overall, the adoption of an
MPS strategy significantly helps in
delivering productivity, cost and
speed-to-market objectives.
Increased productivity
By avoiding the need to staff every
capacity project with internal sub-
ject-matter experts, MPS increases
productivity. A one-time invest-
ment of assigning the most talented,
knowledgeable and experienced re-
sources within an organization on a
lead project to define and document
the operational, process, logistics
and design requirements in a glob-
al manufacturing plant standard
(GMPS) releases those resources to
focus on other corporate priorities
in the future. Once documented,
the GMPS becomes the basis for all
future capacity expansion projects,
whether expanding an existing facil-
ity or a new Greenfield site.
Absent a GMPS, every project
and project team is burdened with
studying, defining and gaining con-
currence to operational, process,
logistic and design requirements,
essentially repeatedly starting from
the conceptual phase. This outdated
approach inevitably leads to differ-
ent and non-standard global solu-
tions on each project, resulting in
varying degrees of operational and
project delivery success.
Cost reduction
Along with increased productiv-
ity, a business’s commitment to
an MPS-design strategy creates
opportunities to significantly re-
duce costs throughout all phases of
project execution not possible with
non-MPS execution approaches.
astrategyfordeliveringproductivity,
costandspeed-to-marketobjectives
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Faced with fierce market competition, the success or failure of
any manufacturing business is often dependent on strategy and
follow-through to achieve breakthroughs in productivity improve-
ment, cost reductions and beating the competition to the market-
place. To achieve these objectives requires intense scrutiny and
strategic planning throughout all stages of product development
and delivery.
MICHAEL D. VERDIER | COLUMN BY
ManufacturingPlant
Standardization:TECHNOLOGY
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 manufacturing-today.com 13

3. COLUMN BY | MICHAEL D. VERDIER
The following tips outline three of
the virtually limitless opportunities
for cost reduction.
1. Saves in architectural and engi-
neering (A/E) design consulting
fees. When an MPS strategy is
employed and best-in-class fa-
cility design is captured within a
GMPS, subsequent projects and
their respective design-con-
sulting professionals are no
longer burdened with defining
the building, facility and util-
ity design requirements. Also
avoided is the task of diverging
and converging on design con-
cepts and possible solutions
that form part of each project’s
concept phase. Rather, project
teams and their design consul-
tants are able to take advantage
of standardized design require-
ments and can reapply design
drawings and specifications and
coordinated multi-discipline 3D
Building Information Models
(BIM). Creating the possibility
to reapply design deliverables
project-to-project offers the
ability to not only reduce design
consulting fees but also com-
press the schedule of the front
end design phases.
2. Increases a company’s ability
to leverage scale and negotiate
quantity discounts. Once estab-
lished, a GMPS opens the door
for opportunities to leverage
scale on multiple levels not least
of which is in the procurement
of building materials, central
and process utility equipment
and even production equip-
ment. Having standardized
production facilities empowers
14 manufacturing-today.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
TECHNOLOGY
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4. businesses to be forward think-
ing in bundling material and
equipment orders to achieve
quantity discounts. Armed with
the knowledge and confidence
that a compressor, chiller or
other standardized equipment
can be purchased and allocat-
ed to any MPS facility, be in-
stalled in the same location, on
the same centerlines and with a
vertical start-up is tremendous.
Further, predictability in facili-
ty design allows reallocation of
valuable equipment assets from
one facility to another. Along
with the potential saving of
hundreds of thousands or mil-
lions of dollars on capital equip-
ment, this approach allows for a
swifter response to unexpected
capacity increase demands and
the ability to replace damaged
equipment without long equip-
ment delivery lead times.
3. Reduces the need for full-time
equivalent resources appointed
to carry out the feasibility, con-
ceptual and definition phases
of each project. With MPS as
the global standard and basis
for each new project, project
teams are smaller. Time com-
mitment to make design de-
cisions and execute projects
is also reduced by virtually
eliminating the feasibility and
concept design phases and en-
abling an abbreviated defini-
tion phase followed swiftly by
detailed design. The result is
a significantly compressed de-
sign execution schedule.
Speed-to-Market
Increased productivity and cost sav-
ings, while critical to a business’s
success, are no longer sufficient
on their own to succeed in a global
market economy, where delays in
launching a new product or failing
to fulfill customer orders can result
in long-term loss of sales, profit and
market share. When leading a facil-
ity expansion to meet challenging
start of production dates, a prior
investment in MPS not only creates
schedule acceleration opportunities
during design but also during prop-
erty search, acquisition initiatives
andconstructionexecution.
Building, utility and site require-
ments defined within a GMPS be-
come the property and infrastruc-
ture search criteria. This process
allows property search activities to
begin much earlier and facilitates
swift decisions on which properties
to discard and which ones should
progress into a due diligence phase.
Freedom from dependency on com-
pleting detailed site and facility
master planning as a prerequisite to
property search creates an opportu-
nity to finalize the property acqui-
sition sooner and move the start of
site construction activities to the
left on the execution schedule.
Schedule advantages realized by
a global standard repeatable design
extend into virtually every aspect
of construction execution. Begin-
ning with construction supplier
pre-qualification and continuing
with long-lead equipment or build-
ing material procurement, develop-
ment of modularization and pre-as-
sembly strategies and continuing
through to development of build-
ing erection and building handover
plans. The unique ability to develop
repeatable construction execution,
material sourcing and logistic plans
that can be implemented on multi-
ple projects versus a single project,
aids in compressing construction
durations. At the same time, using
a plant standard facilitates the abil-
ity to capture learning and refine
those plans project-to-project to
achieve even greater efficiency on a
continuous basis.
Commitment to the plan
With increasing competition in
a global market, developing and
maintaining a competitive edge are
more important and more challeng-
ing than ever before. Defining and
successfully implementing strate-
gies to maintain that edge requires
leaders who are not only forward
thinking and who understand the
vast long term benefits of investing
in strategy, but are also unyielding
in their commitment to bringing
those strategies to life. For manu-
facturing businesses that are grow-
ing and wish to continue to grow
competitively, an investment in
MPS provides a unique and effective
execution methodology to advance
their business and achieve their
strategic goals. mt
MICHAEL D. VERDIER | COLUMN BY
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 manufacturing-today.com 15
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designsenvironmentsthataffectthekeybehaviorsnecessaryto
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curious,fosteringcollaborationanddeliveringexcellence.Formore
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TECHNOLOGY
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commitment to mps
becomes a key enabler
and advantage to
rapid global expan-
sion where resources
are limited, facility
expansion costs are
highandmateriallead
times are lengthy.