How do I judge whether a fabrication shop’s shop floor layout limits growth?
Walk the path of one job from the receiving door to the shipping door and mark every place material waits, backs up or crosses another job’s path. Those spots, not the total floor area, show whether the layout can carry more work. Ask the crew where they lose time.
Take a large job and follow it. Where does steel arrive, where is it stored and how far does it travel to the saw, the brake, the weld bay and paint? Count the times it is lifted, moved or set aside. Long trips and double handling are signs that the layout has grown by accident.
Look next at the crane or lifting capacity, aisle width and the places where finished work piles up before shipping. Ask which machines are idle because there is no room to stage material, and which are running constantly because they are the only ones of their kind. A bottleneck is often a single bay, not the whole building.
Ask the crew. They usually know exactly where time is lost. Then ask the seller what was tried to improve flow, what failed and what is planned. Last, picture your own plan. If you add a machine or a second shift, where does it go? Ask an equipment adviser to review the plan and your lawyer to check the lease or title for limits on expansion. Photographs and a sketch of the floor, shared before the walk-through, make this much easier.
Key takeaways
- Follow one large job from receiving to shipping and count how often it is handled.
- Ask the crew where time is lost and which machines are starved or overloaded.
- Test your own growth plan on a floor sketch, and check lease or title limits with your lawyer.
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Due diligence
Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are the steps to buying a business?
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