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The Advantages Of Pilot Plants

By Susan Hayes


Small businesses and individuals that come up with a great idea usually want to sell the end product. They start by creating one at a time, but that can quickly become cumbersome and the need for a larger place to make them faster becomes apparent. The cost of setting up a manufacturing plant is very high and usually out of reach for the small business. Using pilot plants as an in-between method help by saving money and allowing testing or manufacturing to scale up without the large investment that is often required. The time it takes to setup also is lower. There are many benefits to this type of system when growing a business.

Moving a product off the bench is difficult. Creating one is hard enough. Setting up a system to create enough for proper testing in order to get products ready for the market is even harder. Having a smaller facility that mimics a larger one gives you the ability to produce on a larger scale and do more testing at once. This saves time when time is a factor. This gives you the ability to move from the bench to a real manufacturing system.

Testing the product part needs to be done. When it takes a significant amount of time to create one at a time, the testing will be slowed and interrupted. Having the ability to create many and test them all at the same time can move things forward quickly. There is a point that you need to know that the product works under various conditions. Testing one scenario at a time would take too long.

Production systems need to be perfected before going full-scale. Having a pilot phase allows you to create a system that will eventually grow to a larger facility. To jump to the larger production line immediately is not only expensive but prone to very expensive mistakes. Re-tooling a large production system is often as expensive as starting over. Having a smaller version allows you to test the system for efficiency and mistakes before they become too costly.

Costs are reduced by creating a smaller plant. A lot of investment is required for full-size factories. The land, buildings, time, employees, and equipment cost can be enough to cause companies, investors, and banks from taking the risk. With a middle ground, the cost is greatly reduced and the investment is able to be turned around quickly to get the product to market faster. Once this happens, as the company and sales grow, the facilities can too.

Modular plants have more flexibility. If you need to have the plant but there are no adequate buildings, think modular. They can also be located pretty much anywhere you want. If your facility needs to be near a natural resource that is remote, this type of setup will work well. It can be built on site and moved later if there is a need. Permanent facilities are great for those that don't need the convenience of a movable or remote station.

It takes less time to construct a smaller plant. Saving the time to build it means it can be used much faster. This gives testing and production time a chance to get started and producing results rather than having a large amount of down time waiting on the construction. Once it is up and running, revenue streams can begin to be increased.

Having a middle step between creation and full production is both cost saving and convenient. The advantages that you can realize with this type of setup are cost, time, and ability to begin creating and testing multiple steps at once. You also do not have to spend a lot of time seeking large investors to take the next step.




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