SPM I Services I Project Execution I Concept Study
We conduct evaluations that go further than simply outlining a budget, programme and layout. At SPM, we look at the whole picture. We consider the current and future state requirements and establish the impact upon all business functions. Our conclusions enable our clients to truly understand the implications and cost benefit of their planned scheme whether it be a small process engineering project or a multisite manufacturing masterplan.
Current State Evaluation
Complete assessment of current state to optimize next steps
Once our clients outline their project aims, we begin to plan how we will help them to achieve these. To do this, we create a model that considers the process, the required ingredients, the time scale and the techniques. This model will devise how to achieve the desired end result by setting out facts and numbers based on current operations and future projections.
During the evaluation phase, a model will have been created for your project to present an overview of how the current and future state of your operations will look and operate in relation to your new project goals.
We firstly establish the current state of client products, processes and demand. We then consider the future demand and the necessary process improvements and potential constraints surrounding the proposed project. Where explicit detail is unavailable, we are skilled at making reasoned assumptions so that progress can continue uninhibited.
By comparing the current state to the future state, we can define business objectives, identify areas that need improvement and scope out the necessary changes. We can then prescribe scenarios for the future state of products, processes, and demand in order to achieve the project goals.
Feasibility Studies
Assessing your business venture
A feasibility study assesses the practicality of your plan and evaluates how best to deliver your project goals. It is a very worthwhile investment to make before embarking on a new project. Using expertise and critical thinking, we produce an entirely independent, well-considered document that examines the concept, equipment, cost, time frame and programme in sufficient detail to inform investment decisions.
A feasibility study can also be a crucial document for securing funding. It allows both clients and their funding sources to know what the project will look like, how much it will cost and what it will deliver in great detail.
Business justifications are another important document worth securing to assess the impact of the project on the business. By pulling together all of the critical thinking of the feasibility study, a business justification answers crucial questions such as when a return will be seen on the investment, the level of risk, and whether it will give the business competitive advantage in the market. Our independent analysis presents the facts in a totally unbiased manner, which results in a trusted and impactful document.
Concept Design
Creating an effective concept of the project
Whether your project requires an entirely new factory or whether it necessitates an expansion of an existing facility, the layout of the new areas will need to be planned out with careful attention to numerous important factors.
Establishing an effective concept design requires consideration of equipment solutions, the flow of production, processes and people, manning requirements, and health and safety regulations. It will also need to take note of other factors such as shift patterns, changeover times, energy requirements, technical requirements and utilities and services.
With all of these factors in mind and a wealth of skill and experience, we create simple CAD drawings to design the most efficient and cost-effective models of the project implementation.
Implementation Advice
Creating a phased master schedule
The advice we give to our clients is informed by our considerable experience. We present this advice to clients in the form of a master schedule. Considering all operational requirements from beginning to transition right through to optimisation, the master schedule develops a phased and responsive implementation programme for your project. It sets out a clear and detailed schedule for what needs to happen each and every day.
Having a phased master schedule is important for managing expectations as well as setting out a useful timeline for your project. It ensures that clients understand that it will take time to achieve their final expectations. It is important for us to convey that the process from installation to delivery to turn on to full efficiency can take several months, and that other stages can expand the timeline even further. When this phased programme is presented from the very beginning, clients can adjust their expectations accordingly and proceed along a realistic time scale.
Budget Development
Calculating the cost to achieve
Many budgets focus exclusively on the big elements of a project, such as the cost of buying land and building a factory. Although these are crucial components, budgets that focus solely on these elements runs the risk of escalating considerably once the realities of achieving a project are encountered.
Which is why we develop a ‘cost to achieve’ budget. Your cost to achieve budget includes capital expenditure costs, operational expenditure costs, one off transition costs and future state profit and loss analysis. Essentially, every cost within the process is accounted for to create a highly detailed and accurate budget.
We consider things such as the cost of renting a new warehouse and the cost of storage facilities, the possibility of redundancies when closing old factories to open new ones, and the cost of relocation and recruitment when setting up new factories. All of this – and many other factors – are taken into account to give you the most accurate budget possible.
Funding Solution
Experienced and successful application management
Funding can have a huge impact on the success of projects. Local councils and government, as well as national government all seek to create and retain jobs and avoid disruption to local economies, and therefore they all have the potential to provide funding in the form of grants and tax relief to new factory builds.
We have a relevant background for grant funding to support capital investment projects. Having developed good relationships with the variety of investors and government agencies, we have good experience in identifying the available funds and managing the application process on behalf of clients to ensure successful application.