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The joint efforts of engineers, architects, contractors and managers in designing and constructing buildings should make them ideal. The ideal plant building is one which is built to house the most efficient layout that can be devised for the process involved, yet which is architecturally attractive and of such a standard shape and design as to be flexible in its use and inexpensive in its construction. An ideal buildings helps a manufacturer in the following ways:
- It ensures a smooth operation of production activities;
- It gives protection to property, shelter to employees and safeguards the company’s secrets;
- It reduces materials handling costs;
- It reduces work in progress inventory and manufacturing cycle time;
- It simplifies manufacturing and employee control procedures;
- It reduces service and maintenance charges;
- It increases plant flexibility and use;
- It increases employee comfort and employee morale.
Buildings for small plants:
The details discussed thus far relate to the buildings, requirements of a large or medium sized industrial unit. Any discussion on industrial building, however, would be incomplete without a reference to the building requirements of a small industrial unit, which occupies a place of importance in our country. The building problems of a small industrialist are relatively simple because he has a number of a choices before him.
The first, the most economical, and the earliest choice is to hire a shed in an industrial estate and start manufacturing operations. A shed in an estate is very convenient for a small-scale industrialists because industrial estates are constructed by State Governments, and have all the facilities which are required for the smooth running of a factory. Besides, he can save the funds which would otherwise be locked up in building construction. But the disadvantage of renting a shed in an industrial estate is that the buildings are of standard shapes and sizes. The layout of machinery and other facilities must be adapted to the building rather than the reverse of it. Moreover, it is a problem for a small industrialist to get an allotment of a shed.
The other alternative available to a small-scale industrialist is to construct a building if he fails to get one shed allotted to him in an industrial estate. In this case, the problems faced by him are the same, though on a small scale, as those (discussed earlier in this chapter) faced by a large-scale industrialist. But all the small-scale industrialists do not venture to invest huge funds in the construction of industrial buildings. To being with, it is not uncommon for them to commence their business operations in any enclosed area – a dilapidated structure, a room or rooms on an upper floor of a residential building, a hut, a garage or a shop.
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