What about lost productivity?

Does your building have columns in the way of your forklifts? Do you wish you had an extra truck dock? Is space in your facility at a premium? Is your building less than perfect for your operation?

Now think about how your less than perfect building is affecting your bottom line. Say you’re a mid-size manufacturer with $5M in revenue – if impaired forklifts, too few truck docks, and cramped space cut your efficiency by just 2%, staying in your building is COSTING you an extra $100,000 in lost revenue EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Over a ten year stay in your building you’re losing over $1,000,000.

Lets be clear, the building your operation resides in will never MAKE you money. It’s the machines, materials and people that provide the value for a company. However, your building can certainly COST you money; and LOTS of it. By re-evaluating your facility and remodeling, expanding or relocating to an ideally designed building you can ultimately save millions of dollars where it counts the most.

Imperien’s approach with our clients is to evaluate their specific needs and help identify what the PERFECT building looks like for them. We help clients see exactly what the full cost of a facility is, what they can do to fix it, and how much money they will save by making the change. If your facility is anything less than perfect give us a call to talk and we can help you lower manufacturing costs and improve your bottom line.

We got a great opportunity to speak at the 1 Million Cups Rockford networking group. Our presentation focused on the three biggest mistakes we find clients making in building construction projects and how to avoid them. These top issues come up the same in small $10k projects and large $40M projects. If you’re even thinking about a construction project for your business, give us a call first and find out how we can help save you time and money in the process!

1. Spending too much time on your project
Building expansions and relocations don’t MAKE money, they COST money. With most business owners valuing their time at over $200 an hour, make sure you are spending your time on activities that drive income and bring in a team that can mitigate the cost of your expansion, and optimize your long-term operational capacity.

2. Missing out on financial incentives
Financial incentives aren’t meant to finance a capital expansion, but they can make them more cost effective. Most businesses leave money on the table that could be used to further leverage their investments; sometimes incentives are worth millions! A team can help you evaluate all potential incentives, from tax credits, to infrastructure improvements, to ensuring you are using all available tools to minimize your capital outlay.

3. Finding out too late the budget doesn’t match scope
Old methods of project delivery are slow, expensive and can’t adapt to changing client needs. Worst of all, it COSTS you money to find out you’re over budget. As an alternative, design-build services are structured to provide you the building you want, according to your time and budget. By starting with schematic and conceptual designs, your project can be refined incrementally as the budget and scope become more clear over-time. This saves you time and money.

4. Buying a building, rather than selecting a site
Don’t rush to buy a building. The wrong building in the wrong location costs MUCH more than a site selection professional. There are many variables that impact the total operating cost of a building, from workforce availability and cost, to utility fees and transportation access. A site selection professional can help you measure and weigh the impact of these variables on your long-term operating costs.

5. Hiring contractors, instead of a construction team
Traditional projects create separations between the design and construction teams, and often between individual contractors. The separation adds time and cost to projects, leaving the building owner managing individual contracts with a suite of service providers. Individual contractors may have opposing interests, creating a management headache for the owner. A design-build professional can manage both the design and construction, as well as the sub-contracts, protecting the owners’ interests and simplifying the process.

Click Here To Download The Slide Presentation

Click here to see a video-presentation discussing these mistakes and how to avoid them

Imperien offers full-service capital project services from concept to completion. Our services include comprehensive site selection, financial incentive negotiation, building design and construction management.

We work to help clients stay focused on their business throughout the process and avoid wasting their time on a construction project. Our team of financial incentive experts provide the tools necessary to make capital expansion projects financially sound. Imperien coordinates projects from initial conception through completion to keep budgets and scope in line throughout the entire process. Site selection services look at all costs associated with a particular location and ensure selection of the site with lowest cost of ownership. We work to package together the full team of experts and service providers to represent clients with architects, engineers, contractors and project financing to get them the highest return on their investment.

The most successful business owners are always sculpting a vision for how to move their business forward. When it comes to fulfilling the vision, major capital expansions may seem too intimidating and time consuming and the vision may get lost in the reality of daily operations. Between manufacturing schedules, sales, workforce management and everything else that comes with running your business it may seem like you don’t have the time to take on another project and expand your facility footprint.

The prospect of finding the right location for a new facility, hiring a broker, engaging an architect, designing a building, bidding out the project, contracting with a builder and last of all paying for it all is a daunting task that often holds businesses back from expanding when they need to.

In the past, owners had to separately hire experts in each step of the construction process to keep the project moving. This required real-estate brokers, bankers, engineers, architects, constructors, subcontractors, and others to be individually hired and managed by your already busy business. Even more of a problem, the process was long and it could take years to complete a project. Meanwhile production needs are still outgrowing an undersized space.

Thankfully there are newer ways for you to hire the experts you need to get your project completed without the risks and time commitment of a traditional project. Consider the Design-Build process. This method allows you to hire one single expert to represent you in both the design and construction of your project. You can know that if an issue with the project comes up, there is already a single entity at the ready to address it. Design-build eliminates the adversarial relationship between contractor and architect and assembles a cohesive team that has one goal: get your project completed efficiently. Design­-Build is at its biggest advantage when schedules are tight, and you need your project completed ASAP.

Yet another option comes with a Construction Manager (CM) as Agent process where a CM company acts directly on your behalf to look out for your best interests no matter the situation. In this scenario, the contractors and designers are directly contracted with you the owner. However, the CM acts as your representative to ensure the entire project team meets your every need from start to finish. This method is great for projects with demanding technical needs and stringent budgets. 

Consider using an alternative delivery method for you next facility improvement project. They can greatly reduce your costs, improve schedules and mitigate project risk while getting your business in the facility it needs to grow and expand.

Colin Simpson P.E. is President of Imperien LLC and a construction professional with over 15 years of experience. Imperien offers construction industry expertise and turn-key building packages including site selection, incentive negotiation, design, construction and capital planning. To get help on your next capital project contact colin@imperien.com or 815-988-7970.

So you have two choices; hide under a rock and wait it out or prepare yourself to beat your competitors when the bull market returns. If you’re smart, you’re working right now on plans to come bursting out of the gate with new products, new marketing, and new clients once the pandemic ends and life returns to normal. Shouldn’t you also be considering how to better position your capital assets today so you can grow again tomorrow?

It usually takes on the order of 12 to 24 months to complete an in-depth site selection process, design a new facility and construct it. History teaches us that the bull market will return in 12 to 24 months. That means that this is the best time for you to consider future growth and develop a facility plan to accommodate your future plans. That also means if you wait until after the economy turns around to begin the growth process, you could end up two years behind your competitors.

The SMART move is to assess your facility needs NOW. Check your operation, assess your costs, anticipate your upcoming needs, and plan for the future. That’s how you beat your competitors to be punch!

By designing your facility solutions TODAY, you’re ready to start construction immediately after the economy comes back. It allows you to take a very low risk approach to getting the fastest possible rebound for your company tomorrow.

If you aren’t prepared to expand when the time comes, your competitors WILL BE. The companies with the experience to develop an expansion strategy during hard times are the ones who will be best positioned to grow and excel after the pandemic is over. Will that be you – or the competition?

Imperien is excited to announce that we will be hosting an exhibit at FABTECH 2019 in Chicago. FABTECH 2019 is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing trade show with 1800 exhibitors and nearly 50,000 attendees.

Any manufacturer interested in expanding their operation and growing their facility is invited to come talk with us at booth #A3176 and learn how we can help you grow your business. If you’re interested in getting free tickets as our guest at the show click the link below and register. See you there!

https://campaigns.fabtechexpo.com/FB19Imperien-LLC