Abstract

The primary siting factors that influence the selection of a plant location are as follows: environmental and safety considerations, labor availability and productivity, raw material availability, accessibility to transportation, proximity to market, property cost, tax incentives, electric power availability and cost, and living conditions. In the selection of a plant site, it is a good idea to get broad-based input, including information from sales, production, plant engineering, and from the general manager. The first objective is to narrow the range of possible choices. This involves focusing on the most important criteria, which differ widely for each type of facility. Table 3 presents some of the factors to consider for plant siting. An objective rating system needs to be used; a listing of the important criteria and a point system which affords the evaluation committee a means of scoring the pluses and the minuses has been found to be useful. The scoring may need to be weighted so that the factors which most heavily affect the bottom-line profit are more heavily counted. At the end of this phase, the less desirable sites should be discarded so that a more in-depth evaluation of the final candidates can be made.