Before beginning your search for the best location in Texas for your manufacturing operation, it is crucial to define the needs of your manufacturing facility. What operational requirements are needed for your business to execute the day-to-day operations successfully? This step can be a bit tedious, but taking the time to walk through this process will save you time and money. 

 Below is a list of common criteria used during this phase of the process:

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS CHECKLIST

  • Inbound Shipments – Where do you get your raw material? What are the annual volumes, number of shipments, modes of transportation for each?
  • Outbound Shipments – Where are you shipping your products? What are the locations, annual volumes, number of shipments, modes of transportation for each?
  • Labor Requirements – How many people do you need, and what skills do they need? How much do they cost? What benefits do you provide, How many shifts will you have, and on what schedule? 
  • Building Requirements – How big of a space do you need. What is the configuration you need? (manufacturing/warehouse/office space) Are there other critical factors like clear heights, truck docks, or different facility-specific needs?
  • Site Requirements – How many acres do you need in addition to the buildings? What configuration is required to support vehicle circulation, on-site storage, employee and truck parking, and other project needs?
  • Electric Power Requirements – How much electric power do you need? (demand and consumption by month), Do you have line size requirements? Do you have any service preferences (primary vs. secondary) or service redundancy needs?
  • Natural Gas Requirements – Do you need natural gas? What are your usage (monthly consumption), line size requirements, and service redundancy needs?
  • Water Requirements – What is your water usage (volume by day and month, peak usage by hour)? Do you need redundancy? What are your fire service needs?
  • Wastewater Requirements – What is your discharge volume (by day and month, peak volume by the hour)? Do you need a specific line size? Do you have any unique or special wastewater effluent characteristics?
  • Telecommunications Requirements – Service requirements
  • Air Emissions – Description and estimated volumes of air emissions by type
  • Community Preferences – Preferred community characteristics and amenities, training resources available, highway proximity and infrastructure, community culture, sustainability aspects, and other requirements
  • Project Investment – Estimated value of land and building, equipment purchases and installation, other start-up costs
  • Incentives – Desired types of incentives programs, including tax credits, loans, grants, and other financing assistance
  • Project timeline – Target real estate acquisition date, staffing ramp-up schedule, utility ramp-up schedule, equipment commissioning, production start date, etc.
  • Other Factors – Other location criteria factors that are unique to the operation

Whew! Well done. Now that you have completed this step, you are ready to complete the Community Connection Form.  Once you have the results from our partners, you can begin the sorting process to identify the available sites that best match the essential criteria you outlined. This, in turn, will guide you to a shorter and shorter list of potential locations. Now it’s time to take Step 2: Begin General Screening of Possible Locations.

If you have any questions as you go through this process, don’t hesitate to contact us and let someone from our team guide you through the process. 

Step 3: Site and Community Deep Screening

Step 4: Due Diligence and Incentive Discussion

Step 5: Acquisition and Execution