what do you think about my new workshop layout?

[Chris Wool]

just a quick reply cos i only had a quick look.
i think that it requires more thought if you have the chance to do it from scratch lucky you.

draw it to proper scale ? print it out and have cutouts of all the equipment you have and move them around.
router near a laminator ?, can you actually get the printer in to that room etc.

Chris

[DaneRead]

are you doing it completely from scratch??

if so think about the designer needing to get backwards and forwards from the printer or vinyl cutter to lead media etc. dotn want to be runnign up and down stairs.

also think about caring vinyl stock up stairs can also be a night mare.

also one vinly has been cut or printed it will need to go downstairs to the work shop for weeding and aplpication.

what machinery do you have

[Neil Herbert]

It is completely from scratch! We are just in the layout stages but the design of the building is to size. I.e. the router would fit in that room. When i get a chance i will put a few measurements on it for a better idea. The cutter and printer would be upstairs with the designer but once done, would go downstairs for laminating (on the Eazy Taper) The printer is a Mutoh Value Jet 1.6 and the cutter is a Summa Cut D160 SE

The idea is for the vinyls to be room temperature and away from dust. The problems and money saved from a clean environment I personally think would warrant going up and down the stairs.

Carrying the rolls up the stairs would be a problem tho!!!

Oh, and great idea about cutting machines to scale out of vinyl!

[Graeme Speirs]

other option is to mark out with masking/gaffa tape where everything will be or use chalk.

cheers
graeme

[John Childs]

Quick thoughts.

Have your quiet/meeting room on the ground floor, immediately behind Reception. Then customers need get no further into your premises than that.

Then you can move your laminator upstairs. It will still be a pain, but at least you will only be shifting raw material up, and finished product down, rather than having to move it mid process.

Also, have your own private office overlooking the fitting bay. That way you can keep an eye on your staff.

[Martin Pearson]

Your right to want to keep your vinyl work area away from dust etc but surely by having the laminating area downstairs you are defeating that purpose. Plus if the vinyl is upstairs to keep it at room temperature surely you want the same conditions for laminating i would have thought.

[David Rowland]

Neil, I still see your username is DNN Signs, please get rob to change it, unfair on the rest of us as advertising your own company is banned. admin@uksignboards.com , email him your full name and he should change it.

With regards your layout, yes it looks good. Consider lifting and also consider the environments etc. Sound, what sort of noise you will get in each part of the building, i see you kept the router well out of the way in its own little area.
Where is the sheet materials store? Or poles etc… Perhaps two areas, clean and dirty workshops.

Dave

[Steve Underhill]

There was a kitchen and meeting room etc but no bar.
apart from that it seems fine.

[Neil Herbert]

John & Martin, Laminating was a problem being downstairs and I like the idea of the meeting room downstairs. I suppose we could use a divider type wall so you could open and close the meeting room and wheel the laminator into position if kept upstairs???

Also Dave, I have requested the user name change, thank you for bringing this to my attention!

Steve, don’t worry, there will be a fridge in the kitchen (a large one) which I’m sure wont only be used for eggs!!!

[Jason Xuereb]

I would move reception upstairs and keep the printer laminator downstairs. Make customers go straight up. Try carrying a 50m roll of banner material up the stairs let alone onto the printer.

My dad tried getting me to take my printer upstairs and I’m glad I didn’t.

Taking customers upstairs might make them feel more important as well. We do it here and it makes them feel more important I guess.

[Neil Herbert]

It could be more welcoming as well! I like the idea of that, and also, no one would have to man the reception! That is something to think about, thanks Jason

[Phill Fenton]

I would say one of the most important aspects that will affect your layout is how many people are you planning to have working there? If very few then I would suggest fewer rooms and as open plan as possible so you can keep an eye on everything. If a few people will be working there then a number of partitions and smaller rooms do make more sense. In my situation where it is just me and Alison working we now have everything open plan. We used to have a reception office but realised this was wasted space – and we never knew when someone had called into the unit. Later we added a bell for customers to ring when they walked in which helped. However, the thief that stole our charity box off the front counter ignored the instructions to ring the bell and scarpered with the money and sweets 😕

[Neil Herbert]

That’s a good point well made, I had the Idea of open planned because the space can be used for multiple things where as you are limited to space in purpose built rooms. I will sit down tonight with my partner and go through some more plans.

Thank you for every ones opinions so far!!! Much appreciated!!!

[Chris Dowd]

We’ve been in our new place just over 2 months now (just under 7,000 sq. ft.). I decided to put all of the administration upstairs, so we have a comms room (server, CCTV, phone system, alarm system etc), sales office, accounts office, and my office (with enough space for a meeting table to seat 8).

We are also lucky to have two brand new units side by side. The one side is a "dirty" workshop, the other a clean area, both have mezzanine floors. On the clean side, we have a reception area (unmanned) then a separate design/cutting area, a separate heated room for our solvent printer, and then a large workshop off it. A set of double doors go through to the dirty workshop, complete with full kitchen, laser, CNC router, and pretty much everything else that makes a mess, oh and enough room to get 4 vehicles in at once.

It pays to play around with layouts, however, no matter how much planning you do, you still find you haven’t got enough network or power points (I was surprised to be told that over 1000 mtrs of Cat 5 cable went into our place)!!

I thought we were doing so well, and set for the next 5 years until a member of staff tried telling me we were short of space today!!

[Neil Herbert]

Thanks Chris for the reply. I think that is a similar type of layout to what we are now thinking!

Well they say goldfish grow to the size of their surroundings (or did I just make that up???)

I don’t think you ever have enough space but our workshop at the moment is around 10m x 5m!!!