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Developing a Greenfield Steel Plant to Reduce Labor Costs by 26%, Halve Throughput Time, and Reach Payback in 1.6 Years

EFESO supported a global leader in pre-engineered steel buildings in designing a greenfield steel fabrication plant, unlocking efficiency through automation, optimized flows, and Industry 4.0 integration.

Industry: Industrial Manufacturing

Service: Digital & Ai

Service: Factory Planning

Service: It Strategy and Business Processes

Service: Manufacturing

Service: Smart Factory

Parallaxe

Our Client

The client is a leading manufacturer of pre-engineered steel buildings (PEB) and structural steel solutions, expanding with a greenfield plant in Saudi Arabia targeting 140,000 tons per year.

+7

Manufacturing location worldwide

615 MT

Annual capacity

+5 K

Employees worldwide

Parallaxe

The Challenge

In collaboration with our client EFESO was aiming to design future-ready and fully integrated factory from the ground up, combining performance, scalability, and digitalization.

This ambition introduced several key challenges:

  • End-to-end factory design complexity: The greenfield setup required defining production processes, layout, and technology architecture simultaneously, without relying on existing benchmarks
  • Throughput time and WIP inefficiencies: Traditional production setups showed long lead times and high work-in-progress, requiring a fundamental redesign of value streams
  • Production segmentation needs: A diverse product portfolio demanded differentiated production flows to enable targeted automation while maintaining flexibility
  • Technology selection uncertainty: A wide range of automation options for blasting, painting, and robotic welding made it challenging to identify the optimal solution with the best cost-benefit ratio
  • Material flow and layout optimization: Ensuring seamless flow while minimizing transport distances and non-value-adding activities was critical to achieving efficiency targets
  • Digitalization and Industry 4.0 integration: The factory needed to embed advanced digital systems from the outset, aligning physical processes with IT architecture

Real Results Achieved Together

The future factory concept enabled major efficiency gains with short payback time.

-26%

FTE

-50%

Throughput time

~1.6

Years payback

Transformation Impact

  • Significant productivity improvement through automation and optimized production segmentation
  • Reduced lead times and improved flow efficiency enabled by redesigned value streams
  • Lean and scalable factory design with optimized layout and material flow
  • Future-ready operations through integrated digitalization and Industry 4.0 foundation
Parallaxe

Our Approach

EFESO deployed a structured, end-to-end factory planning approach, combining benchmarking, deep process analysis, and data-driven design to develop a future-ready production system together with key stakeholders.

Benchmarking & Diagnostics

→ Assessed production and logistics performance at reference plants in India
→ Identified best practices and improvement potential across core processes

Value Stream & Process Optimization

→ Conducted value stream mapping (VSM) and detailed process deep dives
→ Analyzed key production areas including robotic welding, blasting, painting, and intralogistics
→ Identified inefficiencies and defined optimized end-to-end production flows

Technology & Automation Strategy

→ Evaluated 68 technologies and 43 system configurations
→ Assessed automation solutions for blasting, painting, and robotic welding
→ Defined optimal automation levels based on performance and investment trade-offs

Production Segmentation & Layout Design

→ Segmented production into high-, mid-, and low-runner streams
→ Developed and compared four layout variants using weighted criteria
→ Selected a decentralized, segmented flow layout to optimize material flow and efficiency

Digitalization & System Integration

→ Defined target picture for digitalization and Industry 4.0
→ Designed MES/MIS architecture and selected core operational systems
→ Ensured alignment between production processes and digital infrastructure

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Parallaxe

Ready to Unlock Hidden Capacity in Your Operations?

  • Transform operational improvement potential into measurable gains without major capital investment
  • Join manufacturers who've exceeded their production targets through systematic improvement
  • Create future-ready and fully integrated production and logistics processes that are flexible, but scalable at the same time
Contact our experts

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