The World is progressively expanding and therefore, the need for food and food processing has also gone higher. Therefore, people are looking for ways to transform their food production and preserving plants into bigger and wider plants, that accompany more facilities and output more products. With such ongoing consolidation of smaller food production plants into higher-volume production plants, more economical facilities and more productive facilities have brought the issue of factory decommissioning into prime focus.

Dismantling a food factory

Dismantling or de-linking a food factory or production facility may have commercial sense in terms of expanding it into a broader factory, or minimizing supply costs, or attain everything under one roof, but it may not be as simple as lifting and shifting production to the new location. Decommissioning or closing down a production facility may pose a large number of challenges and risks, many of which you might miss at the planning stage. It is mandatory to recognize, assess and plan actions against these business risks before going for the start or the work on the production facility being dismantled, demolished, sold, or returned to its pre-emptive orientation.

There is a need to conduct a thorough and collective review of everything associated with a building, structure of the final presentation, and layout of the factory, well ahead of decommissioning, to carry out the analysis of correct resources needed, identified, and data is retained to arrange everything accordingly. For example, you need to keep a record or document all of your assets so that their safe packaging and handling are ensured. You need to categorize or give numbers to the essential spare parts of your assets and their belongings. You need to figure out and note down the parts that need to be changed and ensure that their operating manuals are available. If your company is aiming to dispose of their plant and machinery, they need to realize the full value of these assets, so that they may not regret the following days. If you plan and handle it well, you might cover and minimize the costs of decommissioning the site, making the overall project cost-neutral.

New space or location

If the new space or location is being relocated and cleared for the machines to be moved and installed, there needs to be a robust, well-communicated, and safe plan for dismantling and transportation. One more thing you need to figure out and analyze timely and is the risk of residual chemicals that could have leaked into the ground. You need to properly identify hazardous materials and their toxicity to deal with them promptly. If there is a need, you should call or request the services of licensed experts to dispose of hazardous wastes.

The vacated site where you’re going to move your industry proves to be a magnet for criminals, especially in its vacant days, So, you need to plan and clear it first and ensure the safety of your assets and personnel. There should be the duty of care to prevent anyone accessing the site, including trespassers, from sustaining injury. These are some of the risks and precautions that need to be managed and tackled before going for the actual closing of the food factory.