When to Expand

Expand Now, or Optimize First?

Most companies decide this after they have already hit the wall. Answer some questions about your site and we will work out what runs out first — room, people, power or your lease — how long you have, and which of your options can still be delivered in that time.

About 15 minutes One site per run Your answers save as you go
Been here before? Open the file you saved and carry on from there.
1

The facility

We measure every site against limits set for its own type. A warehouse starts struggling at a different point than an assembly plant, and a data centre is different again.

sq ft
Used to measure the labor pool within commuting distance. Street address is ideal; city and state still works.
A forcing date, not a capacity wall — but renewal talks usually open 18–24 months out, so the real decision lands earlier.
acres
acres
After setbacks, detention, and parking. This one field decides whether expanding on your existing site is even on the table.
Land you can build on and land you are allowed to build on are different things, and the gap between them is measured in hearings. This time sits in front of construction, not alongside it.
Optional, and it overrides our figure. A planner who knows the jurisdiction beats any average we can offer.
months
2

How much can this facility handle?

This is where the dates in your report come from. Real figures give a firmer answer than an estimate — but a rough estimate is far better than leaving it blank.

The unit you would use if someone asked how busy you were — cases shipped, orders picked, tons produced.
Whichever period you have the figures for.
On a normal week with normal staffing — not a record week. Give the full rated figure; we already allow for the fact that no site runs at 100%. Sometimes called design or nameplate capacity.
What really went through over the last full period, including the quiet spells. Not a forecast.
Think of a normal week, not your busiest — we ask about busy periods further on. If the honest answer is over 100%, say so. That tells us a lot.
%
emptyover full
Unused shift capacity is the cheapest relief there is — but only if the labor market can staff it, which the next steps test.
What is left in the building you already have
The cheapest room you can get is the room you already own and are not using. Answer these and we will weigh working the building harder against leasing or building another one — and if you have genuinely done it all, we will say so and stop suggesting it.
Line balancing, slotting, pick paths, changeover times. Plenty of sites still run a layout designed for a product mix they stopped making years ago.
The most commonly unused capacity in any building. A site that is 78% full but has never racked above twenty feet is not 78% full — it is 78% of the way through the part of itself it bothers to use. Higher racking and a mezzanine are weeks of work, not years.
Not a judgement on how modern you are — we are only asking whether the lever has been pulled. Somewhere untouched has more room to find than somewhere that already runs it.
Whether the kit on the floor can carry your forecast without being replaced.
Power to the machine, floor loading, height over it, and a way of getting it through the door. This is the question that decides whether undersized equipment is something you fix here or a reason to be somewhere else.
Docks and yard

Plenty of sites run out of dock before they run out of floor — there is room inside for the pallets, and not enough door-hours to get them in and out. Skip this and we will say we did not check, rather than say you are fine.

In and out together, on a normal day
Only used when the two figures above are blank. Doors and trailers give a firmer answer, because we can apply your shift pattern to them.
%
A peak figure, not an average — we will not add the seasonal uplift to it again
3

Growth and Volume

This matters more than anything else you will tell us. Every date in your report moves with it, so it is worth a moment's thought.

Forward-looking, over the next three to five years. Negative is a valid answer.
%/yr
-20%+50%
How much busier your peak is than a normal week. If your busiest weeks run about half as busy again as usual, that is 1.5. Sites run out of room at their peak, not their average. Leave blank and we will use a typical figure for your type of site.
x
1.0x flat3.0x
The same thing you counted earlier — what actually went through the site each year. Not sales revenue: money moves with prices as well as volume, and that would quietly break the comparison. We check these against the forecast above and the report says so if the two disagree. Optional, and the most useful thing you can add.
4

Labor

The constraint that most often kills a project, and the one least often modelled. Attrition and hiring rate together set a ceiling on how large this site can ever be.

%
0%150%
All separations, voluntary and involuntary. Warehouse figures above 60% are common and usually turn out to be the real story.
How many people you actually hired over the last twelve months — what happened, not the target. Include everyone who replaced a leaver.
This changes the answer more than the number itself. How many you hired tells us what you needed; how hard it was tells us what the market would actually give you.
Don't have that figure to hand?

If you do not know your monthly hires, give us these two instead and we will work it out. Less accurate, and the report will tell you so.

days
Planning, admin, customer service, engineering support — anyone whose work is not on the floor, the line or the dock. Leave it blank and we will use what is typical for your facility type, and tell you what we assumed.
%
Anyone not in the building five days a week. This does not change what your site is holding today — your utilisation figure already has them absent — but it tells us how much room there is to move either way.
%
all on siteall remote
This is the part that moves the answer. Bringing people back is a demand for space and for local hiring that your volume forecast cannot show, because none of it is about volume.
5

Power & Water Requirements Optional

Skip this if you do not have the figures to hand. We will report power and water as not checked rather than fine — those are not the same thing.

Highest 15-minute demand on a recent bill
kW
Rated capacity at your meter
kW
Rated capacity and deliverable power are not the same thing. The queue is for transformers and substation work rather than for electricity, so it does not shorten because you need it sooner. Usually one phone call to find out, and the answer can change what we recommend.
Optional, and it overrides our figure.
months
Capacity work already funded

We count work you have already funded before working anything out — and the report will tell you if it arrives too late to help.

For everything you do with it: process, cooling, cleaning, fire suppression. A site can sit on a main with plenty of pressure and still not have the volume for another line.
Routinely the binding half of the water question, and the half nobody checks. Sewer allocation, discharge consent, and whether the treatment works can take the strength of what you send it — not only the volume.
6

AI and your headcount Optional

If AI means you need fewer people per unit shipped, you may have longer before hiring becomes the thing that limits you. We report that separately as a what-if — it will not change the headline verdict, because these estimates are softer than the rest of the model.

We assume most pilots never make it to the floor, so piloting counts for very little here.
Tick anything AI is doing, or is about to do, a meaningful share of.
This matters more than anything else on this page. Time saved only helps with hiring if it turns into a job you never have to fill.
AI changes how many people you need. It does not add floor space, it does not add electrical capacity, and it does not extend a lease. If one of those is what runs out first, this section will not move your date.
7

What are you seeing day to day?

These do not change the dates — they test them. If you tick several of these but your figures say you have plenty of room, it is usually the figures that are wrong.

8

Does this location still suit you? Optional

Everything so far has been about when you run out. This is a different question: whether more of the same place would actually help. If several of these are already a problem, the site may be the issue rather than its size. These are the factors Area Development’s annual Corporate Survey has tracked for forty years, so they line up with how the industry frames the decision.

Highway, rail, air and port access
Availability of skilled labor
What labor costs you here
Operating costsUtilities, occupancy and tax
How competitive the incentives are
Political and regulatory stability
Being close enough to your suppliers
Being close enough to your customers
Water and sewer reliability
Infrastructure generallyGrid, roads and telecoms
9

Where should the report go? Optional

Your results appear on screen either way. Leave an address if you'd like a copy you can forward.