From site selection to the start of production, the decisions that can accelerate — or delay — an industrial investment.

When a company decides to establish a new industrial facility, one of the first questions management will inevitably ask is:

When can we start production?

The answer rarely depends solely on how long it takes to construct the building.

Before construction begins, decisions need to be made regarding location, site suitability, production capacity, layout, infrastructure, licensing and design. After construction, there are still equipment installation, testing, approvals and the conditions required to begin operations.

The real timeline of a new factory therefore starts long before the first stone is laid.

And, in many cases, the delays that are most difficult to recover from do not occur during construction. They result from decisions that were postponed — or made without sufficient information — much earlier in the process.

1. Choosing the right location is also a timeline decision

The location of a new factory is usually assessed according to factors such as land availability, accessibility, workforce, proximity to suppliers and access to markets.

But there is another equally important question:

Can this location deliver the project within the required timeframe?

Two sites with apparently similar prices and locations may present completely different scenarios when we consider:

• buildable area and planning parameters;
• planning and regulatory constraints;
• heavy vehicle access;
• topography;
• existing infrastructure;
• available electrical capacity;
• water supply;
• drainage and wastewater;
• environmental requirements;
• potential for future expansion.

A site that initially appears less expensive may require additional works, infrastructure upgrades or significant changes to the original concept.

A preliminary site assessment should therefore do more than confirm whether it is possible to build.

It should also help determine how predictable the path to operation can be.

2. Before designing the building, understand the factory

An industrial facility is not simply a building into which machinery is later placed.

The production process should inform the definition of the space from the outset.

Production capacity, flows of raw materials, finished products, people, equipment, maintenance, waste, internal logistics and dispatch all have direct consequences for the size and organisation of the factory.

An apparently simple question such as:

“How much space do we need?”

should not be answered solely by looking at the area currently occupied by another facility.

It should result from an analysis of:

• production requirements;

• storage;

• equipment;

• technical areas;

• logistics;

• circulation;

• support facilities;

and future expansion requirements.

When these issues are defined too late, the design may require successive adjustments.

And each adjustment can affect the schedule, the investment and, potentially, the licensing process.

3. Industrial layout: where design and operations meet

In an industrial building, layout is not simply a representation of where machines are positioned.

It is an operational decision.

A well-developed layout aims to reduce unnecessary movement, separate incompatible flows, facilitate logistics and maintenance, ensure safety and allow the building to respond to future changes in production.

It is also one of the areas where architecture, engineering and industrial operations are most dependent on one another.

Changing a production line may require changes to:

• structural systems;
• technical networks;
• ventilation;
• installed power;
• fire safety systems;
• access points;
• loading docks;
• circulation routes;
• compartmentation.

Developing the industrial layout sufficiently early can therefore prevent critical requirements from being discovered only when the project is already at an advanced stage.

For an investor, this translates into a very practical principle:

the later the factory’s main flows are stabilised, the greater the risk of subsequent changes.

4. Industrial licensing should not appear at the end of the design process

In Portugal, the establishment and operation of an industrial facility is governed by the Responsible Industry System (Sistema da Indústria Responsável — SIR).

Industrial establishments are classified as Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3 according to their applicable regulatory framework and level of risk, with different procedures applying to each category. Depending on the type of activity, environmental procedures or additional authorisations may also be required.

This means that two factories of apparently similar size may follow very different administrative paths.

For certain facilities, the process may include an authorisation stage before installation and additional procedures before operations can begin.

The regulatory framework applicable to the industrial activity should therefore be assessed at an early stage.

Not to turn the design into an administrative exercise, but precisely to prevent important requirements from being identified too late.

Industrial activity, building design and licensing should develop in coordination.

5. Design and engineering: working in parallel rather than correcting later

In an industrial facility, architecture, structure and technical systems are particularly interconnected.

A change in the production process may alter structural loads.

A piece of equipment may require new infrastructure.

Ventilation requirements may interfere with the structure or roof design.

Fire safety requirements may affect compartmentation or circulation routes.

Logistics may require access points or loading docks to be reconsidered.

When these disciplines are developed independently, conflicts tend to emerge later — precisely when changes become more difficult and more expensive.

Coordination between architecture, engineering and production information allows potential incompatibilities to be anticipated before they reach the construction site.

This is where Building Information Modelling (BIM) can play a particularly important role.

Not because BIM is an objective in itself, but because it allows the project team to work with a coordinated building model and identify conflicts at a stage when they can still be resolved through design.

6. Infrastructure can determine the schedule more than the building itself

There is a natural tendency to focus attention on construction.

But a factory can only operate when the infrastructure required for production is available.

Electricity, water, drainage, gas, telecommunications and other specialised networks can vary significantly depending on the industrial activity.

Electrical capacity is a particularly relevant example.

A location may be perfectly suitable from a planning perspective while not immediately having the electrical capacity required by the production process.

If this requirement is only confirmed at an advanced stage, it can become a critical factor in the overall schedule.

The same principle applies to other infrastructure.

Before finalising a location decision, it is important to understand not only what is currently available, but also what will need to be created, upgraded or reinforced.

7. Construction and industrial installation do not necessarily have to be consecutive processes

Another common mistake when considering an industrial project timeline is to assume that the building must first be completely finished and that production equipment can only be installed afterwards.

That is not necessarily the case.

When design, construction, equipment suppliers and industrial operations are properly coordinated, certain activities can be planned in parallel.

For this to happen, several questions need to be answered sufficiently early:

• When will the equipment arrive?
• How will it enter the building?
• What loads will it impose?
• What services and connections will it require?
• Which areas of the building need to be completed first?
• What technical or environmental conditions does it require?

Planning these interfaces can be just as important to the start of production as the duration of the construction work itself.

8. What happens after construction is complete?

A completed building does not necessarily mean an operational factory.

Depending on the industrial activity and its regulatory framework, additional procedures may be required before operations can begin.

These may include:

equipment installation and adjustment;

testing;

commissioning;

process validation;

staff training;

regulatory inspections or approvals specific to the activity.

The relevant question for a CEO should therefore not simply be:

“When will construction be completed?”

It should be:

“When can we actually start production?”

Where is most time lost in an industrial investment?

Not necessarily during construction.

Very often, time is lost at the interfaces between decisions.

When a site is selected without validating all relevant constraints.

When the programme continues to change during the design process.

When the production layout arrives too late.

When architecture and engineering progress without definitive information about equipment.

When infrastructure requirements are only assessed after the site has been acquired.

When licensing is treated as a later administrative stage rather than as a variable that should inform the project from the beginning.

Individually, each of these situations may appear manageable.

Together, they can result in months of redesign, coordination and delayed decisions.

So, how long does it really take to set up a factory in Portugal?

There is no single answer.

The size of the facility, industrial activity, location, technical complexity, licensing procedures, infrastructure requirements and construction strategy can all significantly affect the overall timeline.

And perhaps this is the most important answer for an investor:

The schedule should not be estimated based solely on the building.

It should result from an integrated assessment of the entire journey:

DECISION → LOCATION → PROGRAMME → LAYOUT → DESIGN → LICENSING → CONSTRUCTION → INSTALLATION → PRODUCTION

The earlier these variables are brought together, the greater the ability to identify risks, coordinate decisions and create a more predictable path towards operation.

Anticipating does not simply mean starting earlier

There is an important difference between moving quickly and moving forward with a structured strategy.

In an industrial investment, anticipation means identifying early the decisions that will influence everything that follows.

Sometimes this means dedicating more time to preliminary analysis.

But it can also mean significantly less time lost to redesign, incompatibilities or requirements that are identified too late.

The objective should not simply be to build a factory quickly.

It should be to reach production with a facility capable of supporting today’s operation — and tomorrow’s growth.

At Em Paralelo, we approach industrial design precisely in this way: as part of a process that begins long before construction and only works effectively when architecture, operations, engineering and investment decisions are considered together.

Are you considering a new industrial facility in Portugal?

If your company is assessing a location, a site or the expansion of an existing industrial facility, an early-stage assessment can help identify constraints and critical decisions before the investment moves forward.

Talk to us about your project.