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# Project Scale: Rough Numbers
One-page sizing of the whole project. Everything here is a planning
estimate derived from the session's vendor data and standard ratios;
figures marked "estimate" have no vendor confirmation yet. Update this
page as real quotes and the site decision land.
## Production capacity
| Phase | Fleet | Rough output |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | 1 semi-auto press (Newbilt Single), 1 shift | ~90,000 to 135,000 records/yr |
| Duplex | 2 semi-auto presses, 1 to 2 shifts | ~175,000 to 540,000 records/yr |
| Mature | 2 semi-auto + 2 automated (50/50 fleet), 2 shifts | ~1.0 to 1.5 million records/yr |
Basis: the automated AD12 presses ~140 records/hour each (vendor datasheet);
semi-automatic throughput is unpublished, assumed 60 to 80 records/hour per
press with operator handling (estimate); 16 h/day, 300 days/yr, with
realistic overall effectiveness of 60 to 70% applied. The theoretical
ceiling of the mature fleet at 100% uptime is roughly 1.9 to 2.1 million
records per year.
**The 60–70% effectiveness assumption is worth challenging, but not yet
changing.** Newbilt publishes ≥95% yield and ≥95% uptime for the Classic
12" automatic at a 28 s cycle (~128 records/h), and quotes ~30 s average
for the Duplex. Three reasons not to adjust anything on that basis:
- **Machine uptime is not plant OEE.** A vendor uptime figure excludes
stamper and mould changes, label reels, colour changeovers, PVC lot
changes, first-article QC and breaks — precisely the losses that
dominate a short-run boutique plant. They are different quantities.
- It would apply only to the **automated half** of the fleet. The
60–80/h semi-auto figure already embeds operator handling, so applying
an uplift to that half would double-count.
- 0.95 × 0.95 is 0.90 before any performance factor; reaching 80% OEE
needs a performance factor near 0.89, which nobody has estimated.
Ask both press vendors for the **basis** of their uptime and yield
figures — measured over what period, at what run length, counting which
stoppages — as part of the re-quote. It is a free question. If the
figures survive scrutiny they would argue for a higher OEE on the
automated fleet only, and the same logic would apply to any competitor
running the same machine.
## Building
| Zone | Rough area |
|---|---|
| Semi-auto press hall (Newbilt Duplex spec) | ~200 m² |
| Automated press zone | ~100 to 150 m² |
| Galvanics clean room + water treatment + chemical storage | ~80 to 150 m² |
| Mastering and cutting room | ~40 to 60 m² |
| Stamper prep | ~30 m² |
| Packaging + finished goods warehouse | ~300 to 500 m² |
| Utility rooms (boiler, compressor, chiller, electrical) | ~100 to 150 m² |
| Offices, QC/listening, archive, IT, entrance | ~150 to 200 m² |
| Circulation, walls, misc | ~150 to 250 m² |
| **Total under roof** | **~1,200 to 1,700 m²** |
The HVAC budget in the utilities CSV already assumes ~1,500 m² conditioned.
Single story throughout: all heavy equipment needs ground-slab floor
loading (multiple tons per m²).
### Detached utility yard, parking, and what that moves
The massing model puts the boiler and chiller in a **detached utility yard**
alongside the main building rather than inside it, which is what the boiler's
own-room requirement in [facility security](facility-security.md) and biomass
fuel delivery both push toward:
| | Area | Height |
|---|---|---|
| Boiler hall | 66 m² | 6.0 m |
| Biomass fuel store | 42 m² | 5.0 m |
| Chiller room | 60 m² | 5.0 m |
| Cooling tower (outdoor pad) | 10 m² | 3.5 m |
| Flue stack | - | 14 m |
Boiler plus chiller at 126 m² lands inside the 100 to 150 m² the zone table
allows, but moving them out of the main shed frees that floor for
production, so either the main building shrinks by ~126 m² or the program
grows into it. Decide which before the building is priced.
Staff parking is roofed, in the front yard clear of the loading route:
**10 car bays** (27.7 × 7.0 m canopy, 195 m²) and **~30 scooter spaces**
(13.7 × 5.5 m, 76 m²), carrying a further **~40 kWp** of PV on their
canopies — dimensions per the modelled layout in the
[construction RFQ](finance/phase1-construction-rfq.md). At 4.1 m and 3.5 m
they sit below the main building's 7.0 m low eave, so they cannot shade it.
### Expansion headroom: a second building
Tested against the candidate Mueang Chi parcel, in the massing model at
`factory_building_rough.FCStd`. The whole zone table above fits inside one
60 × 25 m building, so a second one is expansion **beyond** the current
program — doubling pressing capacity, or moving finished goods out to free
production floor — not a gap in it.
| | Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Footprint | 60 × 25 m — 1,500 m² | 45 × 38 m — 1,710 m² | 3,210 m² |
| Roof PV | ~247 kWp | ~251 kWp | **~498 kWp** |
| Tightest boundary clearance | 15.7 m | 3.0 m | |
- **45 × 38 m is the sweet spot.** The plot narrows going south, so past
~45 m of length the width falls away faster than length adds: 40 m gives
1,607 m², 45 m gives 1,723 m², 50 m drops to 1,558 m², and beyond 65 m
nothing useful fits.
- **A 20 m yard** between the buildings covers fire separation and shared
loading off the phase 1 circulation road.
- **Roof form: two-bay sawtooth, shaded rows deliberately left empty.**
A single 38 m monopitch would be the best solar answer — 28 panel rows,
none shaded, ~17% more yield than what is drawn, but it needs a **13.7 m**
high wall. The sawtooth holds the high side to **10.35 m**, at a cost: each
bay falls toward ESE onto the next bay's 3.35 m riser, so the bottom rows
sit in shadow (the lowest is blocked below a 53° sun profile angle). Those
two rows on the first bay are left empty rather than populated, which
trades ~8% of the roof's yield for clean strings, no mismatch losses, and
a maintenance walkway. Building height won this trade; revisit it if
cladding a 13.7 m wall turns out cheaper than the lost generation.
A 7° single pitch (11.7 m high side) sits between the two if wanted.
- **Coverage stays comfortable**: 3,210 m² is 39% of the deed area (34% of
the mapped extent), well under the 50 to 60% typically allowed.
- **The two roofs together clear 500 kWp**, which removes the need for the
ground-mount solar assumed further down this page.
Two caveats. Phase 2's tightest corner sits **3.0 m** from the boundary and
must be checked against the local ผังเมือง setback rule before it is taken as
real. And the plot's zoning for factory use is still unverified — that gates
phase 1 every bit as much as phase 2.
## Land: factory plot
Industrial plots typically allow 50 to 60% building coverage, and the site
needs truck access and turning, parking, the outdoor cooling tower, the
separated BESS enclosure, possible ground-mount solar, and expansion room.
- Minimum workable: **~4 rai** (6,400 m²)
- Comfortable with expansion and ground-mount solar: **~6 to 8 rai**
(9,600 to 12,800 m²)
Separate asset: the **60 rai** forestry-classified parcel for coppice
fuelwood (see [biomass](biomass.md)), pending its title check. It is a fuel
plantation, not a factory site candidate unless the classification allows
conversion, which forestry land generally does not.
## Electrical scale
| Load | Rough figure |
|---|---|
| Pressing machinery (semi-auto line + 2 automated presses) | ~70 to 80 kW installed |
| Process chiller (250 kW cooling) | ~80 to 125 kW electrical |
| Whole-factory HVAC | ~100 to 200 kW peak (estimate) |
| Electric steam boiler (if chosen over biomass/LPG) | ~300 kW |
| Compressed air, lighting, IT, misc | ~30 to 50 kW |
| **Plant peak demand** | **~300 to 450 kW without electric boiler; ~600 to 750 kW with it** |
Grid connection: a medium-voltage connection with a transformer in the
**500 to 1,000 kVA** class from PEA, sized by the boiler decision.
## Solar and storage
- The phase 1 roof carries **~247 kWp** (425 modules on the 1,523 m²
roof plane, per the [construction RFQ](finance/phase1-construction-rfq.md)).
This supersedes the older rule of thumb of 150 to 200 kWp on a
~1,500 m² building, which the massing model has overtaken
- Northern Thailand yield ~1,400 to 1,500 kWh/kWp/yr, so 300 kWp produces
roughly **420 to 450 MWh/yr**
- Plant consumption at mature two-shift operation: roughly **1,000 to
1,500 MWh/yr** without electric steam, up to **~2,500 MWh/yr** with it
(estimate), so 300 kWp covers roughly **28 to 45%** of consumption
without electric steam, falling to **~17%** with it; a bigger array
shifts that up
- Battery: **271 kWh** Gobel stack (peak shaving and ride-through, roughly
two to three hours of the chiller's electrical draw)
## Steam and fuel
- Boiler: **400 kg/h at 10 bar / 180 °C** (~300 kW thermal)
- If biomass: **~350 to 400 t/yr** air-dry wood at mature operation, of
which the 60 rai coppice could supply **~80 to 135 t/yr**
- If LPG: **~2.5 to 5 t** bulk tank on site (no gas pipeline in the North)
## People
Rough mature-operation headcount (estimate): 4 to 6 press/finishing
operators per shift, 2 to 3 galvanics, 1 to 2 mastering/cutting engineers,
1 to 2 QC, 2 maintenance, 3 to 5 admin/sales/logistics. Roughly **15 to 25
people** across shifts at maturity, fewer than half that at launch.
## Money (cross-references)
Figures in USD and THB at 1 USD = 33 THB (5 August 2026); vendor quotes
keep their original currency alongside.
- Newbilt semi-auto line: **~USD 232k (~7.7M THB)**, from the June 2024
quote of EUR 200,500 — expired, in
[pressing-line](equipment/pressing-line.md)
- Thai-sourced utilities, HVAC, racking, solar, BESS baseline: **~24M to
42M THB (~USD 730k to 1.27M)**, detail in the
[utilities CSV](finance/utilities-investment.csv)
- Not yet priced: automated presses (indicative ~USD 340k each, unverified),
galvanics line, mastering/cutting room, metrology, building
construction/fit-out, land