Why this envelope
100 × 37 m is a long, thin hall. A U-flow with docks on the short gable is the only layout that does not waste the 37 m on a truck court. Four mix-model lines fit because the SKU count is seven, not twenty.
Building spec
How to structure a 100 × 37 m mix-model plant
The envelope is long and thin. Seven SKUs and four lines only fit because the platform is consolidated — not because the hall is large. This is the recommended build.
| Item | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | 100.0 × 37.0 m | Given envelope. U-flow, not linear-through. |
| Occupancy | Hunt east hall | 14441 Almeda Rd, Houston. Lease the right-hand PEMB. Do not pour. |
| Area | 3,700 m² | Medium volume, high mix. Not a warehouse. |
| Grid | 12.5 × 18.5 m | 8 bays long, 2 bays wide. Columns on aisle. |
| Eave / clear | 9.6 / 8.4 m | Miniload at 7.5 m. No unused portal weight. |
| Docks | 4 on west gable | Inbound N, outbound S. One truck court. |
| AGV spine | 6.0 m | Milk-run, not conveyor. Paint once. |
| Platform | 7 SKUs / 4 lines | H harmonic, P planetary, L roller-screw, F tendon. |
| Kit-7 | 6 / shift | 49 modules per robot. Kitting is the constraint. |
| Nameplate | 520 / shift | Kits plus cobot / exo / linear / hand catalog. |
| OEE target | 85% | Two shifts, unmanned third. |
| Robots / AMRs | 16 / 18 | Cells fenced. AMRs free. |
| Power | 2.2 MVA | CNC + test dominate the load. |
| People | 12 + 2 | Day exceptions. Night remote. |
Why four lines, not one
Harmonic, planetary, roller-screw and tendon do not share a fixture. Forcing them onto one robot cell makes changeover the bottleneck. Four short lines, one 6 m spine, one kitting supermarket — mix without a tool change on the shift.
Grid
8 bays × 12.5 m along the length, 2 bays × 18.5 m across. 18.5 m gives a 6 m AGV spine plus two 14.5 m process blocks — enough for a fenced robot cell and its inbound buffer. Columns sit on the aisle edges, never in a cell.
Height
9.6 m eave, 8.4 m clear. Miniload and pallet AS/RS need 7.5 m of steel. Robot cells do not. Going to 12 m would buy another AS/RS level and cost portal-frame weight you do not need on day one.
Spine
A 6 m AGV highway down the centre is non-negotiable. Milk-runs, not conveyors, move kits. Conveyors freeze mix; AMRs do not. Paint the aisle once and never put a column in it.
North utility
Compressed air, process cooling, busbar, and mist extract run in a 2.4 m spine on the north wall. CNC and Line H dump heat there. EPA and metrology sit on the south, away from vibration and oil.
Phasing
Occupy Hunt’s east hall first — power, MEP, EPA, climate. Housings start on the west mill/turn the same quarter. Then grind + CMM in the east while H, P, L, F land. AS/RS last. Do not pour a new envelope on Almeda.
People
Fully autonomous does not mean zero humans. Twelve technicians on the manned day for exceptions, tooling, and quality. Two remote engineers on lights-out. The mezzanine over inbound is the only office on the floor.
Services
2.2 MVA, ESFR sprinklers, EPA floor in electronics, climate box for CMM, process cooling for P110 jackets. Anodise, chrome, magnetise, and cup nitride are outsourced — do not put wet process in a 37 m hall.
Many products, one platform
Kit-7 is 55 % of volume. The rest is cobot arms, quadruped/exo legs, industrial linears, and third-party hands. Same fixtures, same flash cell, different customer. A 3,700 m² plant only works if the catalog is the same physics as the humanoid.
Build sequence
- 00
Occupy
TI on the standing hall: 2.2 MVA, MEP spine, EPA, climate, aisle. No new envelope.
- 01
Machine
Grind, CMM, kitting in the east hall. Housings stay on Hunt mill/turn next door.
- 02
Assemble
Line H, P, L, F and mixed EOL. Manned engineering overlap. First Kit-7 serials plus catalog overflow.
- 03
Lights-out
Miniload, pallet AS/RS, AMR fleet, and unmanned third shift. Four lines run mix without a shop-floor crew.
Do not put anodise, chrome, or cup nitride in this hall. Do not put docks on the 100 m wall. Do not run a conveyor down the spine. Do not specify a unique actuator per joint. Those four mistakes are how a 3,700 m² plant loses mix and never reaches lights-out.
The hall already stands — capex is occupy and process, not a new envelope. Open the cheque.