CEAC-2021-02-February

News
The Art of Mobilization: Ensuring the
Continuity of Industrial Production
By Del Williams
Industrial manufacturers require production reliability and
continuity. However, a wide range of conditions can make
this challenging — from unexpected emergencies, power
grid failures and blackouts to partial plant shutdowns for
maintenance, upgrade, replacement, or expansion.
So, when uninterrupted power, power storage, water pumping,
filtration, treatment, etc., is necessary for production,
safety, or regulatory compliance, a growing number of manufacturers
are looking to mobile trailer and containerized
units. These modular units can complement, supplement, or
replace such functions on a temporary or permanent basis.
Notably, the units can be customized to meet specific needs
and delivered in a fraction of the time and cost that it usually
takes to build onsite or offsite.
With a collaborative approach and flexible design options,
such modular systems can quickly be taken from concept to
turnkey asset. When necessary, supplemental support solutions
can even include mobile offices, command and control
centers and foodservice kitchens. Organizations with multiple
sites can transport the mobile units wherever needed at
any time.
applications. Additionally, the lead time to receive a mobile
solution can be excessive. This is a concern when the mobile
units are built by firms that outsource much of the work to
off-site subcontractors, each with their own production leadtime
constraints and potential bottlenecks.
Building supplemental systems and delivering them to
remote locations can have significant schedule and cost
benefits. This is true where locations may have limited access
to local skilled labor or where getting labor to the installation
site. This is also beneficial when a schedule requires that
many systems be installed in parallel by allowing subsystems
to be built and delivered ahead of schedule.
Fortunately, more-nimble, vertically integrated design and
fabrication firms that can scale up for larger projects are now
meeting the need for fast, flexible, collaborative construc-
“Custom-built trailers can be configured to act as rapidly deployable
mobile units to provide remote power generation
and distribution, water treatment, and battery energy storage
systems (BESSs). The units can be designed to a variety of
specifications and sizes with high output capabilities, sound
mitigation, and minimal environmental impact,” says Mark
Steele, CEO of St. Charles, MO-based Craftsmen Industries, a
rapid designer and fabricator of mobile, containerized units
for temporary or permanent use.
Since 1982, Craftsmen has fabricated mobile units for organizations
such as Verizon, AmerenUE, Dell, and the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs, along with dozens of others.
Overcoming Conventional Limitations
Traditionally, adding capacity to an existing industrial facility
has been constrained by the limited amount of available
space near production or processing lines.
Even when space was available outside, constructing structures
outdoors to house and protect equipment needed for
functions such as power, pumping, and water treatment is
expensive, slow, and usually not feasible if the need is temporary.
While utilizing industrial equipment in mobile trailers has
been an option, the solutions are rarely tailored to specific
30 | Chief Engineer