FAQ / ENGINEERING
What a feasibility study actually delivers
What a material handling feasibility study is for, what it delivers — design basis, options, concept layout, equipment and load lists, indicative budget — and what it is not, in twelve questions.
Part of the guide: How to specify a bulk material conveying system
The word feasibility gets attached to anything from a phone call to a bound report, which is why the questions below matter more than the label. In material handling, a feasibility study is the piece of work that turns a project someone can describe into a project someone can price and build. It fixes what is known, tests the realistic options against it, and writes the result down as a design basis that the rest of the project inherits.
What is a feasibility study for?
A project usually begins as a symptom or an ambition: the silo blocks, the line cannot make the new rate, the plant needs a second product through the same building. At that point the largest cost driver is whatever nobody has measured yet. The study exists to narrow that. It establishes the material, the duty and the site — the three things a specification has to fix — and only then compares the ways of meeting them, before anyone has committed to one.
It is deliberately cheaper and quicker than design, because most of its value lies in the questions it retires. A route that crosses a road which cannot be closed, a gallery that cannot take a new head pulley, a powder that will not fluidise: each is better discovered on paper than in the shutdown window.
What comes out of it?
The deliverables are documents, not equipment, and they are written to be used by whoever takes the project forward.
- A design basis — the material data, the duty statement, the site constraints and every assumption, so that later decisions have something to be checked against.
- Option sketches — the two or three realistic ways of meeting the duty, drawn well enough to be compared honestly.
- A concept general arrangement of the preferred option — plan and elevation, levels, footprint and interfaces; the note on reading a general arrangement explains what to look for on it.
- An equipment list with duties and approximate sizes, and a load list for the structural check.
- A risk register — the technical, site and schedule risks, with what would retire each one.
- An indicative budget range with its accuracy stated, and a first view of the project stages that would follow.
What is it not?
A study is not a tender price, not a detailed design and not a drawing package anyone can fabricate from. The concept arrangement shows that the plant fits; it does not show how each part is made. The budget range is for deciding whether to proceed, not for placing an order. How far the study gets is set largely by what the plant sends at the start — the items on the pre-enquiry checklist — and it is where our design and engineering work begins.
QUESTIONS WE HEAR
What is a feasibility study in material handling?
A short, bounded piece of engineering that establishes whether a handling problem can be solved, in which ways, and roughly at what cost. It fixes the material, the duty and the site constraints, compares realistic options against them, and records the result as a design basis that design and procurement can build on without reopening the questions.
What inputs do you need to start a study?
Whatever exists: a description of the material with any test data, the required rate and hours, drawings of the site and the existing plant, photographs, the constraints that cannot move, and the history of what has gone wrong. Gaps are normal. Part of the study is deciding which gaps to close by measurement and which to cover with an assumption and a margin.
How long does a feasibility study take?
It depends on the scope: how many options are to be compared, whether material testing is needed, how much survey work the site requires and how quickly information arrives. The scope and the programme are agreed at the start, in writing, and adjusted if the study uncovers something that changes them. A study is bounded; it is not open-ended.
Does the study include costs?
It includes an indicative budget range for each option carried forward, with the accuracy class stated so that it is not mistaken for a quotation. The range is built up from the equipment list, the structure, the electrical scope and the site work, with allowances where detail is missing. It is for deciding whether to proceed, not for placing an order.
Can the study be used to go out to tender?
Yes, with care. The design basis, the concept arrangement and the equipment list give every bidder the same problem to price, which is what makes proposals comparable. A tender still needs a scope split, interface definitions and commercial terms added to it. The study is the technical core of an enquiry rather than the whole enquiry.
What if the conclusion is that the project should not go ahead?
Then the study has earned its fee. A clear reason why an option does not work — a structure that cannot take the load, a material that will not flow through the space available, a rate the route cannot carry — costs far less on paper than on site. The report records the reason so that the question is not reopened every year.
Who owns the deliverables?
The plant that commissioned the study. The report, the design basis, the sketches and the lists are written to be used by whoever takes the project forward: us, another engineer, or the plant's own team. That is why the assumptions are written down. A document that only makes sense to its author is not a deliverable.
Does a study commit us to Greening for the project?
No. The study is a separate, bounded piece of work with its own scope and fee. Its output is written so that it can be taken to any competent engineer or supplier, and it is designed to be used that way. If the project does continue with us, the study becomes the starting point of design rather than being repeated.
How is a feasibility study different from basic and detailed design?
A study decides whether and how. Basic design fixes what — the arrangement, the equipment duties, the structural and electrical scope — to a level that can be tendered and permitted. Detailed design produces what fabricators and installers build from. Each stage narrows the previous one and should not reopen it without a reason that is written down.
What does the design basis contain?
The material data with ranges and their source; the duty statement — nominal, design and peak rates, hours, availability; the site constraints — levels, structures, access, utilities, shutdown windows; the plant standards and safety requirements that apply; and every assumption made where data was missing, flagged as an assumption so that a measurement can replace it later.
How are the options compared?
Against criteria agreed before the comparison starts, so that the answer is not shaped to fit a preference: capacity and material suitability first, then containment, footprint, structural impact, energy, maintenance access, disruption to operations and cost. Each option is scored or ranked on the same basis, and the reasoning is recorded next to the result.
What happens after the study?
Usually a decision: proceed with the preferred option, go back for more data, or stop. If it proceeds, the design basis becomes the first page of the design, the risk register becomes the list of things to close, and the concept arrangement is developed into a general arrangement that the structural, electrical and civil work can be checked against.