Prepared for lenders, CDCs, and federal agencies to SBA SOP 50 10 8, USDA 7 CFR Part 5001, and conventional underwriting standards. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency, never the borrower. 4,000+ engagements since 1998 covering $41.2 billion in evaluated project value. So far in 2026: 41 engagements and $1.54 billion evaluated — 17 SBA, 11 USDA.
Manufacturing feasibility joins market demand to production economics. The study establishes demand for the plant's output — contracted, identified, or market-derived — then tests the production model: capacity and utilization ramp, input cost structure, labor availability at the required skill level, and the capital budget against industry benchmarks. Machinery and equipment builders are analyzed on order backlog and pipeline, engineering content per unit, aftermarket and parts revenue durability, and the working-capital cycle that long build times impose. Because USDA and SBA reviewers read manufacturing studies against job-creation and rural-impact criteria as well as repayment, the study documents employment, wage levels, and local economic effect to the standard the program requires.
Methodology combines industry production and pricing data, industrial production and capital-spending indices, RSMeans location-adjusted facility budgets, BLS occupational wage data for the staffing model, and RMA and IBISWorld operating benchmarks. The financial model carries the utilization ramp, input-cost sensitivity, and program coverage tests across the firm's standard stress discipline, with every assumption sourced.
Every Wert-Berater financial model is fully linked with no hardcoded values, so any reviewer can stress any input. Deliverables comprise a complete narrative report and the linked Excel model, with ten-year pro forma, sensitivity analysis at ±5, 10, and 15 percent, interest-rate stress from +0.5 to +3.0 percent, and ratio analysis benchmarked against RMA and IBISWorld data.
SBA engagements are prepared to SOP 50 10 8, including its debt-service-coverage minimums of 1.15x operating and 1.00x global. USDA engagements follow RD Staff Instruction 5001 across the Business & Industry, Community Facilities, REAP, and Value-Added Producer Grant programs. Conventional engagements are built to the lender's stated coverage standard, typically 1.20x. Manufacturing reaches us predominantly through USDA B&I — where rural plant economics and job creation align with program purpose — alongside SBA 504 for owner-occupied facilities and conventional lending; Value-Added Producer Grant studies are prepared to 7 CFR Part 5001 where agricultural producers integrate forward into processing.
The firm's manufacturing and processing record spans USDA B&I and SBA engagements nationwide, including cold-chain, food-system, and industrial projects; manufacturing studies are prepared with the same fully linked financial models and stress discipline as every Wert-Berater engagement. Independence is non-negotiable: determinations follow the evidence and are not revised under pressure, and studies are built to pass lender, agency, and third-party review without exception items.
Screening the industrial market before committing to a full engagement? Manufacturing Market Risk Intelligence is a report prepared by our analysts to a published structure: supply, demand and the operating conditions in one market, with coverage shown before the order is taken. It is a market risk view, not a feasibility determination on your project, and it does not replace the study described on this page.
A machinery & equipment feasibility study is not a generic manufacturing template applied to a new address. The scope is built around the specific production process: the equipment train from raw input to finished unit, the engineering content embedded in each product, the build cycle that governs how long capital is tied up before revenue is recognized, and the aftermarket revenue stream that often determines whether debt service holds through a demand trough. The study documents each of those layers in the narrative and encodes them in the financial model so a reviewer can trace every assumption to its source.
Demand for capital equipment is not read from a single market-size report. It is assembled from multiple independent signals that together establish whether a buyer population exists at the volume and price the project requires. The analyst begins with end-market conditions: the industries purchasing this equipment category, their capital-spending cycles, and the industrial production indices that track output in those sectors. Federal Reserve industrial production data and Census Bureau capital-expenditure surveys provide a macro frame; trade association shipment data and published order indexes for the relevant equipment category add specificity.
Competitive supply is mapped through manufacturer directories, public filings of publicly traded competitors, and import-export data from the U.S. International Trade Commission, which shows foreign competition by product code and country of origin. Distributor networks and dealer agreements on record with state commerce registries indicate how incumbents reach buyers. Where the borrower holds existing contracts or letters of intent, those documents are reviewed for volume, pricing, and cancellation terms — and the creditworthiness of the counterparty is noted, because a backlog is only as durable as the buyer behind it. The demand section concludes with an explicit statement of how much revenue is contracted, how much is identified but unsigned, and how much depends on market-share capture from a defined competitive set.
Four inputs move the debt-service-coverage ratio more than any others in a machinery and equipment study. Each is tested across the sensitivity matrix so a lender can see the coverage floor, not just the base case.
SBA reviewers applying SOP 50 10 8 require that the study demonstrate 1.15x operating coverage and 1.00x global coverage, with both tests documented in the financial model. For a machinery builder, the operating-coverage test is sensitive to utilization ramp: if year-one revenue is thin because the sales cycle is long, the study must show that the debt structure accommodates that ramp without breaching coverage minimums. SBA also requires that the feasibility analyst be independent of the borrower and that no fee be contingent on the finding — conditions that Wert-Berater satisfies as a matter of firm policy on every engagement.
USDA Business & Industry reviewers under 7 CFR Part 5001 add job-creation and rural-economic-impact criteria that are not present in SBA review. A machinery plant in a rural county must document employment by classification, wage levels relative to the local median, and the multiplier effect on the surrounding economy. The study addresses each criterion explicitly so the agency reviewer does not need to request supplemental documentation.
Conventional lenders typically require 1.20x coverage and focus on collateral adequacy alongside cash-flow coverage. Specialized equipment used in a single production process has limited liquidation value, which means the cash-flow case must be strong enough to carry the loan without reliance on collateral recovery. The study documents that distinction and does not present equipment appraised value as a substitute for demonstrated repayment capacity.
The fee is fixed and quoted in writing within one business day of an inquiry. It does not change if the analysis is more complex than anticipated, and no portion of it is contingent on the study's finding. A lender or sponsor who needs a budget number before committing to a data-room assembly can have one the same day they call.
Standard delivery is ten to fifteen business days from a complete data room. For a machinery and equipment project, a complete data room includes: executed or draft purchase agreements and letters of intent, equipment quotes and vendor specifications, the borrower's historical financial statements, the proposed debt structure, the capital budget with supporting bids, and any existing market studies or engineering reports. Rush delivery is available when the credit timeline requires it.
Once the study is complete, the bound narrative report and the fully linked Excel model are published to a secure client portal. The model remains live: if a lender wants to test a different utilization assumption or a revised interest rate, the model recalculates immediately without requiring a new engagement. The explicit statement of conditions — the assumptions on which the favorable finding rests — travels with every deliverable so that any reviewer, at any point in the credit process, understands precisely what the study does and does not establish. Wert-Berater has completed 4,000+ engagements representing over $41.2 billion in evaluated project value, and every engagement is prepared under the same fixed-fee, independent, no-hardcoded-values discipline.
The fee is fixed, quoted in writing within one business day, and does not change based on the study's finding. Because project scope varies — a single-product assembly operation differs materially from a multi-line capital equipment builder with aftermarket revenue — the quote is specific to the engagement. No portion of the fee is contingent on a favorable determination.
Standard delivery is ten to fifteen business days from receipt of a complete data room. Rush delivery is available when a credit committee deadline or SBA or USDA submission window requires it. The clock starts when the data room is complete, not when the engagement is signed, so assembling documentation in advance of engagement is the most reliable way to compress the timeline.
Three factors distinguish it: the working-capital cycle is long because units are built to order over weeks or months before revenue is recognized; the order backlog can evaporate if a single large buyer cancels; and specialized equipment has limited collateral liquidation value, so the cash-flow case must stand on its own. A credible study addresses all three explicitly rather than relying on an optimistic utilization ramp to paper over them.
Yes, when the financing vehicle is USDA Business & Industry or another 7 CFR Part 5001 program. Those programs require documentation of job creation by classification, wage levels relative to the local median, and rural economic impact. The feasibility study must address each criterion in the narrative — not as a boilerplate appendix — so the agency reviewer does not issue a request for additional information that delays the credit decision.
The standard deliverable set includes a ten-year pro forma, sensitivity analysis at plus and minus five, ten, and fifteen percent on key assumptions, interest-rate stress from plus 0.5 to plus 3.0 percent, and ratio analysis benchmarked against RMA and IBISWorld data. The fully linked Excel model is published to a secure client portal where it remains live and recalculates when any input is changed.
The study can be structured to satisfy both SOP 50 10 8 and 7 CFR Part 5001 simultaneously, since the two frameworks share a common core of market, financial, and management analysis but diverge on rural-impact documentation and coverage-ratio minimums. Both sets of requirements are addressed in the narrative and tested in the financial model so a single study supports both agency submissions without amendment.
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Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent provider of feasibility studies and other related services. The firm does not provide financing or equity investment advice, and does not arrange, broker, or place debt or equity capital of any kind.
All appraisal assignments are performed by Bruce E. Jones, MAI, ASA-GC, BCA, CMEA, a member of the Appraisal Institute since 2006, a staff member of Wert-Berater, Inc. and owner of Special Purpose Realty Valuation.