Building Up to Make More Room on the Plant Floor

This month’s Project of the Month features a two-story in-plant office built for Coplas at its Sterling Heights, Michigan manufacturing facility.

Coplas needed additional enclosed office space inside its 600,000-square-foot facility, which supports GMC Sierra bumper assembly. Rather than expanding the building or taking up more valuable plant-floor space, The Safety Source worked with Panel Built to create a vertical solution that added office capacity directly within the active manufacturing environment.

Panel Built supplied a two-story modular in-plant office totaling approximately 1,340 square feet. The structure measures roughly 34 feet by 20 feet and reaches an overall height of about 21 feet 9 inches. By building upward, Coplas was able to create two levels of enclosed workspace within a compact footprint.

The first floor features a 10-foot-4-inch ceiling height, while the second floor provides a 9-foot ceiling. Large laminated-glass picture windows throughout both levels help maintain visibility into the surrounding production area, keeping the office connected to activity on the plant floor.

The office also includes electrical throughout, 125-amp load centers, provisions for mini-split HVAC systems, half-glass entry doors, and a deck system consisting of 20-gauge B-deck with ResinDek LD.

The completed project gave Coplas additional enclosed workspace while keeping teams close to manufacturing operations and avoiding the need for a conventional building expansion. Despite a time-sensitive schedule, the project was completed on time and to the approved specification.

Special thanks to The Safety Source for working with Panel Built on this project.

If you’ve recently completed a Panel Built project, share your photos with us at [email protected] for a chance to be featured as our next Project of the Month.