CASE STUDY
SUPPORTING A GLOBAL CROP SCIENCES COMPANY’S NORTH AMERICAN LAUNCH
When one of the world’s largest crop sciences companies decided to establish a domestic manufacturing and distribution footprint in North America, it turned to C-P Systems for guidance. The project involved converting a 200,000 sqft former distribution center into a hybrid blending and distribution facility for chemicals that are highly regulated in the U.S. Throughout the project, our team provided a variety of services including project management expertise, managing U.S. permitting and code compliance, and hands-on coordination across teams on two continents.
Working across time zones required coordinated communication, which both teams managed effectively. We also helped enable a smooth path forward by assembling the right team of domestic partners, leading complex permitting and design efforts, and providing ongoing request for information (RFI) assistance during construction oversight. As a result, this was a strong example of coordinated collaboration between the client’s global engineering team and C-P Systems’ local execution expertise, and the company is well positioned for a successful U.S. launch and future phases of growth.
Challenge
The client partnered with C-P Systems to complement their global engineering and process design capabilities with local U.S. regulatory and execution expertise. Since the company was building out their flagship North American operation from scratch on a tight timeline, to ensure seamless execution, the client expanded the team with a trusted local partner who could perform a variety of functions including:
- Assisting with site selection
- Supporting the harmonization of global design intent with local regulations
- Performing building modification design work as needed to comply with local building codes
- Managing multiple vendors across many disciplines, including selecting and onboarding local contractors
- Responding quickly to RFIs and field questions during construction
Having the technical expertise, regulatory fluency, and project agility this scope demanded was a tall order.
Solution
C-P Systems stepped in to serve not just as the project liaison for this work, but to act as the manufacturer’s on-the-ground team in the U.S. The project unfolded in the following carefully coordinated phases:
Assisting with Site Selection
We helped the manufacturer’s team screen and evaluate a 200,000 sqft former distribution center in Champaign, Illinois. The building’s location, condition, and foreign trade zone designation made it an ideal site, and the team was ready to get to work on the design right away.
Laying the Groundwork with Detailed Facility Documentation
To provide a highly accurate foundation for design efforts, we conducted a full laser scan of every square inch of the selected facility, including the roof, and digitized legacy drawings from when the facility was built. Then, leveraging our local expertise and existing working relationships, we brought in a nationally recognized leader in building permit expediting and code consulting to guide a code analysis, determine necessary building modifications for compliance, and eventually lead the permitting process. This helped with expediting permitting and enabled the prequalification of contractors with the city when the time came.
Bridging Global Design with Local Execution
Drawing from trusted industry relationships and proven project partners, we assembled a highly qualified, U.S.-based team to handle the most hands-on aspects of the project including structural, architectural, electrical, procurement, and fire protection services. We also led design coordination efforts to align the international team’s design intent with U.S. codes, practices, and commercially available materials to ensure both compliance and constructability. This led to managing a variety of additional tasks we excel at such as line sizing conversion, assembling comprehensive piping specifications, and providing guidance on standard practices for layout and piping distribution.
Performing Vendor Selection and Permitting in Parallel
As the international team finalized the process design, we coordinated vendor selection for instrumentation and equipment while the permitting process advanced. When crunch time came and we were trying to wrap up the permitting process, we interpreted the city plans reviewer’s requests locally and performed some of the design revisions to expedite the process. We also assisted with correcting formatting issues when documents needed to be uploaded to the city’s documentation review portal.
For vendor selection, we helped maintain a competitive and capable bidder pool by blending preferred contractors with new local entrants. Ultimately, three contractors were engaged. Based on an existing relationship we had, we also helped the manufacturer secure a local senior engineer to serve as the construction manager for this project and their technical and engineering lead once the facility is up and running.
Driving Construction Forward with Hands-On Oversight
During construction, we played a pivotal role in responding to RFIs, managing field questions, and facilitating value engineering. For example, we helped accelerate construction and save money by offering alternatives for some of the substructures being built inside the building. This included making recommendations for modified framing, roof assemblies, and door and window schedules that meet design intent while simplifying buildability.
Results
The company’s U.S. expansion project stayed on track for its fall opening, thanks to our ability to:
- Act as a trusted U.S. liaison, project manager, and oftentimes owner’s representative
- Expedite permitting and construction readiness
- Adapt designs to speed execution without sacrificing quality or compliance
- Coordinate more than a dozen service providers
Why C-P Systems
Our team brought much more than just project oversight into this engagement. By capitalizing on our process and industry experience as well as our project coordination and management expertise we offered the manufacturer a unique skillset above and beyond what we were hired for including:
- U.S. regulatory expertise – Critical for meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations and local permitting requirements.
- Trusted relationships – We streamlined team assembly and vendor sourcing.
- Cross-cultural project fluency – We enabled timely decision-making between U.S. and international teams, and when challenges arose, we quickly brought all members of the project team domestically and internationally together to address hurdles quickly while preserving the camaraderie and positive outlook on the project.
- Hands-on agility – We resolved issues rapidly on the ground during execution.
While this current project was wrapping up, the manufacturer started to discuss plans for future facility expansion. Based on this experience and the lessons learned during this project, we believe we are well positioned to serve as the go-to partner for their future U.S. project management and engineering needs.
If you have a strategic multidisciplinary project in need of skilled personal coordination, let’s chat.
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