Construction on JCB’s new $500 million machine plant in south San Antonio hasn’t started yet, but a lot of thought and collaboration is going into the architecture and design of the planned factory.
Still in the design phase, a team is working on plans for a factory that will be the size of nine football pitches, house bespoke machinery and equipment and employ up to 1,500 workers.
A general contractor has yet to be named, but for its architectural team, JCB has selected San Antonio-based architects RVK, who recently met with the Report to discuss the design of a modern factory.
RVK’s portfolio includes businesses such as Indo-MIM, Samuel’s Glass and a company-owned data center. These works have been in high demand recently as the advanced manufacturing sector in the region has grown, particularly in the last decade.
In early June, JCB management and local authorities began groundbreaking on the Highway 16 site. By this time, clearing and grading of part of the 400-hectare former ranch for the production facility had already begun; work is expected to take another two months.
JCB plans to start producing lifting and access equipment for the construction industry at the factory, its second largest in the world, by 2026.
When JCB is fully integrated into San Antonio’s industrial sector, it will be one of more than 1,500 manufacturers in the region employing about 60,000 people, said Dan Yoxall, president and CEO of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association. The gross regional product of their combined production is $7 billion.
“JCB is a great addition to the wider manufacturing community here, which is very diverse,” Yoxall said. “It fits right in with what’s going on here.”
The sector is very diverse. While companies like Navistar and Toyota spring to mind when you think of factories in San Antonio, Yoxall said other major players include companies like DPT Laboratories, grocery retailer HEB and Steves & Sons, the city’s oldest construction and goods distributor.
“This is not your grandparents’ factory,” Yoxall said. “The idea that people who are interested in this industry have of dangerous, dark, hot factories is just not realistic.”
Design Puzzle
RVK has a team of about 18 designers and others working on the JCB plant as well as a new plant for Bill Miller’s on the west side of San Antonio and several other manufacturing projects.
“This may not sound as sexy as other (architecture) work, but industry and manufacturing are investing so much in these projects, not only to build what they’re building, but to create the infrastructure to support it and to attract and retain talent,” said Heath Wenrich, architect/principal at RVK. “This really takes it to a new level.”
That makes it a very different design puzzle than an office building, he said. In manufacturing, efficiency and flexibility are design requirements.
But like office buildings, most factories are designed with amenities and aesthetics to attract and support workers. JCB plant manager David Carver said he met with worker groups and potential employees in San Antonio and asked them what they wanted for the plant.
Carver said some of the feedback has focused on workers’ shifts and also the air quality in the factory. People don’t want to work in the heat, he said. “It’s just about making sure we provide people with a comfortable work environment.”
Many international companies have a uniform look for their factories that is replicated at all sites. For example, every JCB site has a water feature in front of the building that is partly recreational and partly decorative. The water feature in San Antonio is fed by recycled water from the building’s air conditioning systems.
Maintaining the old condition will also streamline maintenance, said Wenrich.
Machinery and Energy
The infrastructure to support energy consumption and the type of machinery to be installed are probably the most important considerations for any industrial facility, said RVK senior staff Rodney Fontana and Juan Medrano.
For this reason, the design team is usually made up of engineers of all kinds – civil engineers, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and plumbing engineers. “Occasionally, we have to bring in acoustic engineers, telecommunications consultants and kitchen consultants,” Fontana said.
Engineers help calculate the size and weight of equipment, for example to determine the depth and shape of the foundation to support the weight, often while the manufacturing machines are still being designed and built.
“We have to plan for what they might give us because what they buy is not off the shelf,” Fontana said.
A company’s other factories can serve as models – for design but also for improvements, he said, while also considering ways the new factory can efficiently adapt to future product lines and technologies.
Such upgrades can be costly. Toyota announced in June that it would spend $531 million to expand its plant, which opened in 2006, by 500,000 square feet.
Factory design requires a combination of different room types – from employee cafeterias, training rooms and changing rooms to reception and administration offices and production lines.
“All of these things have to fit together in this plan,” Wenrich said. “And when it comes to a building that measures 240 by 270 meters, we print out pretty large sheets of paper.”
