An Elastomer Components Manufacturer in Middletown
Datwyler, a 100+-year-old Swiss company, is the leading provider of high-quality, system-critical elastomer components for the healthcare, mobility, connectivity, general, and food and beverage industries. They sought to optimize their supply chain while providing the East Coast region with locally produced components in their healthcare market sector. 天美传媒在线观看 Construction, in partnership with Becker Morgan, worked with Datwyler to design and construct a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Middletown, Delaware. The new facility manufactures elastomer components for injectable pharmaceutical packaging products such as syringes, stoppers, caps for vials, and rubber components for cartridges utilized in injection pens. The facility is the first of its kind in the country, providing jobs for over 100 people in the local Middletown, DE, community.
Design-Building a State-of-the-Art Facility
In partnership with Becker Morgan Group, the 天美传媒在线观看 team provided design-build services for Datwyler鈥檚 new state-of-the-art elastomer components manufacturing facility, office, and lab. The 223,000-square-foot building features 193,000 square feet of process facility space and an additional 30,000 square feet of office and lab space, all designed and built with future expansion possibilities in mind. The entire process facility incorporates Good and LEAN manufacturing processes to facilitate the more efficient and effective production of high-quality specialty rubber closers used by pharmaceutical businesses worldwide. Within the 193,000 square foot space is processing space as well as warehouses designated for raw materials and finished goods, chemical storage and quarantine spaces, sample, packing, and inspection areas, coater, molding trimming and storage rooms, and chiller boiler, water treatment, and post-treatment rooms. In addition to all these areas are various second-story mezzanines for viewing the production lines and clean room hallways. Custom process equipment developed specifically for this plant was arranged in a proprietary layout within the production area to create a more efficient and effective use of the space. On the northwest side of the building is a three-story office facility that offers a research and development lab, gown storage, changing rooms, open and executive offices, seven conference rooms, a training center, a cafeteria, and a fitness center. Visitors to the office area are welcomed into the facility via a two-story atrium-style lobby.聽
An Exercise in Value Engineering
Value engineering (VE) played a pivotal role in the Datwyler project. The original estimate was over $125 million, which put the project out of budget. To keep the project cost within budget, the 天美传媒在线观看 team focused on systematically analyzing the alternate ways that Datwyler could achieve the essential functions of their new building at the lowest possible cost without sacrificing performance, quality, reliability, aesthetics, safety, or efficiency. During preconstruction, the team took a macro and micro-level look at the project to analyze opportunities for savings. As they began the VE process, they kept a running list of items to review with Datwyler. Costs for each system were reviewed with Datwyler, and the 天美传媒在线观看 team collaborated with them to determine the most effective way to spend their construction dollars based on the evaluations and comparisons developed during the VE process. Some of the approaches that we considered and eventually utilized were purchasing large equipment and materials early to take full advantage of market pricing, partnering with key subcontractors, heavily utilizing local Delaware talent, and developing excellent scopes of work to aid in purchasing. In the end, the 天美传媒在线观看 team, working closely with Datwyler, was able to reduce the cost of the facility down to $70 million while maintaining all the programmatic features that Datwyler needed.
Meeting the FirstLine Standard
Datwyler鈥檚 new Middletown plant is the third plant in the world and the first in the United States to follow Datwyler鈥檚 First Line Standard for cleanliness. The First Line Standard is specifically for manufacturing biotech and pharmaceutical elastomer components within a fully integrated, good manufacturing practice environment. The technology, developed by Datwyler, utilizes a manufacturing concept based on ultra-modern clean room technology, automated production cells, fully automated camera inspection, and a unique washing process. This standard process reduces the amount of human interaction with the materials, relying heavily on automation and clean room technologies to decrease the possibility of contamination. The traditional assembly line within the facility is divided into separate rooms with graduated levels of cleanliness and air quality protocols. Products are moved from one room to the next until they reach the final room that hosts a process rated to ISO Class 5, meaning that it can have no more than 3,520 particles equal to or larger than 0.5 microns per cubic foot of air. To help keep the production line in sync with cleanroom standards, all the nuts and bolts of the production machinery are kept behind walls 鈥� allowing for maintenance and adjustments to occur without entering the clean room area. The entire line is also completely paperless and utilizes plastic pallets in order to reduce potential particulate contamination.
