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The Opel General Motors Manufacturing Plant in Rayong is a major manufacturing facility that enables production output to expand from 90,000 to 150,000 cars per year.
As the general facilities designer of this plant and another in Poland, Arup provided multidisciplinary engineering design and construction management services for both plants simultaneously. The challenge was to tailor the plant designs to fit the local setting under a tight schedule.
Project Summary
80,000m² plant
150,000 carsproduced per year
120,000m²of built floor area
Design for local climate
The plat was designed to suit the hot and rainy climate of Thailand. The roof contains insulation between inner and outer profiled metal skins to mitigate the effect of solar gain and provide sound insulation especially while raining. The walls are made from single skin profiled metal cladding without insulation, but have overhangs and laps to prevent rainwater from entering the factory and louvres at ground level for ventilation.
A high-level monitor was installed at the ridge of all production shops with open sides and overhangs similar to the perimeter walls to provide continuous natural ventilation. We calculated the optimum open areas needed at two levels to ensure crossflow ventilation. A mezzanine beneath the monitor houses the electrical switchgear and ventilation plant needed for process extract and to supplement natural ventilation.
We eliminated internal rainwater pipes and valley gutters wherever possible to reduce potential leakage and remove rainwater from inside the factory during construction. The roof is curved at the eaves to allow water to cascade off it into open drainage trenches at ground level around the perimeter of each shop.
Design for fast construction
The plant was designed for easy construction to reduce both cost and construction time. All the production buildings are of steel truss construction with as much repetition of sections and detailing as possible. Similarly, the finishes and services detailing throughout each project were kept the same wherever possible.
The roofs for all buildings were designed with slopes to the perimeter with only unavoidable internal rainwater collection, thus reducing both the need for trades inside the building and rain damage and interference to partially complete internal works.
Global collaboration for excellence
We successfully delivered both plants within 27 months by closely collaborating with Opel in Germany whilst coordinating our design teams based in the UK, Poland and Thailand.
The success is a testament to our technical excellence and project management expertise. We quickly identify the organisational and management approach to specially address the size, speed and multi-location aspects of this project. We also maximised the benefits of synergy between the two locations, allowing key staff to support each other as needed without operating constraints.
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