Greenfield Transmission Plant
ZF Friedrichshafen AG
Through design modifications, experience, and innovation, SSOE has saved the client nearly $5 million.
To meet their growing product demand in North America, renowned automotive parts supplier, ZF Friedrichshafen (ZF) chose to build a new transmission plant in Greenville, South Carolina. ZF selected an experienced team comprised of SSOE and other contractors to design and construct the 970,000 SF facility.
SSOE is currently providing architectural, mechanical, and electrical design and engineering for the entire facility, which will consist of manufacturing spaces, offices, laboratories, a data center and a cafeteria. The facility, which is ZF’s first passenger car transmission plant in North America, will produce fuel efficient, eight and nine-speed automatic transmissions.
As part of the original project scope, the facility was classified as an F-1 and S-1 use group (International Building Code). However, with SSOE’s vast experience with similar facilities it was realized the facility should actually be classified as an F-2 and S-2 use group. As a result, several unnecessary fire protection systems were eliminated, saving the client $575,000. This cost savings, combined with several other design innovations, has resulted in a project savings of more than $4 million.
