Zeuna Starker is one of numerous German Tier 1 automotive suppliers that followed BMW to the United States in the early 1990’s. Like many transplants, Zeuna Starker bought a small piece of land and built a small manufacturing facility to supply the South Carolina-produced Z3s. While this decision helped to minimize the initial risk of the company, it made it difficult for the facility to grow quickly and efficiently to meet its customers’ demands.

As BMW expanded its production volume and Zeuna Starker enlarged its North American client base, the exhaust system maker soon outgrew its Spartanburg facility. Looking to continue its partnership with BMW and capitalize on its strategic Southeastern location to supply other OEMs, Zeuna Starker turned to Context Design Group to redesign their entire manufacturing operation, to improve efficiency and increase production capacity.

The resulting project was a 56,000 square foot expansion to the existing manufacturing facility. Context Design Group worked to optimize space usage, redesigning every work cell to increase efficiency and improve process flow. Context designed the facility expansion to allow for phased production growth without disrupting the ongoing production schedule.

administrative and engineering functions.  Context Design Group master planned a 12,000 square foot phased office addition to meet this need. The office expansion was designed to be built on top of the existing office area with minimal disruption to daily operations. A 3D computer model of the proposed expansion allowed Zeuna Starker’s executives in the United States and Germany the chance to see what the entire facility would look like after completion of the expansion projects.