Workforce Development Center Upfit Design

In order to support growing biopharma manufacturing operations and to provide additional modernized training services, the Johnston County Economic Development Corp. (JCEDC) contracted with CRB to provide design services for the Johnston County Workforce Development Center Upfit project.

The Workforce Development Center is a shared facility in partnership with Johnston County, Johnston Community College and local industries, including Novo Nordisk A/S and Grifols S.A., that supports education and training programs in biotechnology and clean manufacturing.

The JCEDC established the following project goals and requirements:

• Provide a clean and modern design that is flexible to support biopharma manufacturing training
• Create an open and transparent space that fosters training and education in a creative atmosphere
• Create a space that could be configured to support multiple training programs, including operational manufacturing, maintenance and cleaning states
• Provide for a flexible space to allow for process connections and collaboration of operators between rooms
• Our team designed and developed an electrical service and distribution system to suit the facility’s additional power requirements. Electrical upgrades included modifications to the facility’s lighting, grounding, telecommunications and fire alarm systems.

The new space is a mix of fixed and adaptive rooms to allow for equipment flexibility to accommodate training programs. The space includes process flows like a typical manufacturing plant with upstream, downstream and processing areas.