Premier Automation’s PanelShop.com specializes in custom, build-to-print panel manufacturing, supporting customers who may lack in-house manufacturing capabilities or need to scale beyond them. In many cases, customers provide complete designs, bills of material, and specifications. In others, the “design” may arrive in far less formal forms.
“The primary type of work we do is taking customer-designed equipment and making it a reality,” explains Ryan Svilar, General Manager of the PanelShop.com team. “Sometimes that design is fully detailed. Other times, it’s a concept, a photo, or even something sketched out much earlier in the process.”
In addition to custom builds, the team also supports high-volume, repeat production for customers operating critical infrastructure—where consistency, schedule adherence, and quality control are non-negotiable.
Industries like data centers bring unique challenges. High demand, aggressive timelines, evolving technologies, and volatile supply chains all converge at once.
“The volume is a major factor, but it’s also how quickly designs can evolve,” says Ryan “When a component gets specified in a data center project, demand for it can spike overnight. That affects availability, pricing, and schedules across the entire industry.”
As diverse as the projects may be, the common thread across PanelShop.com’s work is a disciplined approach to execution. Turning customer designs into reliable, production-ready panels requires more than technical skill—it demands a well-defined process, careful coordination, and an uncompromising focus on quality at every stage. That structure is what allows the team to scale from one-off builds to high-volume production without losing consistency or control.
While the PanelShop.com team doesn’t typically create system designs, the team plays a vital role in interpreting, validating, and refining what customers provide to translate their ideas into real products.
“Our first step is making sure the design actually works,” says Justin Dumm, Automation Engineer. “Just because something is drawn doesn’t mean it’s optimal—or even sound. We look at efficiency, safety, layout, and long-term serviceability.”
That upfront diligence helps prevent downstream issues in the field. From there, the process moves through wire counts, labor estimates, sourcing, procurement, scheduling, assembly, testing, and shipping—each step tightly coordinated to hit customer timelines.
“We’ve seen everything,” Ryan notes. “Fully engineered drawings, PowerPoint slides, lists of components, photos of existing panels—and yes, even napkin sketches. Our job is to take whatever starting point we’re given and turn it into something that meets the customer’s real-world needs.”
Quality assurance becomes even more critical during high-volume production runs. In those cases, the team adds additional layers of inspection and verification beyond standard testing.
“A few minutes of extra review early on can save hours—or days—in the field during installation,” explains Justin. “Especially when what we’re building supports critical infrastructure, the stakes are high. That responsibility drives how seriously our team approaches quality.”
Those same fundamentals now serve as the foundation for how the team is preparing for future demand across fast-moving industries.
As demand grows across industries like data centers, energy systems, and advanced manufacturing, the role of PanelShop.com continues to evolve.
“What we’ve proven is that high-volume panel production doesn’t have to sacrifice quality,” says Justin. “We’ve developed a repeatable model that works—from procurement and scheduling to production and testing.”
That foundation positions Premier to support more customers looking to scale quickly without losing consistency or reliability. Strategic vendor partnerships, internal training, and continuous process refinement all help ensure the team can adapt to shifting technologies and supply chain realities.
Customer expectations have also changed in recent years. While timelines and costs are influenced by global factors, transparency has become increasingly important.
“We’re very open about what’s possible, what it costs, and why,” Ryan explains. “Customization is always an option—but it has to make sense for the application and the budget.”
Experience gained from high-volume production, changing customer expectations, and years of real-world execution has shaped a clear perspective on what works, what creates challenges, and where assumptions often miss important details. Those insights translate directly into practical lessons for customers planning their own panel projects.
For customers planning large panel projects, the PanelShop.com team consistently emphasizes the importance of clarity and foresight early in the process.
“Fully understanding what the panel needs to integrate with and how it will function is critical,” says Justin “If something gets missed upfront, the time and cost to fix it later can be significant.”
Defining a comprehensive project scope also helps avoid delays and change orders.
“When requirements keep expanding mid-project, it creates frustration for everyone,” Ryan adds. “Clear goals from the start lead to smoother execution.”
One common misconception is that panel building is straightforward.
“There are a lot of nuances the average person doesn’t see unless they’ve been involved in the process,” explains Justin. “Wire routing, spacing, thermal considerations, safety standards—those details are what determine how a panel performs over its lifetime.”
For companies moving from small batches to high-volume production, scalability depends on more than just adding labor.
“You need the right footprint, strong supply chains, solid quality systems, and a focus on repeatability,” says Ryan. “Standardization is what allows efficiency to improve instead of problems multiplying.”
As industries continue to grow and evolve, PanelShop.com remains focused on delivering panels that customers can trust—on time, built right, and ready to perform.
“If our customers are satisfied with the quality and delivery, that’s success,” says Ryan. “And internally, success also means having a team that feels valued, supported, and able to grow.”
It’s that combination of technical expertise, disciplined process, and people-first culture that keeps PanelShop.com positioned to meet the next generation of manufacturing demands.