When it comes to increasing capacity in your warehouse, it may seem that the easy option is to get more of the same type of racking and dedicate more space or get a new warehouse.
But that isn’t always the best option, as one of the UK’s largest drinks manufacturers discovered.
The company had originally planned to build an additional warehouse and create additional storage capacity with the same drive in racking they were using in their existing facility with a budgeted cost of approximately £4million.
After discussing the plans in detail with the project team, Thistle Systems’ proposed a high-density storage solution which increased capacity by 36% in the same floor space at a cost of approximately £1.7 million and delivered a return on investment of under 2 years.
The solution was developed using our Max the Cube approach which examines the full range of alternatives and assesses the capacity, operational costs, and ROI of each.
Thistle designed the entire warehouse solution to maximise the benefits of several different types of racking, including a semi-automated solution to exceed the required capacity and avoided the need to build a new warehouse and the considerable cost that came with it.
However, the solution also brought significant operational improvements to the business, such as, reducing travel times for the picking process, reducing loading times for the wagons and reducing the forklift requirements.
Also, by moving away from drive in racking and improving the rack protection, Thistle Systems’ solution dramatically reduced the amount of damage to racking and uprights and the associated stock.
Thistle worked closely with the client forming a joint project team to ensure a smooth and effective installation programme. This took into consideration the phasing of the project to minimise disruption, the training of employees on the new systems as well as the actual commissioning of the system.
This was vital as the project was completed in the lead up to the client’s busiest periods of the year, and therefore no slippage could be afforded in the schedule to ensure the warehouse could cope with the full manufacturing schedule and a busy despatch area.
So whilst the company did not originally want the racking, they quickly realised that this was the racking that their business needed.
Client confidentiality prevents us from publishing more detailed information on what was delivered, however if you would like to find out more, give us a call on 01236 453888.
