Dock shelters increase comfort, decrease cost
Focused on employee comfort, national bed retailer Select Comfort installs dock shelters that keep temperatures stable inside, weather outside and lower energy costs all around.
By Lorie King Rogers, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 4/1/2009
When is a door not a door? When it’s ajar… and an energy hog. Even the smallest gaps at your dock doors can cost you big in energy bills and employee comfort, not to mention the cost to your DC’s appearance and company image.
As an operator of a fully air-conditioned production and distribution facility in the Columbia, S.C., area, Select Comfort Corp. places a high value on employee comfort. They also understand the need to control the 110,000-square-foot facility’s energy costs, especially during hot, sticky southern summers.
To achieve the best of both worlds, Select Comfort installed energy-efficient loading dock shelters (Rite-Hite, 800-456-0600, www.ritehite.com) in 12 of the facility’s 18 dock positions. The result is a cooler, more comfortable working environment for its 200 workers and annual energy savings of $12,000—with the potential for additional savings as more docks are upgraded. What’s more, payback of the new dock shelters is estimated at about two years.
The Select Comfort shipping department is busy seven days a week, with employees working 10- to 12-hour shifts. According to Darin Swiger, facility order fulfillment manager, the air conditioning system wasn’t keeping the loading dock environment at an even temperature throughout the day and was also suspected for high energy costs.
“We took a look at the temperature fluctuation to see why it was happening, and more importantly, what we could do to fix it,” said Swiger.
Prior to installation, an analysis showed the old loading dock shelters were contributing to a potential energy loss of $40,000 a year.
The solution called for installing new dock shelters that could seal off the exposed trailer door hinge gaps while providing full, unobstructed access to trailer loads and stopping the identified energy loss.
The replacement dock shelters can also stand up to repeated impact from semi-trailers being backed in too quickly or arriving off-center. “A little bump here and there shouldn’t cost you $5,000 worth of damage,” Swiger says. “However, the shelters we were using could be easily destroyed if a trailer backed into them.”
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