Bob Trebilcock

What makes a winning warehouse?
January 15, 2008

What makes a winning warehouse?

I was thinking about that the other day as I reviewed the dozen warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing plants we featured on the pages of Modern Materials Handling in 2007.

It’s not an idle question. Once a year, the members of our editorial team have to choose our favorite facilities as nominees for our annual Productivity Achievement Awards Dinner. This year’s event will be held at NA 2008 in Cleveland.

What makes it so tough? For one, they’re all good facilities. As Tom Andel, our editor-in-chief puts it: We're selecting the best of the worthy.

But I noticed something else as I was going through this year's list: Many of the warehouses and DCs we wrote about did more than just store goods and fill orders. More and more, the DC and plant managers I interview tell me how their facility is an integral part of a broader corporate strategy. In other words, the executive suite no longer takes for granted what our readers do for a living.

Examples

Let me give you two examples of what I mean.

The first is the new American Eagle distribution center in Ottawa, Kansas. From a materials handling standpoint, it’s a dream. The facility sports a high-speed conveyor and sortation system, space-saving high-bay storage and three types of picking systems—voice-directed, RF-directed and pick-to-light.

But what really stands out is the warehouse control software system that simultaneously manages cross-docking, case picking and pallet-building operations for store replenishment across three distinct store brands, and piece-picking across multiple brands for direct-to-consumer orders. Conventional wisdom says that can’t all be done well in one space. American Eagle is handling it all with room to grow as the businesses expand.

The second is the Gardner Denver manufacturing plant in Sedalia, Missouri. After running its service parts business from a distribution center in Memphis for many years, Gardner Denver, a leading manufacturer of industrial pumps and compressors, came up with a better idea: Why not integrate the parts distribution operations with the same system that replenishes parts and components to the line in its manufacturing plant? That would eliminate one facility from the corporate balance sheet and reduce a duplication of parts. As with American Eagle, the solution was a combination of automated materials handling—in this case a carousel system—and sophisticated automation control.  

What do you think?

Those seem like new and winning approaches to manufacturing, warehousing and distribution to me. Will our advisory board agree? I won’t know until they work their magic. But, for those of you who design and manage plants and DC’s for a living, I’d like to know what catches your eye when you visit another facility, and how you measure the success of your operations.

Tell us what you think makes a winning warehouse and why. You can post a comment below for our community of readers, or send me an e-mail at Robert.Trebilcock@verizon.net. 

Posted by Bob Trebilcock on January 15, 2008 | Comments (0)