(Editor’s Note: In today’s Thursday Feature, we travel deep underground to a subterranean cold storage facility where operators have been struggling with lighting costs for decades.) Deep below the surface of Johnson, Arkansas, is a former limestone mine and Cold War fallout shelter called “The Cave”. For nearly 50 years, it has served as a … Read more
The city of Memphis is known for the authentic blues, great barbecue … and basketball shoes? Nike — the Portland, Oregon, based maker of sports footwear — recently expanded its distribution center in Memphis to a sprawling 2.8 million square feet, making it the biggest Nike DC on the planet. The interior of the updated facility … Read more
During the last few posts I have been discussing loading dock design. In the first article titled Loading Dock, I covered safety considerations and the layout and creation of the area known as the apron space. This is the space in front of the loading dock where trucks can maneuver safely for proper positioning in … Read more
In the first story on Loading Docks, I discussed the loading dock design of apron space and truck bays. In this installment I will cover Types of Docks and Dock Approaches. There are five types of docks –- Cantilever, Enclosed, Flush, Open, and Saw Tooth. Cantilever Loading Dock Design This particular style of loading dock … Read more
A major section of a warehouse that calls out for the execution of safety practices is the loading dock. Not adequately considered, a loading dock can be the center of major accidents and needless expenses. Risks and expenditures can be minimized as long as proper safety features are incorporated into the design. Careful planning can … Read more
Most businesses use automation to stack pallets. But if you’re packing all or some of your pallets by hand it often can seem like a game of “Jenga”, the tabletop game in which wooden pieces are carefully stacked until one wrong piece causes the whole thing to come falling down. Even companies that usually use … Read more
The Second Harvest Food Bank, in Springfield, Ohio, is manned mostly by volunteers. But executive director Keith Williamson was having a hard time retaining unpaid workers because of conditions at the charity’s warehouse. Because of the 58,000 square foot warehouse’s open floor plan, volunteers packing boxes of food to be distributed to the area’s needy … Read more
Editor’s Note: In today’s Thursday Feature, we are going to examine the rise of the machines, or why robots have suddenly made the leap from manufacturing to widespread use in material handling in warehouses and distribution centers. Just a few years ago, robots were widely used in manufacturing but rarely — if ever — seen … Read more
Many businesses are experiencing a boom in their operations. Orders are once more coming in, production is ramping up, and people are finally getting back to work. But what happens when business is so booming that you need to expand … and quickly? Purchasing and re-equipping a new facility can take years of planning. And … Read more
Fans are such a big part of our indoor environments that most of the time we hardly ever know they are there. Yet without fans to cool, ventilate and circulate fresh air and remove odors, many of the spaces where we live and work would be uninhabitable due to a buildup of noxious pollutants and … Read more
