WAREHOUSE DESIGNS,LOCATIONS

1. Explain factors to be considered in
warehouse location and design.
QUESTION 6

2. Introduction
• Build/Lease Considerations
• After you decide which warehouse best fits your needs, you must take into
consideration the locations to either build or lease.
• If you’re a seasonal product it might make the most sense to find a location that
offers seasonal warehousing.
• Ensure you’re properly informed of immediate square footage storage offerings in
addition to the long-term options available
• Physical Location
• When deciding on which warehouse to use, choosing the one with the best
physical location is important. Ensuring your product is stored in a region near your
customers is important for prompt deliveries. This also factors into considering cost.
• Calculating landed transportation costs to facility from manufacturing, and expected
transportation costs from facility to end customer, will help decide where you can
afford to keep your product.
• The location’s proximity to carrier facilities should also be taken into account.

3. • Availability of Skilled Workforce - Purchasing
a building in a remote area may cost less, but
it can come at a cost, with a shortage of skilled
or trainable workforce. It is best to be located
in an area that will have ample supply of the
proper mix of skill sets which will support your
operation for example near high density
residential area.
Cont’d

4. Cont’d
• Zoning and Intensity of Use - How intense is
your operation and what are your needs going
to be in the foreseeable future? However other
items to consider are noise levels, emissions
and need for outdoor storage. These needs will
drive which districts to target for your new
operation.

5. Cont’d
• Storage Requirements
From hazardous materials, flammable product and food
items, many companies manufacture products that have
strict storage and fire fighting requirements. Always be sure
to also take any environmental concerns into consideration,
are there any streams, ponds, etc. in close proximity?
• Staging/Material Handling Capabilities - Another factor to
consider is availability of staging facilities and handling
equipment. If the primary mode is truck/trailer, does the
facility have depressed docks and is there a need for these
docks to be internal? Perhaps a highly intense distribution
use will need cross docks. In addition, are there ample
outdoor storage facilities and is there turning room for
material handling equipment and trucks?

6. Cont’d
• Location of suppliers: Consider the current shipping locations of
your suppliers, as well as the delivery locations you’re arranging for
customers. Where are most of those deliveries being made? Are your
warehouses located in the optimal zones to minimize the costs for
both your company and your client?
• Access: Any public warehouse you’re thinking about contracting or
considering as a major distribution center will need to be easily
accessible from major highway arteries. Additionally, if you’ll be
importing or exporting a great deal of material, they should also be
close to major port locations with strengths aligned with your
product type. . A key factor to keep in mind is that 20% or more of
your costs come from transportation of your goods.

7. Cont’d
• Experience: Check their established date to make sure
it’s a good balance of age, showing they’ve weathered
the test of time, combined with newness of the facility
with modern technology and touches to make things
flow efficiently. Too old can mean antiquated
processes, but too new can mean they’re still working
out the kinks, so to speak. Additionally, what are they
experienced with?
• Employees: Compare the size of their facility to the
amount of employees and determine if you feel it’s a
good fit for the type of service you require. Are the
employees knowledgeable about the types of services
you need provided?

8. Cont’d
• Risk: When you’re using an outside vendor for
warehousing, this can remove a significant part of the
risks associated with logistics. Your partners will
shoulder some of this burden as they help to resolve
potential issues and work proactively to reduce
traditional issues associated with moving product with
machinery.
• Processes: How many doors do they have, and what is
their system to manage the inbound vs. outbound
traffic? Do they have a set staging procedure? Can they
handle inspection, storage, dispatch, inventory, reverse
logistics, packaging, labeling, or reporting?

9. Cont’d
• Client Profile: On average, how much square footage do each
of those clients occupy? If they have 50 customers who only
occupy a small amount of their space, that could be a warning
sign that the warehouse doesn’t have the experience to
attract larger companies with more sophisticated
requirements to command larger square footage utilization.
• Storage Area: Will their storage area provide the capacity you
require? It’s important to not only ask about their storage
area, but more specifically, what is presently available to you.
Do they anticipate any storage becoming available in the
future in order to accommodate your growth?

10. Cont’d
• Technology: What type of Warehouse
Management System do they use? Can your
system for processing orders and managing your
supply chain integrate with theirs? What type of
handling equipment are they utilizing? If your
product lines are numerous with assorted SKU’s,
you may need to search for warehouses with
more advanced robotics or sorting conveyor belt
systems to minimize human error when loading
the trucks.

11. Cont’
• Association Memberships: Are they active members
of any well-known associations that can lend an extra
bit of credibility to their operations? If they
demonstrate their commitment to being card-
carrying members of the IWLA (International
Warehouse Logistics Association), for example, that
shows they are interested in presenting themselves
among groups of their peers, learning, gaining
resources for improvement, and demonstrating their
value over time.

12. Cont’d
• design
• Flow
• Cubic capacity
• Ability to integrate materials handling
equipment,
• Truck access
• Trailer storage ,
• Freeway access

13. Cont’d
• Turning lanes
• Tpt cost
• Space availability
• Security and utilities
• Cost of either buying and building or leasing

14. Warehouse Design
Building /Construction
Lease/ Rent/ Contract