GENERAL CRITERIA FOR THE DESIGN OF WAREHOUSES AND DISTRIBUTION CENTERS

THE PLANNING OF A WAREHOUSE

Much of the bibliography, documentation, and training related to the Warehouses and Distribution Centers focus on the operation and operation of the operation, however little is detailed about Lay Out or Warehouse Planning. For this first stage, and for the reality of our country, it is necessary first to take into account the following aspects: Location, Zoning, Urban Enabling, Urban Parameters, and Neighborhood.

FIRST STAGE

A good location should allow easy and quick access to the trucks that will bring or carry the merchandise, and the proximity to main roads to reach customers. Industrial Zoning will correspond to the type of activity or industry that we will develop: I-1, I-2, I-3, or I-4 (Elemental, Light, Large Industry, and Heavy Industry respectively). Urban Habilitation, for those lands that do not have this qualification, must be processed for Industry and will consider Integral Planning, Contributions (for parks, ministry of education), Road and Environmental Impact, among others. The Urban Parameters will indicate the limitations and requirements that the project must meet: Free area, building coefficient, parking lots, etc. Finally knowing the Neighborhood is important to determine if the activities of the surrounding industries will affect us with the pollution of noises, smells or fumes; Or if on the contrary our activities will disturb the neighbors.

SECOND STAGE

Analyzed these aspects, and determining the property where we will install, the second step is to determine the characteristics of the infrastructure to build or implement. For this it is necessary and fundamental to take into account the following:

• Entry: Must allow differentiated entry and exit of trucks and automobiles. The ideal is to have only one access zone; Having more than one will bring more infrastructure, greater equipment, greater risks, and above all greater need for security personnel to control. This does not mean that inside the warehouse there may be entry and exit of goods in opposite areas, due to the own dynamics and operational flows of the Distribution Center.
• Sizing of the warehouse: The type and amount of merchandise, and its frequency of rotation, will determine the dimensions of the heap and the total of positions needed at a given time; These criteria added to the seasonality, will indicate the maximum capacity of the warehouse. The sales forecast will show us the needs of positions in the short, medium and long term.
  
  Knowing the dimensions of the heel and the number of positions with their respective area of future expansion, we must now dimension the storage modules. The height of the warehouse shall be determined by the height of the rack where the stacker or hoist with which the company counts or acquires, plus the adequate space for the positioning of luminaires and splinklers of the fire-fighting system.
  
  There are forklifts of different models and brands ranging from forklift trucks that can be raised approx. 5.35 m (5350 mm) with a maximum load of 2,000 klgs; To a retractable forklift that can reach 16.50 meters in height with a load of 1,000 klgs. Different types of stackers or forklifts require different widths of corridors between racks; The suppliers of these equipment already have those minimum widths that consider the necessary margins of security. Knowing the height, widths of aisle and dimensions of the racks, we can already size the warehouse or warehouse.
  
  Since the cost of storage is by position, mt2 or mt3, and it considers the fixed and variable costs of the operation, it is important to achieve the greatest capacity of storage space that allows the use of land or property, thereby obtaining the best Return on our investment.
• Location of offices: The location of the administrative offices should not hinder the operation of the warehouse or subtract its possibilities of expansion. Placing them on a second floor can give them the additional possibility of visually controlling the ships and the same operation.
• Location of complementary services: Cafeteria, Hygiene Services, Maintenance Workshop, etc.
  
  For security and functionality criteria, the complementary services should be located outside the warehouse and extension areas. The pollution they generate, as well as the inherent dangers of their inputs and equipment, forces them not to contaminate the operation with their proximity.
• Location of the sub-station or main boards: A correct energy design should take into account the warehouse's power center. If the largest load or power requirement is concentrated in a sector of the Distribution Center (for example because of a need for refrigerated environments), the substation and main switchboards should ideally be located close to it. It should be borne in mind that the transfer of energy over long distances is a major expense in electrical cables of generally important sizes.

Apart from these general considerations, we also have to consider a sustainable or eco-friendly design criterion, which seeks to optimize natural resources and building systems in order to minimize the impact of buildings on the environment, occupants and the neighborhood.

Arq. Leopoldo Lituma
Gerente General INGENNIA SAC
Miembro de APPROLOG
llituma@ingenniasac.com