Once you’ve ruled out going higher, denser or up onto a mezzanine, and the building itself is what’s holding you back, the search for more space usually starts with floor area and rent. They’re the easiest numbers to compare across units, and they tell you less about how a building will perform than almost anything else on the particulars.

A move commits you to a lease, a layout and a way of working for years. The decisions that shape it most – whether to move at all, which building to take and what happens to your racking – are made in the weeks before you sign, while they’re still cheap to change. Get them right and you have a building to grow into, instead of one you’re working around by the second peak.

Extending a warehouse, adding a second site or moving sites?

Gaining more space doesn’t necessarily mean moving to a new site though. Each route solves a different version of the problem, and the right one depends on your site, your lease and how much of the operation needs to sit under one roof.

When a second site makes sense

A second building on your existing site can be a useful way to add space, keeping the operation under one management team and one yard. Even so, every metre between the two buildings has a cost, and that’s true whether the second site is across the road or across town. Each pallet that crosses between them takes truck time, an extra touch and often an outdoor route that needs to work in all weathers. Spread across a full year of orders, that travel distance can cost more than the rent on the space itself.

That’s why a second site works best when the stock splits cleanly. Bulk reserve, slower lines or a single 3PL client’s range can run from a separate building with little daily traffic between the two. Where most orders draw on both, the shuttle runs and double handling grow with every order, and a single larger building starts to look cheaper.

What does a move really cost?

The rent on a larger unit is the visible number but rarely the largest part of the cost. Before comparing a move with extending or adding a site, it helps to put the whole scenario on one page:

• Space – the extra square footage in rent, rates and service charges, for the full length of the new lease.
• Exit costs – dilapidations on your current unit, and any overlap between the two leases.
• Fit-out – racking, lighting, dock equipment, power and any changes the sprinkler system needs for your storage height.
• The move itself – dismantling, transport and reinstallation, and the stock transfer that runs alongside it.
• Dual running – the weeks where you’re staffing, securing and operating two buildings while service levels still need to hold.
• People – a new location can change your team’s commute, and with it who stays and how easily you recruit.

Divide that total by the pallet positions the new building adds over the old one, and you have a cost per position you can set against the other routes

What should you check in a new building before you sign?

Two units with the same floor area can hold very different pallet counts, and move them at very different speeds. The particulars give you square footage and eaves height, while the details that decide capacity sit underneath:

• Clear height – measured to the lowest obstruction, whether that’s the roof haunch, lighting or sprinkler heads, rather than the eaves height on the particulars. It sets how many beam levels you can fit.
• Column grid – column spacing decides how racking runs and aisles fit between them, and a grid that doesn’t suit your aisle widths can cost you a full run of racking.
• Floor slab – its load capacity and flatness need to suit the racking height and the trucks you plan to run, particularly for narrow aisle systems.
• Doors and yard – enough dock doors, levellers and trailer parking for your busiest day of despatch, rather than an average one.
• Power and sprinklers – supply for charging, lighting and any future automation, and a sprinkler system that suits the height and type of stock you’ll hold.
• Room to grow – space on site to extend later, or a building that can take a mezzanine or an extra beam level when you need it.

The most reliable way to compare units is to have the racking layout drawn for each building on your shortlist before you commit. It turns floor area into pallet positions, shows where the column grid costs you space and gives you a cost per position for each warehouse storage option.

Can you take your existing racking with you?

Reconfiguring your existing racking for the new building can take a large share out of the fit-out cost, as long as it suits the space and is undamaged and in safe working condition. A different clear height, column grid or floor can change the layout entirely, so the racking needs redesigning for the new building rather than rebuilding as it was. Any additional components should match the original system, and where the manufacturer or original design loads can’t be confirmed, new racking is the safer choice.

Relocated racking needs a rack inspection carried out before it’s dismantled and again once it’s reinstalled, with the design checked against the new layout and new load notices issued before stock goes on. Damaged components are far easier to replace while the racking is down than once it’s loaded again.

It’s also a good idea to make sure your racking is the best option for storing your stock. A move is the point where changing storage type adds least to the cost, because the pallet racking is coming down either way.

How much bigger should you go?

Sizing a new building around this year’s peak means planning the next move before you’ve finished this one. Work from the stock and throughput you expect over the length of the lease, then allow enough headroom to keep occupancy at a level the operation can work with.

Look at height as closely as floor area. A smaller building with good clear height and a grid that suits your racking can hold more pallets than a larger one with low eaves, and costs less to rent, rate and heat.

The storage system you plan to run changes the answer too. High density systems such as pallet shuttle fit far more pallets into each square metre than standard racking, so a business planning to automate storage may need a smaller building than one bringing its current layout across. That depends on the floor, clear height and power suiting the system from the start, so it’s worth deciding before you choose the building rather than after.

How do you move without losing service?

The move itself is where service levels are most exposed. Moving in phases, rather than over a single weekend, keeps orders going out, and it means the new building needs enough racking signed off and running before the old one is cleared.

• Timing – plan the transfer around your quietest period, and work back from it to set when the racking needs installing and the lease needs signing.
• Sequence – move reserve stock and slower lines first, and keep your fastest sellers picking from one building until the other is ready to take them.
• Stock records – set up every location in the new building in your stock system before the first pallet arrives, so the team picks from the right place from day one.
• Installation – phase the racking install so aisles are signed off and loaded while others are still being built.

So, what should I sort before moving to a bigger warehouse?

Every move is different, and a 3PL taking on a large new client will weigh things differently from a manufacturer bringing two sites together. Settling the route, the full cost and the real capacity of each building before you sign gives you a warehouse you’ll grow into, with no surprises on install day.

Questions to settle before you sign:

• Route – would extending or a second site give you what you need with less cost and disruption?
• Full cost – what does the move cost per extra pallet position once dilapidations, fit-out and dual running are counted?
• Real capacity – how many pallet positions does each building on your shortlist give you once the racking is drawn in?
• Doors and yard – will the new building handle your busiest day of despatch?
• Racking – will your existing racking suit the new building and your current stock, or is this the time to change?
• Size – is the building sized for the stock you’ll hold through the lease, with headroom to spare?
• Transfer – how will you keep orders going out while the stock moves?

Talk to BSE UK about planning the layout of your next warehouse, and find out how many pallet positions each building on your shortlist could hold.

The post What should I sort before moving to a bigger warehouse? appeared first on BSE UK.

Your warehouse won’t suddenly run out of room and everything stops working. It fills over time, through small decisions that each make sense in the short term, but combined have a bigger consequence – which is why a unit can feel completely full while a fifth of its locations hold part pallets. How busy a building feels and how much capacity it has left are two very different measurements, and the decision to move, extend or reconfigure depends on the latter.

The answers lead in very different directions. Outgrowing the building means a move or an extension, with lead times measured in months. Outgrowing the layout points to a racking redesign, a change of storage type or better use of the height you already pay for, all of which can be delivered faster and at lower cost than a move. Advances in storage technology have also widened what an existing building can hold.

Automated dense storage, such as a pallet shuttle system, comes at a higher upfront cost than conventional racking, and weighed against the cost of relocating, with a new lease, a fresh fit-out and the disruption of the move itself, it can be what keeps a business in its current unit for years longer.

What does “full” look like in a working warehouse?

A warehouse running at 100% of its pallet locations can’t function day to day. You need free locations to put away incoming stock, to consolidate part pallets and to move product closer to despatch as demand shifts. Once occupancy sits above roughly 85% for most of the year, those free locations become harder to find and your team starts moving stock to reach other stock.

Which of your locations are running out?

Looking at the warehouse as a whole hides where the pressure sits. Your ground level locations, pick faces and bays sized for taller pallets can be full while upper levels and end bays have room to spare. Measured by location type, the picture changes, and if the locations you rely on most are the ones running out, you’re dealing with a mismatch rather than a shortage of space.

Honeycombing takes more space than it looks

Honeycombing is the capacity lost to locations that are occupied without being full – a half pallet sitting in a full height bay, or a drive-in lane holding three pallets of one product when it has room for eight. Those positions count as used even though much of their volume is empty, and in operations with a wide product range they can account for a significant share of what looks like full capacity.

We saw this in our own warehouse after a recent busy period, and a round of consolidation brought the space straight back. That meant combining part pallets and freeing up the locations they’d spread across – and it’s a common observation for many of our clients warehouses too. Honeycombing can also be avoided from the start with a few planning choices:

• Location sizes that match your loads – a mix of beam heights, including some half height locations, gives part pallets somewhere to go without taking up a full bay.
• The right storage type for each line – drive-in racking suits products held in volume, while lower-volume lines sit better in selective racking where every pallet has its own face.
• Shelving for loose stock – a few bays of shelving take small quantities out of pallet locations altogether.
• Consolidation as routine – building it into the weekly schedule, and especially after peak, stops part pallets settling in for the long term.

Have you outgrown the building, or the layout?

This is the most useful line to draw before you start looking at new units. From the floor, the two can look almost identical, and the table below sets out where each of the common signs points.

Has your stock profile changed?

Warehouse racking systems are designed around the stock you held when it went in. For some businesses that profile barely moves from one year to the next. For others it’s changing all the time.

A 3PL can take on a new client and inherit a completely different stock mix within weeks. An online retailer adding lines each season ends up holding more products in smaller quantities, while trade suppliers and merchants handle mixed pallet sizes, long lengths and loose stock in proportions that shift with the building season.

Where the number of product lines rises and the pallets per line fall, dense systems like drive-in racking and block stacking start losing positions to honeycombing, because each product needs its own accessible face. If your stock mix has moved, a layout designed for deep runs of a few products can run short of the right locations without the building getting any smaller.

The height you’re already paying for

Rent and business rates are calculated on floor area, and the volume above it comes with the lease. If your racking stops well below the usable clear height, it was probably specified for the trucks or the stock you had when it went in. An extra beam level or taller frames can add positions without adding square footage, and a mezzanine floor can lift packing, returns and other work that doesn’t need pallet racking off the ground floor altogether

What is overflow costing you each week?

The cost of overflow is spread across separate budgets, so it helps to work it out as one cost per pallet per week:

• Overflow storage – container hire, third party charges or rent on a second unit, divided by the pallets it holds.
• Extra handling – labour and truck hours spent moving stock in and out of overflow areas, including relocations inside the main building.
• Transport – shuttle runs between sites, and the knock-on delays to customer orders when stock is in the wrong place.
• Lost floor time – goods in and despatch space taken up by stock that should be sitting in a location.

With that figure in front of you, any reconfiguration or move is weighed against what the current setup already costs, rather than against doing nothing

What if you’re already using temporary storage?

Containers or a temporary building put in for a busy period can end up as a permanent part of your capacity. Kept apart from the warehouse, they add a journey and an extra touch to every pallet that passes through. Connected properly, they can carry real capacity while you plan the longer term answer.

That starts with what goes in them – slower and more predictable lines like seasonal stock, bulk reserve and packaging, so your fastest sellers stay close to despatch. A level, lit and covered route between the two buildings keeps stock moving, and giving the overflow proper locations in your stock system means your team picks from the right place first time. That record pays off later too, because what sits in temporary storage, and for how long, shows you which part of your layout is running short. If the overflow is now part of normal running, check the structure still suits the job, as temporary buildings can have time limits on planning consent.

What can your building take before you commit to more?

Before planning taller racking or a denser layout, it’s worth knowing what the building will support.

• The floor slab – taller racking puts higher point loads through each baseplate, and very narrow aisle systems need a flatter floor too. The Concrete Society’s TR34 guidance sets out flatness categories for different types of storage, so a slab survey early on saves designing a layout the floor can’t take.
• Racking design and load notices – moving beams or adding levels changes what the racking can safely carry. Any change needs checking against the original design and the load notices updating before it’s loaded again.
• Fire strategy and insurance – storing higher or denser can affect your sprinkler requirements and your insurer’s conditions, so bring your insurer and fire engineer in at the start of the layout.
• Your trucks – your fleet sets the practical top beam height and aisle width, so narrower aisles and taller racking may mean a change of truck as well.

How far ahead should you be deciding?

Finding a unit, agreeing the lease, designing the layout, installing the racking and moving the stock can take many months, so working back from the point your locations will be consistently full, minus that lead time, tells you when the decision is due. A reconfiguration takes less time, and planning it around a quieter part of your year puts the extra capacity in place before your next peak.

So, how do I know if I’ve outgrown my warehouse?

There’s no single figure or warning sign that settles it for every operation. A business with a steady range can run comfortably at a level that would stall a 3PL or a fast moving online retailer. Looking at capacity, flow and cost together, and being clear whether the limit is the building or the way it’s set up, gives you the answer that fits your own operation.

Questions to ask about your own warehouse:

• Occupancy by type – which location types are full, and which have room?
• Stock profile – how many product lines do you hold now, and how many pallets each, compared with when the racking went in?
• Height – how far is your top beam level from the usable clear height?
• Doors and staging – does pressure show at goods in and despatch before it shows in the racking?
• Overflow – what’s held outside your main locations, and for how long. What does it cost per pallet per week?
• Building limits – what will the floor, the sprinklers and your trucks allow?
• Lead time – when will you be consistently full, and how long would a move or a redesign take?

If the answers point to the layout, there’s likely more capacity in your current building than it seems. If they point to the building, you’ll be making the move with clear evidence behind it.

Talk to BSE UK about planning your warehouse storage and find out how much capacity your current building has left.

The post How do I know if I’ve outgrown my warehouse? appeared first on BSE UK.