How to save time and money in warehousing
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BUILD HIGH AND USE PALLETS
By John Darker PRACTIC AL advice on warehouse layout and design was given by Mr. Peter Falconer, an internationally recognized authority, at a oneday seminar in London last week. The seminar was organized by Davies and Robson, transport and distribution consultants.
Mr. Falconer said that techniques in mechanical handling were changing so rapidly that buildings not flexibly designed could easily be obsolete in a year or two. Internal walls and partitions should not be permanent structures.
It was pointless—with a new building with a life of 30 years or more—to arrange artificial roof lighting to coincide precisely with the designed layout of warehouse racking and aisles. As likely as not, pallet sizes or handling devices would change, making fixed light points ineffective.
The very long roof spans favoured by some architects were quite unnecessary, said the speaker. Stanchion grids of 60ft by 60ft or 80ft by 80ft and with 30ft headroom would serve the great majority of warehouse applications. Elaborate natural roof lighting was expensive not only in first cost but in heat loss when the warehouse was operated. He saw little need for natural roof lighting, though windows in perimeter walls of working areas were a pleasant amenity.
Mr. Falconer said the additional cost of a 30ft building as opposed to a 15ft was only 7 per cent; whenever planning permission allowed it, the 30ft roof would be most economic. When land was costly—a recent warehouse site of five acres at Elstree had cost £180,000—it was especially important to build to 30ft if storage costs were not to be prohibitively expensive.
Excavation, said the speaker, was much cheaper than filling, on uneven sites. Before the war excavation cost 7s 6d per cubic yard. Today it only cost 9d.
It was a great mistake, said Mr. Falconer, to lay down expensive roadways on a warehouse site. He favoured a yard, or yards, with a single entrance to the warehouse. Roadways for vehicle circulation were an expensive luxury to be avoided.
In Australia, he said, 8ft by 8ft pallets were successfully used in warehouse operations. Vehicles could be turned round in two minutes perfectly feasibly.
He believed strongly in purpose-built lowplatform vehicles using front-wheel drive; a German maker had produced a 3-tonner whose platform pivoted to ground level. The users, said Mr. Falconer, swore by the design and found it invaluable for many general haulage operations.
Asked the cost of a new warehouse, Mr. Falconer said a good working figure was £2 15s Od per square foot—frame buildings for as little as I Is 6d per square foot were available but it was broadly true that a properly equipped warehouse cost five times as much as a simple frame structure.
It was a false economy to erect a cheap framed building with interrupted roof levels. These effectively reduced storage capacity and were a hazard to mechanical handling equipment. Large opening doors, electrically operated, were a valuable feature of modern warehouses but, when fitted, it was important that controls should be arranged in door leading edges—otherwise the doors tended to be left open for long periods.
Other speakers at the seminar included Mr. D. R. Davies, whose subject was "The Container Revolution—Has it been oversold?" and Mr. R. P. A. F. Williams, who dealt with "Mechanical Handling Aids".
• A FURTHER 18 miles of M1 were opened to traffic this week. A 13+ miles section, from Pinxton to Barlborough in Derbyshire, was opened from Wednesday and 4+ miles from East Ardsley to Stourton near Leeds, opened from 11 a.m. today.