‘Five-star’ warehouse ensures speedy throughput

Shippers are increasingly taking a more mature approach and outsourcing non-core activities like warehousing. FTW takes a look at some of the sophisticated solutions on offer. ‘Five-star’ warehouse ensures speedy throughput SPACE! IT’S been a top priority for Kuehne & Nagel’s warehouse general manager Graham Smit who reached the boundaries of frustration while trying to store the company’s moving goods in a 2000m2 facility at Jet Park. That was until the company moved its entire Gauteng operation into a spanking new building at Longmeadow West last September. With it came a 6 000m2 state-of-the-art warehouse. “It’s like moving from a one-star establishment into a palace,” says Smit with elation as he walks around the new facility with its floor-to-ceiling avenues of racking - allowing 4 200 pallet slots - and a further area of open floor space where fast moving cargo is stacked. He calls the open floor space the ‘touch and go’ area. It allows rapid movement of consignments in and out of the facility, mainly for the growing air freight side of the business. Adjacent to it, and filling an entire section of racks dedicated to it, is the largest contract of all, the boxes of vehicle seat covers and interior fittings which fly off to Germany on a daily basis. “We’ve tried to think of everything and believe we have come up with a balanced solution,” says Smit. All racks are fully bar-coded, enabling fast picking of goods. Six new forklifts move among the lanes of packaged goods. They are equipped with small camera units to assist the operator with package positioning at high-reach levels. “Little things like this mean a lot,” says Smit. “We’ve gone the extra mile to ensure everything works to order.”