Warehouse Design

Distribution Center Facility Design encompasses the (re)design of the processes, lay-out and IT and Material Handling Equipment requirements of a current or greenfield site. An Operations Audit or a DC Facility Design can often yield in savings or cost avoidance by extending the lifespan of current buildings or applying new concepts to reduce building and labour costs dramatically. Given today’s technology landscape including application of robotics and the scarcity of labor in some markets to staff DCs, finding the right balance between occupancy, investments in equipment and labor is key.

Warehouse Design & BCI advice

The approach of Buck Consultants International with the design of logistic operations leads to savings or cost avoidance. BCI offers these facility master planning services via its partner St. Onge Company. St. Onge is a renowned American facility design consultant, with its European headquarters in the office of Buck Consultants International in Nijmegen.

Facility master plan for logistics real estate

Our DC Facility design services include:

  • Facility audit - The building capacity and bottlenecks are assessed and adjusted to maximize the capacity in the building. This typically happens to operations which have (nearly) reached the economic lifespan
  • Facility Master Planning - This is usually the first phase in the design of a new operation. During this phase a financially viable and optimal lay-out is developed, accounting for the required material handling and warehouse management systems. The initial design phase intends to generate, evaluate and financially justify an optimized solution with a feasible layout design, the right material handling equipment and WMS. BCI assesses a full range of alternative solutions ranging from conventional to fully automated systems and robots
  • Procurement - Upon capital approval, we develop the functional systems design documentation and information systems specifications
  • Implementation management - Coordination of implementation efforts and appropriate acceptance testing are critical to a successful project completion

Learn more about Warehouse Design?

  • Urban Outfitters – Facility Design, resulting in two DCs in a campus setting in the UK
  • Samsung – DC operations audit and facility design as part of the WEDC 3PL tender
  • Nuskin – Operations audit and improvement review for Nuskin’s DC and filling operation
  • Albert Heijn/Ahold – DC facility master planning
  • AS Watson – DC facility master planning
  • Micheal Kors – DC operations audit to assess maximum capacity at current building and develop improvement plan to accommodate more volume in existing building