本文作者Alexandra Walsh将从配送中心虚拟视图技术应用，地理位置，自动化，合作方，可持续发展空间角度阐述配送中心设计的那些事儿。接下来就是长篇英文分享，考验各位冷链同仁们英语能力的时候到喽。（有段落总结）

 

The distribution center — that critical component of the cold supply chain — has seen a flurry of design innovation in the last few years. Efforts geared toward accommodating the velocity of products passing through these facilities, SKU proliferation, and the complexity of distribution requirements have triggered new and better design processes.

 

But now, DC design innovation is moving at warp speed as forward-looking builders are using 3D model-based processes, combined with virtual reality technology, to help their 3PL clients envision cold storage space that is increasingly maximized, optimized, automated, and sustainable.

 

 

（这一段是从虚拟视图角度出发讲3D模拟的分销中心有什么好处，比如可以在设计阶段便得到反馈，节省时间和金钱，并且这些都可以远程参与，不用人员长途跋涉到现场）

 

Once the domain of the gaming world, 3D paired with virtual reality technology now is being used to design distribution centers.

 

Matt Hirsch, President of Primus Builders, is delivering projects using Revit, a Building Information Modeling (BIM) software. Revit allows the design and construction teams to present to owners a digital representation of their project in 3D before construction begins. “Basically, we virtually construct buildings before we ever get in the field,” Hirsch says.

 

Primus has taken BIM a step further. The design-build firm is now offering 3D-VR (Virtual Reality). 3D-VR allows clients to actually feel like they are in their new building before it is built. After Primus designs the 3D renderings, they are uploaded to a smart phone via link or QR code. The viewer places the smart phone in a Google Cardboard (a virtual reality box) and is able to virtually experience being in the facility while the project is in the design phase.

 

“The advantages are the ability to visualize what we’re doing with much greater context than is possible with 2D design, and a much larger client team can get involved in the process,” Hirsch explains. “The local operations team and corporate engineering team can provide feedback early on in the design phase saving time and money, and that involvement can all happen remotely.”

 

Virtual design is coming into its own at a time when PRWs are being asked to do so much more, particularly in value-added services, than they were 10 years ago, Hirsch points out.

 

“Case picking and repackaging operations are adding a huge number of workers to these facilities, and management is having to completely rethink the front end, not just storage,” adds Hirsch. “You can come up with great ideas on paper of how to deal with large increases in employee numbers or truck traffic, but being able to virtually get into the facility and interact with it before building begins is invaluable.”

 

Another example of the benefits of virtual interaction before construction is in the refrigeration rooms and maintenance areas. “BIM permits you to model all the piping and valves. This allows maintenance crews to go in and review those areas virtually and start creating Standard Operating Procedures on how they intend to isolate valves and execute maintenance, all before the facility opens.”

 

Mike Lynch, Vice President, Engineering for United States Cold Storage, agrees. “Using 3D in a virtual environment allows me to see the warehouse design in a way that is much easier to recognize and identify. I can better see conflicts, such as whether that piece of steel will interfere with that rack, and resolve the conflict before it becomes a problem, which is much cheaper.”

 

Lynch says he also appreciates being more productive as he travels less. “With virtual models, I no longer have to travel long distances to discuss drawings, and senior executives and other members of the team can now see the end product before it’s built, which facilitates communication and feedback.”

 

 

（这段说的是分配中心的区域位置非常重要，以及对于第三方物流来说，低成本才是建立分配中心时最先要考虑的，而不是这个建筑要建得多高多宽多深多长）

 

Some aspects of cold storage design and construction never change such as — location, location, location!

 

“The most important aspect in designing distribution centers will always be finding that perfect site on which to build — whether that’s access to a port, rail or intersecting interstates,” acknowledges Scott Guimond, Project Manager for Fisher Construction Group. “With the high cost of prime property, the second most important aspect has become maximizing the location by optimizing the cube and getting the most pallet positions possible. The return on investment equation is dependent on the maximum positions within the footprint available, in order for the dollar per pallet position to drop.”

 

“From a 3PL position, it is always cheaper to build up then out, taller rather than wider, deeper, longer buildings,” points out Lynch.“Until recently, the industry has been limited to 40 feet high, but now material handling equipment and fire protection systems are being tested and approved that will allow us to be able to go up to 50 feet in three levels of pallets.”

 

 

（这段是关于当前大热的一个话题——自动化。自动化，意味着更高的劳动效率，最大化的储存，低成本，能源的节约。但是，虽然自动化的优势明显，但因为成效与成本存在正相关，找到一个均衡点是很关键的。最后，自动化不是商品，你的合作伙伴对你而言非常重要。不要一上来就谈业务，而是先进行开放的对话，确定目标，了解你的客户是如何为他们的客户服务的。合作应建立在信任的基础上）

 

Another major trend in distribution center design, and one that goes hand in with building ever upwards, is automation, automation, automation!

 

“With automation comes labor efficiencies, maximized storage and lowered costs, and huge energy savings,” Guimond says. “Those large overhead doors that now allow so much infiltration can be reduced to a small opening the size of a pallet with a conveyor running through it, and as there is no need for lights in the automated storage space, you saving on energy and heat load.”

 

Hirsch adds that Primus has built eight automated facilities in the last four years.

 

“There is a major push towards automation, and I think the industry is at the tipping point, especially because of the continuing labor costs associated with the industry,” Hirsch asserts. “We have a PRW client that wants to double the size of their company, while adding less than 10 percent incremental employee growth, and they realize that automation is the way to do that. In Europe, I’ve visited 30,000 pallet automated operations run by five people and that’s the entire staff.”

 

Hirsch says that in his experience building automated facilities, the best outcomes are achieved when the mindset is not, “let’s add automation to the way we currently run things,” but the inverse, “if I have the best automation, how should I run my business.”

 

Hirsch contends that you have to look holistically at a new approach to running an automated facility.

 

“Everybody wants one automated solution that works across the country in all their facilities, but there isn’t one automated solution for every PRW, and people need to be okay with that,” Hirsch suggests.

 

“You have to strive for a happy medium because the reality is that if you try to build a solution that meets all your needs, you won’t be able to, and even if your could, you wouldn’t be able to justify the cost.”

 

Instead, Hirsch suggests designing an automated system that meets 80 percent of all business needs but that can be adjusted in the future to meet the other 20 percent.

 

Another observation Hirsch has about successful automation projects is that they involve people from every level of the business.

 

“You want to avoid scenarios such as an engineering group working on a solution without bringing the operations team in early in the process,” Hirsch says. “I’ve seen success when local facility management, engineering and operations are all actively and collaboratively involved in making solutions meet each one of their needs.”

 

“Automation is not a commodity and the partner you select is extremely important,” Hirsch continues. “If the conversation starts with throughput numbers and skews, you’ve already gone too far. You need to lead with an open dialog and identify goals and objectives and understand how your client is trying to service their clients.”

 

Hirsch adds that the most successful automation projects he’s completed have been a marriage between the PRW owner, a solid construction company and automation experts.

 

From the PRW perspective, Lynch says regardless of whether a build project is automated or not, what he looks for in his construction partner is, assuming all things are equal and price is not an issue, who does he feel most comfortable working with.

 

“The schedule must be met, communication is paramount, innovation is important, but usually my build partner is someone with whom I have already spent time fostering a relationship based on trust and cooperation,” admits Lynch.

 

 

（这段是关于合作伙伴的。在传统上，食品加工厂希望签一个尽可能短的合同，而我们则希望这个合同时间尽可能长。笔者认为，有一种方法可以达到均衡状态，那就是互惠互利）

 

There is another kind of partnership that is becoming increasingly important, especially in building automated facilities.

 

“The reason you haven’t seen the industry jump on the band wagon with everyone going higher and becoming fully automated is that automation is not inherently flexible,” Lynch explains. “If you have a large customer base that is changing every few years, so are pallet heights, weight, temperature, turns and case picks.”

 

Lynch points out that a manual warehouse is 100 percent flexible while warehouses with automated systems operate somewhere between 40 and 80 percent on the flexibility scale. “Once your customer gets outside of those ranges, you have a problem,” Lynch admits.

 

“If I automate our warehouse and make that kind of capital investment, I need a big enough window to recover that investment,” Lynch points out. “But traditionally, food processors want as short a contract as possible, and we want to be as long as possible, but I know there is a way to reach a middle ground and craft creative agreements and a construction partnership that is mutually convenient.”

 

In fact, United States Cold Storage and Primus recently completed a semi-automated facility in Covington, Tennessee, that is attached to a production facility – a first for the company.

 

“Partnerships between cold storage distributors and processors is a savings find for our cold storage clients because of economy of scale,” Guimond points out. “And if it’s a joint project, permit and fixed fees are only applied once and shared by both parties, and in some cases, not applied at all.”

 

As an example, Guimond references the truck impact fee, which he says is often astronomical.

 

“In partner-style projects, trucks or conveyors are moving product within a shared campus and not using county streets. This results in a huge reduction in truck impact fees, it’s safer for the community to have less trucks on the road, and it lowers both companies’ carbon footprint,” Guimond says.

 

Guimond also points out side-by-side facilities make food safety compliance a dream as product only has to be tracked from the processor to the storage facility right next door — sometimes not even leaving the building. “It’s also possible for the processor and cold storage facility to share food safety plans as well as third party auditors.”

 

 

（本段讲的是可持续发展问题，即这个配送中心的建立要环保，要对环境负面影响小）

 

“All the major and minor food companies are pushing sustainable development and our customers bring it up all the time now,” Lynch notes. “One of the big food companies that went out for bids recently was not only evaluating price but also the PRWs’ sustainability programs, what benefits they offered employees, and what they were doing to give back to their local communities.”

 

“So as both an end user and a service supplier to these food companies, we want to be better stewards of our environment and design and create our buildings to be more sustainable and have as little negative impact on our surroundings as possible,” Lynch acknowledges.

 

Lynch says that begins with basing decisions on where to design and build warehouses from both a profitability and sustainability standpoint.

 

“As 90 percent of the power we buy is carbon-based, anything that can be incorporated into DC design to reduce the amount of electricity used goes a long way to driving down the company’s carbon footprint and becoming more sustainable,” Lynch points out. “We also look at how we can use less water or reuse or reclaim waste water.”

 

Hirsch confirms that PRW clients are asking for sustainable buildings.

 

“We’ve built three LEED facilities in the past two years, and LEED certification forces us to energy model the entire facility,” Hirsch says. “We have good models but we’ve challenged our team to look at industry standards and make incremental improvements. As a result, the Covington, Tennessee, facility we built for United States Cold Storage realized a 33 percent energy reduction over the industry standard, which translates into savings of $240,000 a year. It also achieved LEED Gold Certification.”

 

Hirsch adds that recognizing a ROI in LEED buildings is great but also important is how much good facility design impacts the wellness of employees as well as end users.

 

“When PRWs incorporate sustainability branding all over the facility, it can begin a conversation about company culture and how important it is to use the facility not just to move product, but to attract and retain employees,” suggests Hirsch.

 

“How employees feel when they go to work every day, how they interact with the building, how office areas are designed, what truck drivers experience when they are in the facility – all this impacts employee engagement, morale and turnover and can have a significant impact on the business’ bottom line,” adds Hirsch.

 

And the next big-bang-for-the-buck trend in distribution center design according to Hirsch — adding to the dock the ability to reheat with temperature and humidity controls to save money and improve overall energy usage. But that’s another story.