The Quick Guide to Building Distribution Centers

Remember when people used to get in their cars and drive to the store every time they needed something? Well, those days are disappearing fast. Already, 16% of all U.S. sales take place online. Ecommerce is growing at a staggering rate all over the world – particularly in Latin and North America.
This trend was in full swing long before Covid-19 hit, but the pandemic has certainly propelled it further and faster. Just look at the U.K., where in May 2020 – the height of the lockdown – a third of all retail sales were made on the internet.
But now that most of us can leave our homes and shop as normal, will things go back to the way they were before? Well, probably not. The genie’s out of the bottle. We’re all way too used to shopping online, and all this e-commerce is now fueling another trend: a construction boom in distribution centers.

What Is a Distribution Center?

Distribution centers are used to store goods immediately before they are shipped to customers. This is where stock is managed, handled, and distributed – thus the name.
It’s also what separates a distribution center from a warehouse. Warehouses are only really used for storage, so the main concern is typically to maximize the space, to squeeze as much in as possible. In a distribution center, you also want to use the space effectively, but the primary goal is to locate, package and send items in the center out to customers as quickly as you possibly can. This has a huge impact on design, as we’ll see in a moment.
Exactly how the center is structured depends in part on the type of goods it distributes. For example, a grocery distribution center may require cold storage for fresh produce, while a clothing distribution center wouldn’t need this. However, almost all distribution centers contain a storage area, shipping section, and loading dock. If it also handles returns, it may have to be set up for reverse logistics, too.

What Should Contractors Bear in Mind?

On the face of it, distribution centers are essentially large box-shaped structures. They’re straightforward designs and should be straightforward to build, right?

… Well, not quite.
Simple designs, specific requirements

All distribution houses need to facilitate inventory moving through them quickly and efficiently, but that will mean something different depending on the business’ priorities and choice of technologies.

Some brands, like Walmart, rely more on manual labor in their distribution centers. That means they need to be set up for humans to navigate, and to support the needs of actual people. On one hand, you need to make sure there’s plenty of easy access to things like break rooms, and exits. While on the other, you don’t want to set things up so that people are walking long distances back and forth for repetitive tasks. They’ll get worn out and productivity will go down, so it’s bad for everyone.

But a distribution center for Amazon will likely be set up very differently because Amazon relies far more heavily on robots to help pick out items. You might use more mezzanines with few human access points. Racks can be far closer together, provided there’s space for the robot arm to slip through. It’s a completely different design.

Robotics-friendly floors

While we’re on the subject of robots, these create other construction considerations, too. Most important is flooring.
If your distribution center will use robots that travel across the floors, these will need to be perfectly flat and super rigid. It’s essential that the building cannot move or wobble, as this can cause robots to become ineffective or even non-functional.
Plus, the robots themselves can wear down concrete floors as they make the same, repetitive journey over the same pathways thousands of times. Adding plastics as a fiber to your concrete will enhance its strength and durability here; you’ll also need to pay close attention to the Pour and cure. The proper temperature and climate will need to be maintained, which may require additional resources like rental chillers and dehumidifiers.

Adapting to change requests

To make things even more complicated, it’s very common for change requests to come in during the construction of distribution centers – or even for the owners to change direction altogether, responding to consumer demand.
A place that was intended to distribute dry goods might decide to switch to home delivery meals, for example, increasing its need for cold storage. The owners might decide to embrace robotics halfway through. A new product line might demand completely different rack sizes.
The key is to ensure that you’re able to roll with the punches. Whatever technology you’re using to manage the process, it must be agile enough to accommodate changes and redesigns as you go along.

Where Does BIM Come In?

Just as distribution centers have started to take a central role in the moving and storage of goods, BIM – along with 5D – is increasingly key in assisting with their construction and development.

There are several compelling reasons for this:

• It boosts efficiency and facilitates rapid turnaround
• With BIM and 5D, you can model and oversee every part of the construction process, breaking this down into modular chunks. This makes it easier to organize teams, queuing up work packages in a logical fashion. This leads to fewer bottlenecks or delays and less wasted time, keeping you on schedule and under budget.
• It helps you manage gigantic sites
• Total visibility becomes increasingly important the larger and more complex a project becomes. Visualizing the complete project using a BIM tool helps you spot potential problems at a glance, seeing how it all fits together.
• It’s great for handling procurement issues
• One of the many reasons investors are so keen on building more distribution centers is that the past year has flagged up serious vulnerabilities in long-distance supply chains. Construction companies are no exemption – it’s essential to keep a close eye on your inventory, so you’re placing orders early and anticipating any supply issues. Using a real-time reporting tool with 5D to track the building status and expenditure helps keep you up to date and on the case.

Final thoughts: don’t repeat the same mistakes

Building a distribution center sometimes has an assembly-line feel to it. One crew goes in, builds the panels, another follows, dropping in the steel… one after another, each one lining up perfectly. But for this to work, your BIM models and construction drawings have to be perfectly accurate. You must be able to coordinate and sequence that work precisely from the start. Otherwise, if your team gets the first one slightly wrong, they could be repeating the same mistake a hundred times before you realize it – and then things get very expensive to fix.

With a BIM-driven tool to help you manage the project, you can nail the best practices and perfect models right from the outset. If construction is complicated, this technology is crucial. But even with a seemingly cookie-cutter operation like building a distribution center, it’s incredibly valuable. Cookie-cutter designs only work if the design details you keep repeating are impeccable, after all. BIM makes that a much more achievable reality.