How retailers can speed up delivery of new warehouses and DCs

Consumers are clamoring for value and convenience, and major national retailers are adding capacity in response.

Recent examples include Walmart’s plan to build a 1.5 million-sq.-ft. automated fulfillment center in Carnesville, Ga., and Target’s new 1.2 million-sq.-ft. inventory-replenishment center in Houston.

Given today’s high-cost environment, retailers are intent on embracing efficient design and delivery on such projects. Pre-engineered metal buildings (PEMBs) are becoming increasingly attractive, because they can accelerate construction of the large, flexible spaces that retailers need for their distribution centers, retail-warehouse hybrids and big-box formats.

•Embrace a parallel approach

On steel-framed PEMBs, major structural components such as joists and columns are designed and manufactured off site for rapid on-site assembly. Key structural decisions therefore need to be finalized early in the planning process, and the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) team needs to collaborate earlier and more intentionally than usual.

Traditionally, delivery of retail warehouses and DCs has been a bit linear: The architects would get started on their drawings and then hand off their initial design work to the various engineering disciplines. The discovery of conflicts could then necessitate one party or another going back to the drawing board, slowing progress.

In part because of the need to finalize the building structure early on, PEMBs call for a more integrated, parallel approach, with the architects, engineers, PEMB manufacturer and general contractor all collaborating from the outset.

Will this translate into longer and more frequent meetings at this stage? Yes, but it is ultimately the best way to minimize requests for information, rework, late-stage “surprises” and, ultimately, budget overruns.

The emphasis should be on knowing the capabilities and priorities of the other team members, because important design and construction decisions will flow from this groundwork. Imagine a national retailer that works with an exclusive list of building product manufacturers, vendors and suppliers.

If the AEC team understands these constraints early on rather than finding out about the exclusivity midstream, they can avoid making choices that the retailer later reverses.

•Understand which project decisions are non-negotiable

Before design work goes far, the PEMB manufacturer needs a clear picture of how the facility will function, because that drives the building’s layout and load-bearing capacity.

Will it run standard case-pick operations, or does it need to support heavier automation and robotics? Is it built for ambient storage, or does it need to accommodate cold chain?

Once those decisions are made, the structure is effectively final. Moving columns or changing the building’s intended use late in planning is a non-starter if the project is to stay on schedule and on budget.

Structural decisions also ripple into mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. A shift from light weight rooftop HVAC units to heavier ones, for instance, or a late decision to add conveyor and sortation automation, can change the load requirements that the structural engineer has to design around.

Utility capacity also should be discussed early. A facility that will run extensive automation equipment needs higher electrical loads accounted for from the start.

•Take advantage of project-collaboration tech

Especially on larger projects, today’s AEC teams are ramping up their collaboration through technology. That might be within the Autodesk ecosystem using software like Revit, Navisworks and Forma (formerly Autodesk Construction Cloud), or some other integrated platform.

Collaborating on the same digital model simultaneously can make parallel delivery much easier. The key is to establish rules for how this is handled. For example, a structural engineer should never make changes to the architectural representations in the model, and vice versa.

Rather than leaving it up to chance or personal preference, the AEC team should discuss precisely how communication will unfold and on what platforms. It can also be a good idea to decide how to handle potential sticking points such as lack of response from one party or another on key questions.

•Explore the full range of possibilities

While certain key decisions on a PEMB might need to be set in stone (or more likely, structural steel), these projects offer more flexibility than some might think.

Rarely will PEMB manufacturers prohibit specific design and architecture choices outright. Generally, they present decisions in terms of a spectrum of possibilities (“The load that this structure can bear means that the material weights must be within this designated range”).

Since several different types of materials might fall within that range, architects often have a solid array of options. Rather than the PEMB looking like a giant metallic rectangle, the use of curtain walls, storefronts and different brick veneers can add interest via contrasting textures, colors, depths and material volumes.

The bottom line for retail real estate teams

For retailers under pressure to open new capacity fast, whether to support same-day delivery promises or simply keep up with order volume, PEMBs can offer faster construction, easier future expansion without demolishing load-bearing walls, and the ability to lock in material costs with manufacturers ahead of time, which matters in a volatile cost environment.

To achieve this, the planning process has to move faster as well. Retailers that bring their full AEC team together early, nail down the building’s use case before design gets too far along, and stay disciplined about how decisions get made can achieve speed to market.

On the architecture and engineering side, a high-collaboration process is particularly doable for firms that have multiple disciplines all under one roof, because these in-house colleagues already share communications platforms with established workflows.

If containing costs and accelerating the construction schedule is a top priority, PEMBs can be a smart solution. The biggest gains come to those who collaborate every step of the way.

Having these options can be especially important for projects that are in populated areas where municipalities want industrial buildings to fit into the local aesthetic. Early conversations about these possibilities can lead to creative solutions that might otherwise have been overlooked.