Mr. Reinhard Wind - modern warehousing in the middle east

Gutenberg Publishing FZ-LLC Dubai Media City, Al Thuraya Tower 2, Office 1402, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The right way to design your warehouse


The “old way” of storing goods: 2-3 pallet sizes high No air-condition Simple concrete flooring Messy and inefficient environment No IT-structure High staffing Low throughput Low investment costs


No one wants to store goods for a long time. Warehouses become buffer zones. High throughput of goods need to be achieved. Total control of the stored goods needs to be

assured. Low staffing to safe costs. Value added work has to be performed in the

warehouse. All processes have to be defined well. Large loading/unloading space.


European set up Expensive space Expensive labour Extreme high

throughputs for serving highly populated areas

High degree on Automation

Middle East set up

Space is cheap

Labour is quite inexpensive

Medium performance requirements

Low degree of Automation


There is always a trend of either outsourcing or insourcing supply chain processes.

When insourcing supply chain processes, the industrial companies do their logistics.

inhouse, when outsourcing they leave the supply chain operations to 3PL providers or other partners.

Before investing into a warehouse other options and trends need to be evaluated.


The racking and the shelving depends on the physical nature of the products.

Storage on pallets, in boxes or as pieces Racking can be fed with fork lifts, VNAs or with

automation systems. The higher the racking is, the higher the quality

of the slab has to be These days 12-14 meter high racking is possible

to be operated with advanced “fork lifts”. With automation up to 50 meters are possible.

Then often “clad rack” constructions are being built.


Automation is used at the best, when the physical product always stays the same.

What can be automated in a warehouse: Storage of pallets Storage of boxes Storage of individual goods Transportation of pallets, boxes and goods Picking, Packing and labeling processes Etc.


ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning) in the entire company

WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) in the warehouse and distribution center

Fleet Management solutions Network Management solutions RFID technology Etc.


Picking, packing and labeling very often is done in the warehouse, rather than in the production site

The extreme scenario: All parts are supplied to a distribution center from

different parts of the world. The end product gets assembled for the individual

customer, country, event or sales region. The end product gets individually packed and labeled

(country wise, festive season, promotion, etc.). The end product gets shipped to the destination.


Technically up to 50 meter high racking is possible to be built.

Then full automation needs to be in place. High bay warehouses are built in areas where

space is most expensive (urban areas in Europe). High security standards and high technical

standards need to be applied. High maintenance costs. High bay warehouse solutions are rather

expensive.


A distribution centre is well designed … When all processes are harmonized and

bottlenecks are not existing. When there is a sufficient redundancy

concept in place in case of technical failure. When only low staffing is required. When fast access to the goods is possible. When the control over the stored goods is

given at all times.


Warehouses from Producers usually have given and constant number of SKUs.

Warehouses from 3PL providers have to cater for various types of products from different clients.

It is always easy to design a warehouse for a constant physical type of product.

The more the physical product changes over time, the higher flexibility is needed in the warehouse.

Multipurpose warehouses have ever changing SKUs, clients and processes.


Architects usually care about the building and not so much about the detailed processes in the warehouse.

The ideal warehouse needs to be designed from the inside out.

The different shapes of the warehouse come from the processes within the warehouse and from the traffic access to the warehouse.


An architect normally is not the expert for the supply chain processes.

Suppliers of racking and/or automation want to sell their products. So they are valuable advisors, but shall not be the consultants.

The customer needs to know what he wants. The business model of the company needs to

be understood and considered. Automation is a tool and not an ego-thing.


The ideal dimensions of a warehouse need to be determined by multiple factors like the processes, the nature of the warehouse, the SKUs, the degree of automation, etc..

Large size warehouses need to be segmented towards the physical specification of the product, the product type, the customer, etc.

Step by step approach and modular views help to master the challenges when designing the warehouse.


How to start designing the warehouse? Who pays for the inventory in the

warehouse? Who initiates the modernization in the

warehouse? Who pays the warehouse? What is the key factor for a multi purpose

ware house?


Reinhard Wind Managing Director Gutenberg Publishing FZ-LLC AL Thuraya Tower 2, P.O.Box 502547 Dubai Media City Dubai, United Arab Emirates T: +971 55 109 2512 E: [email protected]

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Mr. Reinhard Wind - modern warehousing in the middle east