Wildeck® mezzanines, stair systems, crossovers, and guardrail helped CDW triple its capacity and set the standard for safe, efficient, and accurate IT product distribution.
Take one step inside CDW’s state-of-the-art Western Distribution Center in North Las Vegas, NV, and you are transported into the future of product distribution. The future, however, is here today and CDW’s efficiency and fulfillment accuracy have helped the company achieve one of the highest customer satisfaction rankings in the industry. At more than 513,000 sq ft, the North Las Vegas facility is the second and largest distribution center operated by CDW, serving primarily customers throughout the western United States. The midwest and eastern regions are served by a DC in Vernon Hills, IL.
Quick Shipping a Key Attribute
“Our ability to ship quickly to our customers from the largest in-stock inventory in the industry has long been one of CDW’s key competitive advantages,” said CDW chairman and CEO John A. Edwardson at the 2006 opening of the western facility. “This new Western Distribution Center expands that advantage and helps position us for continued growth. The efficiency and productivity gains from this facility will enable CDW to meet our future needs and respond with even greater urgency to our customers’ IT requirements.”
Wildeck, Inc. was a primary supplier of advanced material handling products and systems for both of CDW’s distribution centers.
The Western Distribution Center is highly automated, utilizing multilevel Wildeck® mezzanines and more than 7 miles of roller conveyor belts to move product accurately and quickly to customers who don’t expect their shipment to be delayed.
“When the decision was made to build the facility in North Las Vegas, the development team wanted to design one of the most modern and efficient distribution centers, with a floor plan and equipment placement that best utilized the available space,” said Martin Drapacz, CDW’s western operations manager. “Our ultimate goal is to assemble and distribute more product than ever before. To achieve that, we knew we had to select and work closely with experienced suppliers who could deliver their equipment on time and it had to be right when installed.”
To accomplish this, Drapacz consulted with Ken Mater, president of Matco Distributors in Milwaukee, WI, who had worked with CDW on other successful projects and supplied both mezzanines and safety guard rail manufactured by Wildeck, Inc.
“We started with a basic rectangular building design,” said Drapacz, “broke ground in the spring of 2005 and, I am pleased to say, we were operational on December 12 — less than 10 months in construction!”
Seamless Traffic, Maximum Efficiency
The well-organized flow-through design of the North Las Vegas DC provides for seamless traffic flow and maximum efficiency. Products are brought in on the north side and packages ship out on the south. The facility’s layout enables some 60,000 outbound cases of IT products to be processed and shipped daily and there is still room to expand to meet increasing market demand.
“We worked closely with Martin and his team,” explained Ken Mater of Matco, “to provide two custom designed multilevel Wildeck® mezzanines that span 178,000 sq ft of the building. They help route the miles of conveyors that move a wide range of products from picking to packing stations. Wildeck also supplied a network of code-compliant switchback stairs that were placed wherever CDW personnel needed easy access to mezzanine levels.”
To keep the facility operating safely and smoothly, the conveyors and other critical systems throughout CDW’s 11 acres of interior floor space are protected by seemingly endless rows of bright yellow Wilgard® guard rail, rack protectors, and other Wildeck® safety products. Some 900 linear ft of 44 in. high double rail lines the facility to the point where, when standing at one end, the far side of the guard rail becomes a tiny speck on the horizon.
“The biggest problem in distribution centers is the smash effect,” says Drapacz. “When items of different size and shape come together on conveyors, things can go wrong. This facility is designed to avoid that and to efficiently utilize our space. We could not predict the future, but we designed the entire operation with our vision for the future in mind. We had to carefully think it through and do what was necessary to meet our product flow requirements and on-time shipping standards.”
The North Las Vegas DC was clearly designed to achieve just that. Specifically, two types of products are processed:
- Ready-Ship items including computers, laptops, printers, and monitors that are picked from inventory, scanned, labeled, and conveyed to a Ready-Ship processing area for immediate shipment to customers.
- Custom-configured computer or network system products that are assembled by a CDW technician in a 25,000 sq ft product configuration center according to customers’ specifications, then reboxed and automatically conveyed to the final packing and shipping area.
On Ready-Ship products, CDW achieves over 98% turnaround within one day of order placement. On custom-configured systems products, CDW achieves an impressive 1 to 2-day turnaround time.
Ownership Culture
Besides operational efficiency, culture and ownership by all employees are an integral part of CDW’s success. A key goal is to avoid the dull ‘warehouse’ stigma. Everything is clearly marked and the facility is spotless and shining under bright overhead lighting.
“Our employees are stakeholders and every person has a part in treating our workplace as if it is their home,” according to Drapacz. “Taking pride in the workplace is an important part of our culture. It translates into a safe and secure environment and everyone understands that getting the right products to our customers is why we are here. To avoid mistakes, we check every package twice, and pack it once.”
With sophisticated equipment and approximately 250 employees working in 3 departments, 5 days a week, safety is also a top priority.
“That is why you see all the Wilgard® Guard Rail in place throughout the center,” states Drapacz. “Everything is designed to work better, smarter, and faster, and the guard rail is in place to protect our facility, inventory, and most importantly, our people. You may notice a few scratches and dings on the rails and posts, and that’s good. It’s doing its job.”
As for the future, CDW is continuing with its vision for North Las Vegas to set the industry standard for IT product distribution. The company will continue to maximize its real estate and become even more efficient. There is no extra land for expansion, however, so when the North Las Vegas facility was built, room needed for expected growth was designed in. CDW also had the foresight to implement a plug-and-play setup with programming and wiring in place to quickly add conveyor systems and avoid heavy construction delays.
CDW is currently implementing RFID in selected areas and proceeding toward the total RFID conversion mandated by the Dept. of Defense.
“We pride ourselves in delivering on our promise every day,” states Drapacz. One look at the tagline imprinted on every package speeding down the conveyors seems to communicate that promise: CDW – The Right Technology, Right Away.