With a goal of giving musicians the best prices and selection available, along with superior service, Musician’s Friend has grown rapidly to become the world’s largest direct marketer of music gear. Founded in 1983, the company prides itself on having a topflight customer service staff who live and breathe the products they sell.
“Music is bigger than I realized,” states maintenance manager Jim Maxey, whose expertise is handling the changes in operation, grounds, and maintenance, and the material handling systems in the building. “I never thought there was so much involved in music. We ship throughout the world from this facility through our catalog and website.”
Recently, Musician’s Friend acquired another company, and as a result, needed to find space quickly to handle hundreds of new product SKUs. The distributor faced two options: expand the building or add a mezzanine. With the new inventory due to arrive in a tight timeframe, the decision was to go with a mezzanine.
Mezzanine to the Rescue
A 64,800 sq ft Wildeck® mezzanine now stands in the middle of the 700,000 sq ft distribution center in Kansas City, MO to help utilize the vertical space and manage the 36,000 products Musician’s Friend carries -- products ranging from guitars, basses, keyboards, percussion, amps, to recording, mixing, lighting, and DJ gear. Hundreds of new products are added monthly as the company continues to broaden and deepen its offerings.
Wildeck dealer Storage Solutions, Inc. has a longstanding relationship with Musician’s Friend and was called in to help expand storage space in the existing building.
“Because we performed well for them in the past, Storage Solutions was chosen for this major project,” explains VP of national accounts Eric McDonald.
The Wildeck® mezzanine was a practical solution. The 64,800 sq ft mezzanine was designed to stand 15 ft off the ground. To complete the project on time, however, Wildeck and Storage Solutions faced a few challenges.
Unusual Challenges
The first hurdle to address was the expedited time frame. The mezzanine had to be completely manufactured and installed in less than 8 weeks so that Musician’s Friend would have a place for its newly acquired inventory.
“Working closely with Wildeck was crucial to the success of this job,” said McDonald. “Wildeck had a lot of material to manufacture and ship and the mezzanine had to ship in phases because there was no onsite storage available, which in turn, required close monitoring of all the parts.”
Second, interruption to normal operations had to be kept to a minimum. Orders still needed to be filled and picking had to continue in the facility. Active conveyor, employee, and fork truck traffic needed to be fully operational while the mezzanine was being assembled. Operations had to run 24 hours/6 days a week and the mezzanine installation could not interrupt the heaviest picking hours. Installers worked 12-hour shifts from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. to avoid the busiest fulfillment hours.
Active picking not only determined what time the installation could take place, but also determined when and where the installers could work to erect the mezzanine. The active picking conveyor could not be altered during the install. This added to the finesse the installers orchestrated to bring in columns and equipment that would handle the assembly of the mezzanine.
Third, existing conveyor lines added to the complexity of the mezzanine column placement. Storage Solutions called in a surveyor to locate and indicate column placement within the available space networked between the active conveyor lines. The surveyor proved to be a huge asset in visualizing and placing the columns, as there were no clear lines of sight and plenty of equipment to block the view. The mezzanine design had exceptionally wide column spacing, which translated into heavy column loads.
Seeking Stable Footings
This fact led to the last and the most difficult obstacle: the soil was unable to support the new mezzanine structure. Musician’s Friend’s facility is located on marsh-quality soil. The subsoil located below the building slab could not provide the mezzanine columns with enough stability; therefore, additional footings were required to provide the necessary support.
The calculations the engineers came up with required unbelievably thick footings.
“We had to drill two helical piers at each interior mezzanine column, and then one more at the perimeter mezzanine columns,” said McDonald. “Then we had to go in and pour our footings over the top of that.”
The stable soil depth ended up at 22 to 24 ft for approximately 150 piers that were needed for this large mezzanine. Typically, column footings are only 3 ft deep!
Currently, only one-third of the mezzanine level is being utilized. Musician’s Friend uses the space primarily for storing smaller items on racks and in small bins. They are in the process of moving small-size, high-value inventory into locked shelving units on the mezzanine.
“The mezzanine was successful in supporting our immediate growth,” stated Maxey. “A portion of the mezzanine is open space right now, but we are quickly filling that space.”
With excellent service, and a newfound opportunity to utilize existing facility space, Musician’s Friend is on the fast track to growth.