The first branch of the UK’s only warehouse and builders yard drive-through has opened in Aston, Birmingham, with plans to open further branches throughout 2018.
BUILT/ has been developed with the help of Gideon Hillman Consulting and aims to provide essential supplies to the building trade and general public. The design of the depot was crucial and BUILT/ management called in the consulting firm to help develop the layout of the warehouse.
Several factors had to be considered, including workflow and picking processes, manual handling requirements, health and safety measurements, customer services, traffic marshalling procedures and yard management. These all required a level of expertise in the warehouse and logistics industry.
The management team at BUILT/ was able to develop a safe and easy to use workflow environment following the consultant’s recommendations, which allowed the company to purchase the correct size product storage units, such as storage trolleys, box trolleys and packing stations from a reputable warehouse equipment manufacturer. Other processes looked at were inventory and stock management protocols, stowage routines (such as goods in and goods out) and plans for future growth and development of this facility and others in the BUILT/ chain.
The Aston branch opened on September 4th and is hoping to provide a multichannel retail system that will deliver on customer service, price and range of stock. Should drive-through warehouses become the future of retail and wholesale, the process of picking up supplies will likely become easier, but special emphasis on warehouse management will be required.
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