Madison, the UK distributor of bicycle parts and accessories, recently acquired an 80,000 sq ft facility in Knowlhill, Milton Keynes in line with continued growth and future plans for the business.
To maximise storage capacity, the company tasked The Storage Equipment Centre with designing, supplying and installing a storage system for its range of products.
Madison approached SEC when a number of properties were in contention for acquisition as it needed a storage system designed to the specifics of its operation and product range, but also the layout of the building.
Knowlhill houses Madison’s range of bicycles, clothing and helmets. SEC first assessed the storage needs of the bicycles.
By re-orientating the bicycles on the individual pallets more can be stored, plus a very narrow aisle system was used to further increase capacity within the warehouse with a top pallet height of 8.5m.
Total pallet capacity is now more than 6,000 and the VNA system enables Madison to store various pallet sizes, including bike, full and part.
Due to the way bikes were handled on the pallets and racking layout, SEC worked with Madison’s existing mechanical handling equipment supplier to ensure the VNA system would be fully compatible with the selected forklift truck.
The building comprises 12,000 sq ft of office space and thanks to its layout further office space could be used as a “clean room” for the storage of bicycles and outdoor clothing.
SEC then set about developing a two-tier shelving structure to store thousands of clothing and helmet lines, which was designed to the specifics of the operation and the building structure. The first floor of the structure needed to meet the floor level and the new opening on the building’s structural mezzanine floor to enable access from the warehouse to “clean room” and office area. The shelving structure was also designed around the building’s existing goods lift.
Additionally, SEC designed a long span shelving system complete with steel decking throughout which could be accessed from the two-tier shelving structure to enable easier picking.
Lastly, SEC relocated an existing mezzanine floor creating an operations office below, as well as doing an office fit-out.
