Warehouses Increasingly Sophisticated

Passersby may look at a warehouse and see nothing more than a big box building. In Newark, Ohio, they would be making an incorrect assumption when it comes to the Owens Corning warehouse, a project recently completed by ConTrak.

Owens Corning had an existing warehouse at a different location but was looking to eliminate a step from production to storage. ConTrak built a 159,000 square-foot building addition that allowed Owens Corning’s product to roll off the line and into a warehouse. In fact, aisle ways in the existing and new buildings were aligned and graded to make the transition between the two seamless.

The outside of the new building was fabricated with pre-cast concrete forms, which created a more durable structure and helped the project schedule move along. According to ConTrak’s Josh Wilhelm, a project engineer and on-site safety leader, the pre-cast forms were chosen because this phase of construction took place in the winter. “Masonry wasn’t an option because of the weather,” said Wilhelm.

Project specifications called for 50 x 60-foot bays that had a 25-foot clearance height. A total of 11 truck bays were added – three to the existing building and eight more in the addition. Steel was used to create spans of open space that forklifts could move freely in while loading and unloading trucks. Owens Corning then went to the added expense of an automated system to operate the truck bay doors.

Another expected feature of a warehouse—row after row of racks—is not present in the new facility. Owens Corning’s product can be stacked so racks are not necessary in this facility, providing more open work space in the building.

Complementing the sophistication of the building’s construction are both a two-tier lighting system and fiber optics that run in conjunction with software systems. The two-tier lighting is motion activated, saving energy in areas of the facility where no work is being done. Fiber optics and software work together to determine the order trucks are unloaded and what forklift driver is assigned to which truck upon arrival.

“The planning and construction of this warehouse allows for a better, more productive environment all the way around,” added Wilhelm, who noted that the Owens Corning facility is insulated, unlike most warehouses. “It is really an impressive building.”

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