Project managed from start to finish

Madison, the UK’s leading distributor of bicycle parts and accessories
has recently acquired an 80,000 sq/ft facility in Knowlhill, Milton
Keynes, in line with continued growth and future plans for the business.
Knowing they needed to maximise storage capacity, The Storage Equipment
Centre Ltd (SEC) was tasked with designing, supplying and installing a
suitable storage system for their vast range of products.

Madison approached SEC when a number of properties were in contention
for acquisition. They needed a storage solution not only designed to the
specifics of their operation and product range, but also the layout of
the building. As a result of SEC’s continued schematic and feasibility
support, Madison was able to choose the property in Knowlhill which
features 12,000 sq/ft of office space. Madison selected to work with SEC
not only because of their innovative design and approach but their
ability to project manage from conception to completion.

The new property is to house the company’s range of bicycles, clothing
and helmets. SEC first assessed the storage needs of the bicycles and
scrutinized the manual handling of these. By re-orientating the bicycles
on the individual pallets, it was soon realised significantly more
bicycles could be stored. A very narrow aisle (VNA) system was used to
further increase capacity within the warehouse, with a top pallet height
of 8.5 metres. Total pallet position capacity is over 6,000 and the VNA
system enables Madison to store various pallet sizes including bike,
full and part.

Due to the way in which the bicycles would be handled on the pallets and
racking layout, SEC worked closely and extensively with Madison’s
existing mechanical handling equipment (MHE) supplier to ensure the VNA
system would be fully compatible with the selected fork lift truck. This
would prove to be imperative for Madison to ensure complete operational
efficiency of the new facility.

Knowing Madison required the need to store thousands of different
clothing and helmet lines, SEC set about designing a two-tier shelving
structure. This was not only designed to the specifics of Madison’s
operation, but also the building. The first floor of the structure
needed to meet the floor level and 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 buildings existing goods lift.

Due to the buildings existing layout, further office space could be
utilised as a ‘clean room’ for the storage of bicycle and outdoor
clothing. SEC designed a long span shelving system complete with steel
decking throughout. This could be accessed from the two-tier shelving
structure to enable the seamless picking of their vast product range.

Other works carried out by SEC included the relocation of an existing
mezzanine floor creating an Operations Office below, as well as
extensive office fit-out including staff tea-point and locker room.