< Previous78 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NPrevious reports included “Recipe for Change,” addressing food processing, and “Rx for Change,” addressing biopharmaceuticals.“Roadmap for Change” explores new design approaches that could lead to more flexible, adaptable and sustainable industrial facilities in the future. “The keys to the kingdom in this new distribution world are global data, connectivity, redundant power and efficient human-machine interfaces,” says Andy Cannon, director of business consulting at Ghafari Associates, the lead engineering firm on the project; Heitman Architects was the lead architectural firm. “If any of this falls apart, the entire distribution network fails. At the end of the day, this all becomes a highly sophisticated data-management exercise.”The DesignFlex2030 team defines the new network as a connected web of multiple fixed and mobile facilities, varying in size, shape, function and scope, strategically located at various points along the logistics journey between OEM and end users in a 24-7 network. It transforms overlooked and underutilized space — along with the air above and ground below — into a new industrial real estate resource that can be deployed for multiple uses.The first part of the white paper analyzes such trends as megacities; just-in-time delivery, particularly along the “last mile”; growing urban populations; inventory flow vs. inventory stock; disruptors, such as the sensor-driven Internet of Things; and e-commerce centers opening nearly as fast as retail stores are closing. The second part, adapted here, addresses what those new facilities of the future might look like, where they might be located and why. Reimagined Distribution Centers: Today’s Warehouse Is Tomorrow’s FactoryThese facilities are imagined as flexible retrofits of aging and obsolete warehouses. They are a practical response to the rapid shift in supply-chain dynamics due to digital connectivity and What it will doImpact on warehouse designHow to accommodate change• Alter assembly lines• Automate dangerous, repetitive, tedious tasks• Fill labor gaps• Increase productivity, quality, and speed with 24-hour, lights-out operation• Enable efficient last-meter delivery in traffic-congested communities• Decrease “single points of failure”• Provide seamless transfer of data and information• Enable real-time analysis for improved decision-making• Mini-automated DCs• Smaller footprint• High ceiling heights• Vertical construction• Warehousing as part of a mix of uses• Leverage existing space to accommodate fulfillment and returns• Investments in next-gen fiber optics, digital photonics, and alternative energy • Lights-out warehousing• Increased shipment weight• Fewer corridors for walking• Fewer restrooms• More charging stations• Smoother floors• Rooftop communications systems• Scalability• Indoor temperature differential• Insulation from elements• Self-generated back-up power• New inventory storage patterns and flow of goods• High density • Sensors, scanners, and readers• Electronic monitoring centerDISRUPTOR: ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION80 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NVertical farmASRS automated rackingOffice, repair, customizing, service centerGround-floor retailUnderground freight tunnelCutaway detail of hyperlocal center shows the range of uses possible and placemaking appeal.new consumer demands, requiring a shift from eight-hour, five-day-a-week operating shifts to 24/7, lights-out automation. Today’s distribution centers become tomorrow’s factories.Modular, fully contained units can slide in and slide out to enable continuous upgrades as technology advances and needs change. The modular approach also allows the facility to accommodate different industrial needs at the same time. Powered by renewable energy sources, these new factories of the future will produce a variety of custom products upon order, using additive manufacturing technologies. Finished-goods inventory gets replaced with raw-ingredient supply storage. Parts are digitally produced on site with automated, on-demand final assembly. Special components are shipped from regional suppliers on freight rail.The concept represents a strategic opportunity for companies that are part of the same supply chain to co-locate, thereby significantly lowering their logistics costs and shrinking their delivery time frames. Meanwhile, larger-scale industrial products — bulk chemicals, massive steel beams, “white goods” such as refrigerators — could be stored easily for conventional transport to the next point along their logistics journey.Located between five and 15 miles from city center, these facilities become community supply hubs, connected to a network of mobile fulfillment vehicles. Multiple access points enable the range of supply and delivery modes, including sensor-embedded truck bays for docking of autonomous and semi-autonomous carriers.The facilities have the capacity to handle operations for three independent companies, working collaboratively under a single roof. It creates the potential to consolidate a supply chain spread across a 1,500-mile radius into a single facility, All renderings courtesy of Heitman Architects82 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NINDUSTRIAL BASE OF MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT 400,000 sf with 40-foot clear height Flexible 60-foot-by-50-foot bays Mix of industrial uses: three-level pick modules, ASRS systems, VNA and wide-aisle racking, additive manufacturing printer farms, repair Ability to convert to pop-up food hall, retail, or holiday mart Door openings to accommodate self-contained modules AGV support: inspection/charging 180-foot-deep service courts enabling cross-dock operations Underground freight rail/hyperloop connections to urban core for high-speed delivery to urban core 87 full-size semi-tractor trailer smart docks for semi-autonomous truck/self-driving trailers, with 4 drive-in ramps Gantry cranes to transfer trailers to and from freight tunnel Micro-depot and AGV support hub On-site storage for up to 85 53-foot trailers On-grade parking/landing pad/docking for up to 375 autonomous industrial vehiclesthereby signifi cantly reducing logistics costs and time frame.Housing More Than Goods e design team deployed similar adaptive reuse concepts when considering the potential in obsolete corporate campuses, shopping malls, or blighted industrial land. ey identifi ed a way to create vibrant new transit-oriented developments in emerging fringe neighborhoods outside city centers, while accommodating manufacturers’ and third-party logistics providers’ needs for more close-in industrial space. Designed for a population striving for better work-life balance, the new, -acre, live-work-play development includes an industrial component, tucked beneath high-end housing for next-generation urban dwellers.“ is is a perfect solution to the dilemma faced by many companies that want to locate warehouses closer to their customers,” says Karl Heitman, DesignFlex team co-lead and president of Heitman Architects. “ e closer into urban areas you get, the more expensive the land becomes. is is a way to aff ord the land you need for your distribution and warehousing in places where land costs are high.”Here, the residential component covers the cost of development. It creates a new fi nancial rationale that alters the old commercial real estate conventional wisdom about not using higher value land for lower value purposes.“Housing is the important fi nancial driver here,” says Ghafari’s Andy Cannon. “ e idea is that you could take a large footprint of very valuable land, on which you develop residential, retail, and commercial, and which ends up paying for itself. You slide in the distribution component on the bottom level, basically giving you these industrial uses for free.”84 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NOne vision of future logistics imagines transit-oriented, mixed-use development with flexible underground space for warehouse uses at a city’s edge. This rendering pictures such development in metro Chicago.Rendering by HeitmanThe design concept makes good financial sense in other scenarios as well: An assemblage of abandoned, obsolete properties at the city edge is catalyst for revitalization of blighted, low-density industrial sectors.Warehouse CapabilitiesThe 400,000-sq.-ft. footprint accommodates 40-foot-clear flexible production space. Additive manufacturing, three-level pick modules, and Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) storage and retrieval systems operate invisibly under the virtual city above. An open configuration enables rapid change-out of uses: from warehouse to autonomous retail shop-on-wheels that slides into the same space as a pop-up bricks-and-mortar store, controlled via wireless mobile applications.As new transportation infrastructure comes on line, the complex has the capability to accommodate new underground and in-the-air traffic patterns. Mechanisms are in place to move trailers to and from underground freight tunnels. Pedestrian accessways link residents to their city center commutes via hyperloop. The apartment blocks sit above green decks that feature convenience 86 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nretail shops, parks, playgrounds and ball fields. A parking deck separates residential uses from clean industrial uses below.With lot-line-to-lot-line vertical construction and a building envelope that soars 40 stories but blends into the fabric of the cityscape, these facilities are built on small, vacant, and hard-to-develop parcels throughout the megacities. They meet the small-scale fulfillment requirements of the local residential and commercial population. They also can accommodate a range of other uses.Goods could be supplied via maglev skyway train or an underground pneumatic tube system that is connected to urban freight tunnels. Self-driving or semi-autonomous trailers also deliver through alleyways. They are lifted via gantry crane to upper floors for unloading. The 2,950-sq.-ft. footprint replaces a 135,000-sq.-ft., traditional suburban distribution center based on volume capacity. Of note: It increases There will be a fair amount of disruption in the spare parts supply chain as additive manufacturing technologies get perfected.”— Robert O’Brien, President, Lockheed Martin Corporation/LMC PropertiesThe proposed hyperlocal urban distribution center fits seamlessly into cityscape.Next >