Professional Builders Merchant

AutoCAD is a handy bit of software, not just for our drawing and design work but, more and more, for layout and concept presentations via the wonderful Nobo M2 ‘pocket projector’. It slips into your briefcase and can run a presentation in an office for 6 or 8 people even without a laptop — just using a memory stick. The reason I am rabbiting on about a bit of technology is not because we get a commission on sales(!), but using it for a concept presentation some while ago is the starting point to this article:

I was using this bit of kit to go through the detailed racking specification for the final piece in the jigsaw which had had been put together over an eighteen month period. It involved a variety of buildings on the site to separate a large trade collection facility and the storage / distribution element of the business which supported a significant delivery business + ‘mother ship’ facility for two, local, smaller branches.

Projecting the AutoCAD image onto a screen enabled me to move around the drawing, zooming in and out of areas to look at the detail then get a contextual view. The client found this useful and was also interested to see the software operating that had been used on his project. In addition, we were able to make a few amendments as we went along whilst illustrating why a particular option had been discarded by showing what effect it would have on the rest of the evolving model.

When the final format of this final element of the project was agreed I zoomed out, copied it then pasted it into the overall site drawing — rather like you would copy and paste a paragraph into a report in a ‘Word’ document.

“Flippin’ ‘eck!” (or words to that effect!) was the response — and I wish it was that easy to take the operating model we’ve come up with here and transfer a miniature one to the smaller towns in the county! This was a reference to a spin-off from the BDS¹ we had worked together on at the beginning of the whole project, so that we could minimise the effects of the IOS² on it in the future.

Using the BDS¹ format we looked at SWOT³ of the current operation the results of which can be summarised as follows:

Strengths

• A financially sound business with good staff. Good stock range and availability. Progressive development which made for an efficient yard and delivery operation plus increasingly good collection facilities.

Weaknesses

• The clash of storage, handling, unloading, loading, delivery element of the business with the growing collection element. Not enough of the wide range ‘in danger of being sold’. Trying to expand collection on a site developed for storage and distribution. The site being ‘tucked away’ and difficult to access for calling customers. The other two, small businesses were on short term leases and the premises were very poor.

Opportunities

• To reorganise the site with a bit of structural work modifying the storage, handling and display mix to reduce Health & Safety issues — split the storage/distribution and collection aspects of the business to improve the effectiveness of both — encourage collection.

Threats

• Competition from outside the county was beginning to encroach on the ‘traditional’ trading area through deliveries and improved facilities. This affected delivery business and meant that some collection customers were inclined to do so elsewhere as it was easier than fighting their way into the client’s premises. Once customers begin to visit competition on a regular basis, there is a danger of losing them altogether.

The above analysis lead to the improvement of the existing ‘head office’ but highlighted the need, in the longer term, to combat the trading area encroachment. Subsequently, seeing the benefits of the improved head office and increase in the encroachment, it was decided that attack was the best form of defence. Given the short leases and limitations of the existing branches a property search was put in place. But, to inform the latter process, it was necessary to be clear about what was being sought.

Further analysis was then completed in terms of geography, access, population density, competition analysis (using SWOT³ on the competition) and work done on ‘distilling’ the current business into these ‘satellites’ — hence the comment about cutting and pasting from the CAD drawing.

Clearly it had to be a much smaller operation to contain development cost and ensure a return on investment. This was made possible by four main factors:

1. Applying the 80-20 Rule to stocks;
2. Reducing stock volumes and feeding it from Head Office;
3. Very limited delivery (most delivers from HO);
4. Limited admin facilities.

A site footprint of <1acre was determined with a building of < 900m². The illustration shows a 0.8 acre site with an 800m² building + loading canopy of 90m². As can be seen, there is a heavyside bias to the business and the building is at the front of the site ‘with its back to’ the main road. This version of the concept was to accommodate local industrial estate planning preferences — a reverse layout with it at the back was also used where these did not apply. With this version, large ‘photographic posters’ were to be used giving views of the interior. The key concept points are:

1. Single story ‘mini-office’ extension — fully glazed to give a view of the site and vehicle movement, whilst being linked to the trade counter. There is also a view across the covered loading area;
2. Enclosed bag store with covered loading + mezzanine over (for insulation, which extends over racking for low volume, hand loaded, stock in the warehouse);
3. The warehouse grid is 6.5m to match rack runs / aisle widths;
4. Timber A-frames are in the corner at the end of the TC — hand loaded;
5. Artic manoeuvring / unloading area in the yard is designated along with customer Park & Load;
6. High racking intensity to accommodate relatively small volumes of a wide range.

Clearly the ideal site is rarely found, but this informs the search and keeps it focused on the BDS¹.

JARGON BUSTER

1 Business Development Strategy 2 If Only Syndrome 3 Strengths – Weaknesses – Opportunities – Threats