Meyer Timber is one of the largest timber wholesale operations in Australia, measuring success by the quality of its customer service which it achieves by investing heavily in inventory, and through fast delivery lead times.
As a consequence of strong business growth, and to ensure that it has warehouse infrastructure for efficient handling and distribution of its products, Meyer Timber urgently needed to improve and increase storage in its 7,500m2 warehouse in Dandenong, Victoria.
Meyer Timber’s Operations Manager, Justin Carpenter, reflected on the need for a new storage solution partner.
“We had been let down by suppliers in the past, so for the latest project we went to market for an alternative supplier. The professionalism of the stow proposal and the assurance they provided regarding the project completion, were the key drivers for us choosing stow as a vendor,” said Justin.
stow Australia is a leading supplier of storage solutions, and is recognised for the quality and safety of its European rack, and the experience and expertise of its project installation teams.
A cantilever solution
After analysing the operations of Meyer Timber’s warehouse, and its future storage and handling needs, stow suggested the relocation of 44 lineal metres of longer-sided cantilever racking to allow for the installation of 32 linear metres of new, shorter, double-sided stow cantilever racking.
Cantilever racking was the ideal solution for holding Meyer Timber’s long and irregular timber beams, as it is designed to maximise storage efficiency of such products while giving easy and safe access. stow’s racking is constructed of high-quality, hot-rolled steel profiles.
In the Meyer Timber solution, each stow cantilever arm would have a capacity of 1,000kgs, with columns holding 7,000kgs.
Rapid and safe delivery
Meyer Timber has an extremely busy operation, which presented a challenge in relocating the existing cantilever rack while ensuring the day-to-day operations of Meyer Timber were unaffected.
In order to limit operational disruption, relocation of the current cantilever rack was timed for completion when the new cantilever rack was delivered to site. This minimised the disruption to Meyer Timber’s operations, as both the old and new cantilever rack was installed simultaneously.
Covid-19 accommodations performed by stow’s experienced project team included social distancing, the wearing of PPE, and sanitising frequent materials handling touch points including equipment such as scissor lifts and forklifts. The team also adhered to Meyer Timber’s internal safety protocols.
The quality of project management was always a key focus for Meyer Timber. stow assigned dedicated members of its project team to ensure the project was completed on time, all while the site continued to operate as usual. stow’s in-house, tertiary-qualified project managers were key to driving and ensuring the desired outcomes for its client.
Meyer Timber’s new storage solution in Dandenong was delivered mid-May 2020 as promised, one week after installation commenced. This rapid turnaround was achieved despite the operating restrictions imposed by Covid-19, with Meyer Timber continuing to operate without any adverse impact on warehouse operations or customer service levels.
Justin Carpenter was delighted. “stow managed the project as promised, while the site was fully functional. We’d be happy to recommend stow to any potential customers,” said Justin.
stow National Construction Manager, Rod Elliott, commented on the challenges of an operational site. “Whist it would be nice to only work in big, new empty warehouses, this isn’t the reality. Our project team work extremely closely with our customers to ensure we work safely and efficiently in parallel with their operational staff. This has become a core competency of our project managers and installation teams,” said Rod.
