Mezzanine floors offer an effective means of creating additional space, as Derek Scott, projects sales manager at Davicon, explains

Many businesses are increasingly looking to optimise their industrial facilities to make the best use of their assets in the most cost effective manner, especially considering the difficult trading conditions over the past few years. With the economic recovery hopefully gathering pace over the next 12 months, companies are now starting to consider how they can better use available space to enhance performance and operate effectively within tight budgets.

There are a number of reasons why companies are looking to optimise industrial space using a mezzanine flooring solution. Some for example may be looking to reduce operating costs by consolidating their operation into a smaller number of sites to become more competitive; others may want to expand capacity to handle increased orders but avoid having to move to a larger facility or open a new warehouse.

Most modern industrial units have been designed to have an eve height of around 10+ metres so unless there is wall-to-wall racking there is an opportunity to increase the usable space by moving upwards. However, freeing up space or creating new working areas will often require a close look at changing or adapting processes within the facility to improve operational processes and create opportunities to maximise the available productivity benefits. 

In many instances there is a lack of operational data, so many companies will be unaware of what is actually wrong with their industrial process or how best to improve utilisation. The priority is to identify problem areas and one of the best ways of doing this is to ask the staff that are working in the facility. These operatives normally know what the issues are within their individual areas of responsibility, so bringing them together can help create an end-to-end understanding of how a system works and more importantly how it can be improved.

By taking this added insight and then overlaying it with details of where a business wants to be moving forward, a company will have a better idea of what is required and an effective brief to take to a supplier. A good supplier should be able to challenge this view of the processes based on their knowledge from visiting many similar facilities they will use this expertise to create an appropriate solution. By bringing in the supplier as early as possible they can provide their input at the beginning of the project to ensure a solution is implemented that is actually going to solve the problem and meet precise operational needs.

By creating a process map that outlines problem areas, it should be possible to work closely with a supplier to identify quick gains that are lower cost and will give a faster return on investment. This should form part of a wider development project with short-and longer-term objectives to best optimise and utilise available space. By doing this there is usually an opportunity to increase the usable space by between 50 and 100%.

Multi-tier mezzanine flooring solutions offer an effective means of creating additional floor area. In most floor-based industrial operations there is an opportunity to expand vertically to add two or more additional levels, and it is even possible to double floor space without the need for a full planning application. 

This increased space can be used to support differing aspects of the business to expand picking and e-fulfilment, add production or storage capacity, or add additional offices or workshops. Within many industrial buildings there is also often a failure to use all available areas, such as space over loading docks, doors and entrances. This ‘dead’ space can provide added capacity within a building to increase storage and streamline certain supply chain requirements. .

There are many opportunities to better utilise a facility to not only increase capacity but also ensure it is meeting the exact needs within the operation. Whether it is to specify a smaller footprint in a new site or make the most of an existing facility, operators can optimise the unit in order to reduce overheads, increase sales, increase productivity and improve customer service.