TOP 20 - Modern Materials Handling

DOCK SHELTERS INCREASE
COMFORT, DECREASE COST
Focused on employee comfort, national
bed retailer Select Comfort installs
dock shelters that keep temperatures
stable inside, weather outside and
lower energy costs all around.
By Lorie King Rogers, Associate Editor
WHEN IS A door not a door? When it’s ajar…
and an energy hog. Even the smallest gaps
at your dock doors can cost you big in energy bills
and employee comfort, not to mention the cost to
your DC’s appearance and company image.
As an operator of a fully air-conditioned production
and distribution facility in the Columbia,
S.C., area, Select Comfort Corp. places a high
value on employee comfort. They also understand
the need to control the 110,000-square-foot
facility’s energy costs, especially during hot, sticky
southern summers.
To achieve the best of both worlds, Select
Comfort installed energy-efficient loading dock
shelters (Rite-Hite, 800-456-0600, www.ritehite.
com) in 12 of the facility’s 18 dock positions. The
result is a cooler, more comfortable working environment
for its 200 workers and annual energy
savings of $12,000—with the potential for additional
savings as more docks are upgraded. What’s
more, payback of the new dock shelters is estimated
at about two years.
The Select Comfort shipping department is
busy seven days a week, with employees working
10- to 12-hour shifts. According to Darin Swiger,
facility order fulfillment manager, the air conditioning
system wasn’t keeping the loading dock
environment at an even temperature throughout
the day and was also suspected for high energy
costs.
“We took a look at the temperature fluctuation
to see why it was happening, and more important-
modern
PRODUCTIVITY SOLUTION
ly, what we could do to fix it,” said Swiger.
Prior to installation, an analysis showed the
old loading dock shelters were contributing to a
potential energy loss of $40,000 a year.
The solution called for installing new dock
shelters that could seal off the exposed trailer
door hinge gaps while providing full, unobstructed
access to trailer loads and stopping the identified
energy loss.
The replacement dock shelters can also stand
up to repeated impact from semi-trailers being
backed in too quickly or arriving off-center. “A little
bump here and there shouldn’t cost you $5,000
worth of damage,” Swiger says. “However, the
shelters we were using could be easily destroyed if
a trailer backed into them.”
mmh.com MODERN MATERIALS HANDLING / April 2009 35