Chemical maker Sika Colombia chose AR Racking’s earthquake-resistant products to upgrade its warehouse in Tocancipá.

The warehouse remained operational while AR Racking installed the new system.

“The overriding priority was to increase the storage capacity of our distribution centre at the Tocancipá plant and renew our previous racking system due to completing its life-cycle, without this affecting the availability of the finished product and with the execution being transparent for our sales force and, most importantly, without affecting customer deliveries,” says Andrés Felipe Cuellar, head of maintenance and engineering at Sika Colombia.

With more than 400 different products in the market, the Tocancipá distribution centre was equipped with adjustable pallet racking to store 1000 x 1200 mm pallets and europallets. 

“The dismantling and installation process was a very interesting challenge as the warehouse was always full and with the operation running,” says Edward Suescún, general manager of AR Racking Colombia. 

The 3,500 sqm distribution centre now has 4,686 positions, increasing its logistics capacity by 19.5%. 

The racking is designed to be  earthquake-resistant to minimise the risk of pallets falling during any seismic activity.

“The change from double-deep to single-deep racking has impacted inventory, loading and preparation operational times, generating greater versatility for the handling and storage of different types of loads, resulting in FIFO (first in, first out) product management efficiency and improvements in the warehouse,” says Jair Ospina, logistics warehouse manager at Sika Tocancipá.

Sika Colombia, a subsidiary of the Swiss multinational Grupo Sika, manufactures and distributes chemicals for the construction and industrial sectors.

The company began operating in Colombia in 1951 and now has seven regional offices, four production plants and more than 400 employees.