Interlake Mecalux bolted Selective Rack makes picking easier at Delta Children’s new warehouse

About Delta Children

Manufacturer of cribs and baby products, the business was founded in 1968 with a small retail store in Brooklyn N.Y., inspired by a new adventure called parenting.

Today, along with its own collection of nursery furniture, kids’ furniture and baby gear, the company is the owner of the Simmons Kids product line. Now in its second and third generation of family leadership, its owners uphold their father’s and grandfather’s vision: to offer stylish, practical children’s products backed by quality and safety.

Delta Children’s needs

Delta Children started out with two separate warehouses in Southern California. The company outgrew the space and began to transition into a 10.9 acre warehouse in Fontana (California) to consolidate its operations.

Business demands had changed with the growth of its e-commerce portal. Because of Delta Children’s strong business ties with Walmart, Target and Amazon, who asked for quicker turnaround, its products had to arrive to its customers as fast as possible. Phil Todaro, Vice-president of Warehousing at Delta Children, affirms that, “The solution was to simplify picking tasks, since up till then picking was very complicated and what was slowing operations down.”

An order could include something as tiny as a baby monitor, all the way up to a 308 lb chest of drawers. Each of these items is delivered in different ways. The various shipping methods Delta Children uses in its cross-dock building include next-day air, LTLs (less-than-truckloads) and full truckload delivery.

“Our customer Amazon is a perfect example,” said Phil Todaro. He added that, “We have recently received orders for 23,000 units that had to be shipped the next morning. We had to pick everything quickly, have the floor space for it and then batch it, label it, put it on pallets and stage it all. These operations all had to be done in 24 to 48 hours.”

For this reason, all operations needed to be organized by a highly efficient storage system.

Phil Todaro - Vice-president of Warehousing at Delta Children
“Interlake Mecalux and Ziglift /Global Trade Marketing were also able to meet Delta Children’s tight deadline for installing the bolted pallet racking. First, they made partial material shipments to deliver the racks within two to three weeks and, then, continued to ship materials until we were able to complete the project. Everything was done within two months, from start to finish.”

Interlake Mecalux’s proposed solution

Interlake Mecalux and warehouse integrated storage solutions provider Ziglift / Global Trade Marketing worked with Delta Children to develop a storage solution that would meet the company’s need for storage space and ease of picking.

Delta Children’s new warehouse features 47 aisles of selective pallet rack that can store 30,606 pallets in a 6.66 acre space.

Half of the blocks hold standard 39" x 48" pallets with three pallets per level, while the other half includes oversized pallets with two pallets per level. In addition, Delta Children took full advantage of the building’s height with 36' and 28' tall bays, since wasting this space in the new installation would not have been a smart move.

To boost storage capacity and accommodate its turret trucks, Delta Children opted for 6.6' wide aisles, which fit within the building’s grid, while also burying the columns. Due to the rigid forklift aisles, Interlake Mecalux and Ziglift /Global Trade Marketing had to adjust the row spacers, which is why their widths range from 11" to 29".

The top ties needed to extend 7.9' higher so the turret trucks would not bump into these ties from underneath. This feature also explains why some uprights are 36’ high instead of the standard 28'.

Advantages for Delta Children

• Increased storage capacity: by choosing Interlake Mecalux bolted pallet racking, Delta Children was able to increase its storage capacity by 33%.
• Easy picking: the installed solution offers direct access to any pallet and is adaptable to any product volume, weight or size, which significantly increases picking speeds.
• Max out available height: some bays in the bolted pallet racking system are 36’ high, allowing the company to make use of its new warehouse’s height.