Walgreens beats the summer heat

By James Cooke -- Logistics Management, 9/1/2004

Even in the summer, dock workers at Walgreens' southern distribution centers keep cool.

The national pharmacy chain, based in Deerfield, Ill., has equipped the loading and receiving docks of three distribution centers down South with cantilevered shades. Those canopies extend out over 53-foot trailers while they are being loaded and unloaded. By using a shade to keep both merchandise and employees cool in the summer heat, Walgreens avoids the high cost of air conditioning. "It's an old-fashioned, simple solution," says Randy Lewis, senior vice president of distribution and logistics.

Founded in 1901, Walgreens operates 12 distribution centers to service some 4,500 drug stores throughout the country. A large number of the company's stock-keeping units (SKUs) fall into the health and beauty aids category. Many of those items, such as makeup and some over-the-counter drugs, lose quality if not kept within a certain temperature range. The need to protect such delicate products from searing summer heat in the South led Walgreens to look for ways to keep those DCs cooler.

Managers wanted not only to preserve the quality of the merchandise, but also to keep dock employees comfortable. They considered cranking up the air conditioning in the buildings and blowing cooler air into the trailers. This expensive approach, however, did not provide complete protection for either merchandise or employees. "If you pump air conditioning in the back [of the trailer], the sun will still beat on the nose," Lewis points out.

The company then decided to look at using traditional fabric awnings. But they had several drawbacks, and in the end Lewis chose to purchase weather-protection shades manufactured by Oklahoma-city based WorldCover. WorldCover developed 53-foot canvas canopies that cover trailers without needing support poles.

"One of the things we liked about the shades was that they didn't require poles that could be a potential obstruction to our drivers," Lewis says. "The canopies were lighter, cheaper, and more durable than the awnings."

Although each canopy must be custom-designed and manufactured, installation is relatively quick and easy.

"We do about 80 percent of the manufacturing before we arrive at the customer's site for installation," says WorldCover CEO Jim Thomas. "Then we work on a quarter of the dock doors at a time so that work isn't too impacted. Generally an installation takes about four to five days in all."

The cantilevered canvas systems costs between $8 and $12 per square foot. For Walgreens, it's been well worth the expense. The canopies have substantially reduced temperatures in dock areas and have brought down interior trailer temperatures by as much as 30 percent.

The retailer first installed the canopy system in its Texas warehouse and has since added it to facilities in Florida and California. "If we didn't have this, we would have had to add air conditioning to our trailers, which would have been an outrageous bill," says Lewis. "When you compare the cost of the canopies relative to the cost of our buildings, the cost is minor. There's no doubt that for our business, this is a solution that makes sense."