Earthquake-resistant racks to increase Sika Colombia’s CD capacity

With 7 regional offices and 4 production plants, Sika Colombia is a leading manufacturer and marketer of construction chemicals.

Sika Colombia relied on AR Racking to increase the storage capacity of its DC in Tocancipá, in the northern savannah of Bogotá.

AR Racking replaced the existing racks with new ones while the warehouse remained operational.

Sika Colombia, a subsidiary of the multinational corporation Grupo Sika, a leading manufacturer and distributor of chemical products for the construction and industrial sectors, recently completed the renovation project of its warehouse in Tocancipá. “The clear and priority objective was to expand the storage capacity of our CEDI in the Tocancipá plant, in addition to the need to renew our previous shelving due to the completion of its life cycle, without affecting the availability of finished product, being transparent to our sales force and most importantly without affecting the delivery to our customers. From the execution of the project we can conclude that we are very satisfied, as it was carried out without safety events and with a minimum deviation to the implementation schedule, bearing in mind that we did it with the CEDI in operation”, explains Andrés Felipe Cuellar, head of Maintenance and Engineering of Sika Colombia. “The replacement of all the racks that we had in the CEDI warehouse at the Sika Tocancipá plant was a great challenge for everyone involved, being an activity with high pressure from the different business units, as the operation could not be stopped. We managed to have an execution with excellent results, thanks to the integration and willingness of the engineering and logistics areas of Sika and AR Racking, to adapt to the logistics activity of the plant and to be able to dismantle and assemble the new racks with all the necessary technical and safety criteria. Additionally, with AR Racking, a manual picking system was developed and implemented, which was designed according to Sika’s market needs, increasing the percentage of finished product storage”. Says Juliana Andrea Reyes, In House Project Engineer (INP) at Sika.

With more than 400 different products on the market, the Tocancipá DC was equipped with selective shelving to store 1000 x 1200 mm pallets and also Euro pallets. “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 m2 DC now has 4,686 positions, increasing its logistics capacity by 19.54%. In addition, the racks are designed with a seismic-resistant structural calculation, which means that the dynamic forces have been considered to minimise the risk of the pallets falling during an earthquake.

In addition to being a logistical proposal adaptable to the dimensions of the load units, the selective racks allow each pallet to be located quickly and access is direct and immediate. “This project has increased the storage capacity of the logistics centre’s warehouse. The change from double-depth to single-depth racking has had an impact on inventory, loading and picking operating times, generating greater versatility for the handling and storage of different types of loads, which results in efficiency and improvements in FIFO product management in the warehouse. Likewise, the challenge of managing the entire warehouse operation arose, while new locations were created in the system, derived from the change in the type of shelving; making the necessary physical movements for the entire assembly, in order to not lose the map of the products that were being moved during the entire activity,” confirms Jair Ospina, head of the logistics warehouse at Sika Tocancipá. 7 regional offices, 4 production plants and more than 400 employees make it the main reference in its sector. A business activity that has always been growing since the company was created in Colombia in 1951 thanks to its commitment to innovation, quality and service.