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Project Planning

The expensive mistakes are made before you order a single machine.

Throughput, footprint and lifetime cost are largely decided in the concept and the tender, long before commissioning. I plan automated warehouses from the data up and write a functional tender that vendors answer on your terms rather than theirs.

Discuss a project What planning covers

Why the concept phase decides the outcome

A design figure is not a throughput figure

Most of the cost of an automated warehouse is committed on paper, in decisions taken before a supplier is even chosen. Once the layout is set in concrete and the contract is signed, the room to correct a weak assumption is gone, and it is paid for every year of the asset's life.

Sized for the demo, not the peak

A layout sized against a clean average, rather than the real order structure and seasonality, hits a wall the first busy week. The shortfall is structural and permanent.

A tender written by the vendor

When the specification comes from the supplier, the proposals are comparable only to each other and every quiet assumption favours the seller. A functional tender puts you back in control of the comparison.

No independent read on feasibility

Concept, simulation and business case are usually supplied by the party that profits from a yes. Someone who has commissioned these systems can tell you which numbers will survive contact with the floor.

Scope

What the planning phase covers

Concept and design

Data and process analysis

Order structure, SKU profile and seasonality analysed from real data
Current process mapped and bottlenecks quantified
Growth and peak scenarios defined and stress-tested

Material flow and layout

Material-flow design and technology selection
Facility planning and layout, building included where needed
Static throughput calculation and, through my network, dynamic simulation
Realistic sustained throughput, not a clean-profile design figure

Tender and vendor selection

Tender documents

Functional tender documents written around your requirement
Vendor-specific tender documents where a shortlist is set
A specification vendors answer on your terms, not theirs

Evaluation

Structured evaluation of proposals against defined criteria
Technical questions forced into the negotiation before signing
CAPEX and OPEX compared on a like-for-like basis
Clean handover of the awarded scope to project management

How it works

From data to a signed contract

Scoped to the decision in front of you: a concept study, a tender or the full path from analysis to award.

Data and requirements

Order and item data, growth assumptions and constraints gathered and turned into a quantified brief rather than a wish list.
Step 1
Material flow concept

Technology options weighed against your own profile, sized for the peak, with the trade-offs made explicit.
Step 2
Layout and simulation

Layout developed and, where the risk warrants it, confirmed by dynamic simulation before any money is committed.
Step 3
Tender and award

Functional tender issued, proposals evaluated, technical points negotiated and the award handed cleanly to realisation.
Step 4

Evidence

Planned and designed, then handed over clean

Sales and design · Grocery wholesale · Norway

Deep-freeze SCP installation in Scandinavia

Owned the sales and design process for the system, negotiated the contract and handed the project over to the delivery team.

Technology: Automated shuttle storage, delayering robots, case stacking robots, WCS, pack-pattern generator.

Outcome: Successful sales process and contract negotiation, clean handover to delivery.

Sales and design · Grocery retail · Germany

Multi-area automated warehouse, building included

Owned the sales and design process for the whole facility including the building itself, negotiated the contract and handed over to the delivery team.

Technology: Building, automated high-bay warehouse, shuttle system, pallet conveyor, multi-zone picking, AGVs, WCS.