Home Depot, home improvement retailer, has opened a flatbed distribution center in Dallas, Texas, that will enable flatbed trucks to drive through the warehouse for more efficient loading.
Because the company earns 45% of its annual sales from customers who professionally remodel, repair or maintain housing projects, finding a way to improve the speed and convenience of distributing their products was important.
The new 800,000 square foot facility will be able to handle up to 65 to 75 trucks a day, adding thousands of deliveries each week in the Dallas area and replacing the older process that allowed only smaller trucks to load a couple of orders and then make multiple trips. Home Depot plans to open similar ones in other cities as part of a $1.2 billion, five-year investment in its supply chain.
The center is right in the path of truck routes and a rail line that extends into the building, for large lumber deliveries.
There are also two aircraft hangers on the property with a historic designation, said Stephanie Smith, Home Depot’s senior vice president of supply chain. “We’re using them on rainy days to put tarps on loaded flatbeds on their way out for deliveries.”
