Why Having A Warehouse Is Critical to Your Flooring Project’s Success
One of our recent commercial flooring installations is a great example of why having a warehouse facility is important to a project’s success. For more than 50 years, Pusateri’s Fine Foods of Toronto has been selling specialty items imported from all over the world, delighting its customers with unique and rare gourmet products.
Pusateri’s decided it would downsize its head office to a smaller location, further east of its original spot on Bloor St. As part of the move, the fine-food emporium’s new corporate headquarters would require new flooring. Looking for a professional and cost-effective solution, Pusateri’s contracted Darwin Fisher.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
Planning the Project Space
The project would require the installation of 11,000 square feet of carpet tile which would be provided by the Mohawk Group.The space was reviewed with Pusateri staff. Darwin Fisher provided a quick and accurate take off for the new area. A graphic representation of the materials to be used was applied directly to the floor plan so the client could easily understand how the proposed project would look.
Darwin Fisher’s project management software was then used to produce a line item proposal to track the status of the project through the implementation cycle.
Through the project lifecycle, Darwin Fisher worked with Pusateri’s, the project manager, property manager and building owner of the new office space. There were also many different trades that required intensive on-site scheduling.
Photo by Casey Lee on Unsplash
As a result, the two-day project became two weeks due to the need to accommodate all of the players involved. On the day of the scheduled flooring installation, the truck that was set to deliver the carpet tile was halted and materials were sent back to the Darwin Fisher warehouse. The large warehouse at Darwin Fisher’s head office has been an invaluable resource for many projects, including this one.
The Warehouse and Contractor Schedules
When working with a variety of different trades, there are often unforeseen circumstances or schedule delays with different projects, despite careful planning. This is never a problem as the warehouse stores client materials through pre-order, or as a service to clients when installation times are delayed, or project parameters change. Once it’s time to move items, each order is retrieved, grouped, packaged and checked for completeness before being dispatched to the job site.
Without the warehouse it would be difficult to manage items required for jobs. In this case, the truck could not be accepted due to other trades working on the new site. However, this became a simple delay. When it was time for the installation, the materials were consolidated and shipped out to Pusateri’s project site.
The Warehouse: Lowering Costs and Ensuring Delivery
The flexibility and functionality of our warehouse helps improve customer service, lower costs and offers the availability to have the right products, at the right place and the right time. In this situation, the warehouse acted as a buffer, balancing the time and demand for materials for just in time delivery. In other instances the warehouse has been used for storing products that need longer lead times when being shipped from overseas. It is also a critical resource when there are several iterations of a larger project which require the phasing in of a variety of flooring materials, and longer-term storage is needed.
As the project was delivered on time and on budget, and Darwin Fisher was able to accommodate changes to the schedule, Pusateri staff were very pleased with the final result.
For more information on you next flooring installation please contact info@darwinfisher.com
For more information about Pusateri’s Fine Foods, please click here.