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custom 2-level garments on hangers (GOH) rail mezzanine was
designed by Maybury to maximize the available space and maintain
ground floor operations at Cheshire Direct. |
Cheshire Direct,
a unit of Federated Department Stores located in Cheshire, CT, opened
originally in 1987 as the Bloomingdale's-By-Mail catalog corporate
headquarters. Cheshire Direct currently provides all order fulfillment
services for the 'Bloomingdale's By Mail' catalog and Macys.com. Services
include telemarketing, customer service, warehousing and order fulfillment.
Cheshire Direct employs approximately 550 associates. The facility
is 430,000 square feet, including warehouse, mezzanine and office
space with over four miles of conveyor and three sortation systems.
Cheshire Direct currently processes more than 48,000 items per average
week, and ships them in 25,000 outbound packages. Maybury has
worked with Cheshire Direct for many years, as a supplier of lift
trucks, conveyor, mezzanines, shelving and other material handling
solutions. This
long-term relationship has allowed Maybury to develop a broad understanding
of Cheshire Direct's business operations and
material handling requirements.
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| The
new 2-level mezzanine seamlessly integrates with the existing
mezzanine to provide a continuation of the GOH rail system. |
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Cheshire Direct,
as a division of Federated Stores, has embarked on a project to
improve their customer service and operational efficiency. As a
component of this ongoing effort, Cheshire Direct made a decision
to transfer all of their garments on hangers (GOH) product lines
from their auxiliary building to their main facility. Already existing
in the main facility was a two-story rack-supported mezzanine that
held GOH product. Cheshire Direct's desire was to integrate a new
two-story mezzanine that would consolidate the GOH rail system from
the auxiliary facility with their existing mezzanine and GOH system.
Maybury Material Handling worked with Cheshire Direct to design
a system that would make the most efficient and cost effective use
of their available space and also maintain their operations and
departments on the ground floor. This new system would provide two
levels of GOH product storage and order processing above the first
floor work areas.
Cheshire Direct provided an electronic copy of their building plans
to Maybury
Material Handling. Maybury's System Engineering Department, utilizing
the latest AutoCAD 2002 design software, custom designed a mezzanine
structure that worked within the confines of the structures already
in place (i.e. mezzanines and conveyors). Jay Mercadante, Maybury's
System Engineering and Fabrication Manager used the information
given to him to design a two-level structural mezzanine, which was
seamlessly fastened to the existing work platform. The mezzanine
has a total square foot area of 15,680 feet. Design was completed
to satisfy both local and BOCA
(Building Officials and Code Administrators) codes.
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A
full GOH rail system in use on one of the 2 mezzanine levels. |
After the mezzanine
was installed, Maybury dismantled all of the GOH rail systems from
Cheshire Direct's auxiliary facility and rebuilt them on the two
new mezzanine levels and integrated them with the existing rail
system. The new two-level GOH mezzanine provides 3,500 linear feet
of GOH storage. This provides 42,000 additional storage locations
for hanging garments. Bob Zoldy, Manager of Stock and Industrial
Engineering at Cheshire Direct says, "The mezzanine was a unique
challenge for us because we needed to operate a department on the
ground floor. Maybury provided the engineering expertise to help
us design a column-supported mezzanine that would accomplish this.
Maybury's daily communication and project coordination were outstanding."
Bob also went on to say, "The finished mezzanine has met all of
our expectations in terms of functionality and aesthetics. Maybury
took the time to satisfy our needs as the customer and was also
a great business partner in working with other contractors."
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John Goes
to Washington |
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| John
Maybury poses in front of the Capitol Building. |
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On July
31, 2001, John Maybury, President of Maybury Material Handling,
was invited to the White House to attend a forum of small
business owners. John, along with 40 other small business
owners from across the country, met with President George
W. Bush and U.S.
Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to discuss the issues
and importance of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).
TPA
is geared toward opening international trade to U.S.
businesses, providing the President authority to directly
negotiate trade agreements with foreign countries and present
finalized agreements to Congress for a vote. This "streamlined"
process had been in place in the past, but expired in 1994.
"While
this nation is a leader in many industries, all of our businesses
keep knocking into each other over the same-sized domestic
pie," said John. "With TPA
in place, we can expand the size of the pie by being a part
of more preferential global trade agreements." U.S.
TPA
tells other governments that the President and his negotiators
speak for the entire United States, and there will be no more
negotiations once they reach an agreement.
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Standing
behind the Presidential Podium, John practices
fielding questions from the press corps. |
"We supply
products to companies beyond East Longmeadow, throughout the
region, throughout the
country and overseas," said John. "Approval of TPA
will
assist
anybody who manufactures items locally that can end up in
foreign countries. They will be paid in foreign currencies
and those foreign monies will trickle down into our economy."
As
a distributor and service provider to numerous companies that
have export potential, John hears many customers saying that
they have the extra capacity to take on more business right
now. John hopes that TPA
will help firms utilize that extra capacity to its fullest
by bringing more business to them. "Without those agreements
you have tariffs and other side agreements in place that freeze
U.S.
businesses out of foreign markets," said John.
Note: At the time of this newsletter's release, the Senate
had passed the TPA
bill and President Bush was urging Congress to approve it.
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Garments Galore! at Cheshire Direct
Drive Unit