No lumber dealer wants to get the news that their yard is on fire. It’s the kind of once-in-a-lifetime disaster that can set a thriving business back years.
For the team at Harry’s Lumber, they’ve received that call twice.
In October of 2015, the Harry’s warehouse caught fire, almost 25 years to the day after a five alarm fire burned Harry’s to the ground. Knowing firsthand the challenges of rebuilding, the Harry’s team set to work, still making deliveries the day of the fire and laying plans to rebuild.
Located in Chicago, Harry’s is constrained to just around three acres. That meant making the most of the space available in ways that weren’t possible when the yard was rebuilt in 1990.
“As awful as the fire is and was (I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to go through it), it allowed us to hit the reset button and start over, and say ‘what is possible with the small amount of space that we have here?’” said Harry’s vice president Aaron Shefren. “That was an opportunity, if something good comes from something bad, to be able to modernize.”
The team determined that Krauter Auto-Stak was the best resource to make the most of the space available. The new warehouse was built with Auto-Stak in mind, providing space for 40% more material inside while still retaining the same physical footprint.
“It’s allowed us to buy better, it’s allowed us to increase margins and increase profitability,” said Shefren. It’s also reduced the time it takes for employees to load and unload products, taking what was a 45 minute job and finishing it in less than 10.
Shefren drew on the experience of the Auto-Stak team when designing the new warehouse, aiming to eliminate unused spaces and reduce bottlenecks. Together, they went through 70 different design variations, looking to optimize everything from how many forklifts can fit at once to what common products were purchased together.
“We did the outside as well,” said Shefren. “You had to do it all together to make it work because just because you’re putting all these things inside, what are you going to put outside?”
The installation of Auto-Stak was a showcase to buyers once everything was up and running. It helped to eliminate longer wait times for materials and demonstrate Harry’s dedication to the future.
“I did a lot of tours afterwards and it was a good selling point,” said Shefren. “We are keeping current with different technologies that are going on in the industry. This is going to help us out, but it’s also going to help you out as well.”
Now five years out from the fire, Harry’s is in a better position than ever before. And while Shefren knows the Krauter Auto-Stak team will be there if, in 20 years, tragedy strikes again, he’s ready to move forward.
“It was certainly a humbling experience, but I don’t want to do it again.”
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