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Strategic Storage Needs of the Federal Government

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Strategic Storage Needs of the Federal Government Office of Governmentwide Strategic Policy Storage Needs of the Federal Government Amor Patriae Ducit Office of Real Property July 1999 U.S. General Services Administration WORKING WITH THIS DOCUMENT This PDF document is “searchable” by two methods: by “Table of Contents” or by “Find Word or Phrase.” The instructions below outline the steps for each method. Search by “Table of Contents”: ¨ Locate the Table of Contents in the Report. ¨ A mouse click on an entry in the Table of Contents takes you directly to the specified page. Search by “Find Word or Phrase”: A search for a word/phrase is conducted as follows: ¨ From the text toolbar, click on “Tools” and “Find”, or from the icon tool bar, click on the binoculars icon. ¨ In the drop down dialog box, type the word/phrase to be found in the “Find What” line. ¨ Click on the “Find” button. The page containing the searched word/phrase (highlighted) will appear on the screen. ¨ To find additional locations of the word/phrase, click on “Tools” and “Find Again,” or click on the Binocular icon and “Find Again.” If you have Windows, click on the F3 button on your keyboard. ¨ Repeat the previous step until you reach the end of the document or press the “Cancel” button to end the search at any time. (top to bottom) Vegetation Control Storage, USDA SE Nut Research Facility, Byron, GA Outside Equipment Storage, USDA/FS Chattahoochee NF, Gainesville, GA Flexible Accessibility Loading Dock, Fort Benning, GA Strategic Storage Needs of the Federal Government Office of Real Property Office of Governmentwide Policy U.S. General Services Administration July 1999 i Strategic Storage Needs of the Federal Government ii Foreword he General Services project planning and execution of Administration’s (GSA’s) this collaborative initiative. Project TOffice of Governmentwide Team Leader Sheldon Greenberg, Policy (OGP) is pleased to issue the along with Hank Aldag, both of the Strategic Storage Needs of the Office of Real Property; Gary Federal Government Report. This Thompson of OGP’s Office of document is the result of research, Transportation and Personal fieldwork and interviews conducted Property; and Michael Wayne of on Federally owned and leased GSA’s Federal Supply Service warehouse space as well as that of conducted the study, evaluated the the private sector. findings, identified the best practices, and wrote this report. The goal of this project was to promote interagency communication I want to personally thank all the and the sharing of information dedicated personnel from the relating to best practices and the Federal agencies’ headquarters and latest technologies in the regional/local levels involved in our warehousing and storage field. The study for their cooperation and information provided in this assistance. I also want to thank document is based upon 54 on-site those private sector personnel who visits to Federal and private sector agreed to meet with the team to facilities in Florida, Georgia and share their experience and Tennessee. expertise. We believe that this collaborative Government and I want to recognize David L. Bibb, private sector approach to project whose Office of Real Property execution is the formula for success. initiated and developed this warehouse study. Under the We hope the information contained leadership of Stanley C. Langfeld, in this report serves its purpose as a Project Sponsor, the Real Property useful tool in the management and Policy Division led the Strategic operation of the Federal Warehousing Inventory Needs Government’s warehouse and Group (SWING) team through storage functions. G. Martin Wagner Associate Administrator Office of Governmentwide Policy U.S. General Services Administration iii Strategic Storage Needs of the Federal Government Storage Bins Arranged As An American Flag Eglin Air Force Base, FL iv Table of Contents Executive Summary . 1 Purpose . 7 Study Methodology. 9 Project Development. 9 Kick-off Meeting . 9 Field-work Preparation . 10 On-site Visits . 11 Observations and Findings. 13 Overview . 13 Warehouse Diversity . 13 Real Property Considerations in Warehouse Design . 13 Cubic Space. 16 Facility and Site Planning . 19 Facility Access. 21 Infrastructure Attributes . 22 Technology. 28 Personal Property and Supply Management . 29 Distribution Management . 34 Safety and Hazardous Storage . 35 Integration of Storage Functions and Facility Capabilities. 35 Grounds Maintenance. 35 Facilities Operations . 36 Emerging Concepts and Practices in Warehousing . 36 v Table of Contents Opportunities for Real Property Sharing . 39 Best Practices . 41 Recommendations . 43 Glossary . 47 Appendices . 53 I. Project Charter . 55 II. Kick-Off Meeting Letter of Invitation & List of Attendees . 57 III. Matrix of Locations and Storage Functions . 61 IV. Site Visit Summaries and Local Points of Contact . 65 V. Questionnaire Survey and Synopsis . 97 VI. Additional Sources of Information . 103 VII. Publication Survey . 105 vi Executive Summary Purpose query for storage, warehouse and industrial inventory within the The Office of Governmentwide continental United States. The Policy’s (OGP) main objective, as database revealed that Federal stated in the Project Charter agencies located in the states of (Appendix I), was to work Florida, Georgia and Tennessee collaboratively with Federal offered the most potential for a agencies to review current real successful study. property warehouse, storage, and distribution functions and develop a A Strategic Warehousing Needs Governmentwide information Inventory Group (SWING) project sharing mechanism for the best kick-off meeting was held on May 7, practices and lessons learned from 1998. All Federal landholding the study. To confirm the validity of agencies identified within the the project, the team also visited geographic study area were invited, several private sector companies as well as other major landholding whose operations center on storage agencies, and member agencies of and distribution functions. Another the Federal Real Property Council goal of the study was to provide (Appendix II). Twenty-one Federal opportunities for agencies to share agencies were represented at the resources and identify potential meeting and invited to participate in opportunities for improving the the study. After presentation of the utilization of real property to meet project’s purpose and goals, a the Federal Government’s current question-and-answer session and future warehouse needs. enabled the Federal agency attendees to gain a better Three distinct functional areas of understanding of the project. expertise were represented on the General Services Administration’s On-site visits (Appendix III and IV), (GSA) project team — real property including project briefings and (OGP’s Office of Real Property), interviews were made to 16 Federal personal property (OGP’s Office of agencies in Florida, 25 in Georgia, Transportation and Personal and 13 in Tennessee. In addition, Property), and supply distribution real and personal property (GSA’s Federal Supply Service questionnaires were provided to the (FSS)). This teaming effort, local points of contact to provide the therefore, represented the major team with further information on functional components of the the sites (Appendix V). The facilities studied and is the first facilities visited ranged in size from Governmentwide study to combine 10,000 square feet (sq. ft.) to several these aspects of warehousing million sq. ft., and contained a total functions. of approximately 39.3 million sq. ft. of storage space. Private sector Study Methodology entities operating large warehouse and distribution facilities in Florida Based on data from the Federal and Georgia also participated in the Government’s Worldwide Inventory study. Database, participant Federal agencies were identified through a To supplement the team’s exposure 1 Executive Summary to professionals in warehouse and includes office supplies, electrical storage functions, visits were also test equipment, telecommunications made to GSA’s FSS Southwest equipment, enriched uranium, Distribution Center in Fort Worth, nuclear and fossil fuel power plant Texas, where the major supply parts, hazardous materials, military function currently operates out of vehicles, wind tunnel parts, archived multiple buildings. A visit was also records, clothes, household goods, made to the Industrial Engineering medical supplies, and many others. Division at Wright-Patterson U.S. In warehouse operations, the Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. This Government is moving more unit is responsible for providing towards the use of the International engineering and design services for Merchant Purchase Authorization all Air Force materials handling and Card (IMPAC) or Government warehouse functions worldwide. Purchase Card for small orders of Additional sources of information on office-related supplies. This warehouse and materials handling Government issued credit card functions are provided in Appendix enables the holder to buy directly VI. from vendors either by going to local Observations supply stores or ordering through and Findings the internet or telephone. The Government is also using “just-in- Examples of good concepts and time” and prime vendor contracting. practices were found through the These methods provide a less costly site visits and discussions with the and more efficient way for Federal agency and private sector agencies to buy goods and services representatives. In many instances directly from the vendor instead of these concepts have
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