The Schweppes Asahi Distribution Centre (DC) at Heathwood, an industrialised suburb on the south side of Brisbane, is an outstanding example of high bay warehousing designed to accommodate state-of-the-art automation.

With almost 20,000m2 total enclosed floor area reaching up to 33m in height, the high bay distribution centre features satellite multi-deep rack automated ASRS storage and retrieval machines handling pallets; and low bay areas facilitating forklift movements, selective pallet rack, drive-in pallet rack, pallet conveyors, and automated stretch wrappers.

CRC designed the large-scale slab and steel structure to meet the standard of precision required for the successful deployment of robotics, the slab being designed specifically for Dematic’s fully automated racking system. ‘Strand 7’ finite element modelling software was used to model the high bay warehouse floor, which is a jointless design using a combination of fibre and conventional reinforcement.