Inside the tripling of Digi-Key’s Product Distribution Centre – video

Business news | August 19, 2022

By Nick Flaherty

Distributors

Distributor Digi-Key electronics has opened a major 2.2 million square foot expansion to its warehouse in Minnesota, making the site one of the largest in the US.

产品配送中心的扩展（PDCE）将每日平均27,000张包裹的平均套餐从3M平方英尺的站点运往180多个国家 /地区。

Notably the opening saw package handoffs to each of the company’s four carrier partners: DHL, FedEx, UPS and the US Postal Service (USPS).

大流行和组成部分的短缺使该公司创下了创纪录的增长，2021年增长了65％，预订比去年增长了25％以上。今年也是该公司供应商增加的最大年份之一，当年已经添加了250家供应商。自2018年开始建设以来，Digi-Key在其库存中增加了1,500个供应商和150万个零件数字。

The PDCe building was designed by Minnesota-based Widseth, with internal automation and operational equipment developed with KNAPP. It has two primary conveyor systems to provide redundancy in the case of a breakdown, with over 27 miles of automated conveyor belt. An average order will travel more than 3,200 feet inside the building.

新设施几乎完全自动化，手工真正完成的唯一任务是实际选择零件。在组件的架子中，推车是导线引导的，因此购物车司机唯一要担心的是在哪里停止。电线引导的系统将节省超过10％的时间，并且更安全。

The majority of the fourth floor of the building is currently open for the time being to allow for further expansion.

“This is a significant milestone for all Digi-Key employees and our community,” said Dave Doherty, president of Digi-Key. “Our new product distribution center expansion will help us continue to deliver excellence to our customers for many years to come. As exciting as this expansion is for us, our hope is that our customers truly don’t notice a difference – the transition for them should be seamless, and if anything, result in an even better customer service experience than they are already accustomed to.”

该建筑具有六个备用柴油发动机和泵，并配备了用于灭火的水箱。它还拥有自己的雨水和径流池塘，以免为社区中的任何洪水或存储问题做出贡献。屋顶有一个白色膜，可以反映太阳的热量，传感器激活的LED灯，以最大程度地减少电力使用量，并具有专门设计的输送系统，可最大程度地利用能量使用和效率。

Distribution competitors Avnet and Mouser have both recently broken ground on new buildings and expanded capacity.