Waitrose Distribution Centre North West

Waitrose Distribution Centre North West

Contract Value: £160,000
Location: Chorley

A vast Distribution Centre based in the North West of England designed to supply Waitrose stores in the surrounding area. The site covers almost 37,000m², including a chilled warehouse of 13,094m², ambient warehousing of 16,177m², office, vehicle management units and workshops.

The site has a large data installation including eleven communication cabinet positions. From each communications room diverse 12 core Teraspeed® SM optical cabling was wired to each cabinet for a truly resilient network. SYSTIMAX LC connectors with their unmatched losses were terminated directly onto the ends of the fibre cabling.

From each communication cabinet SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED® CAT6 along with 4 core lazr-speed MM optical cable was provided as horizontal cabling to numerous outlets within the warehouse and offices. A total of 990 copper and 95 4-core multi-media fibre cables positions were installed.

The offices, within the site, cover three floors and all services i.e. cameras, R.F. (access points), PCs, printers, digital signage, video conferencing and vending machines all utilise the IT infrastructure.

The warehouse also utilises the IT infrastructure for cameras, RF, PCs printers nexus and BMS, however, due to the overall size of the area this proved to be a very difficult installation at a height of 16metres and covering an area of 30,000m² 14,000 of which is a self-contained chilled unit.

Since the warehouse was designed to use a new picking system (WMS) via – 80no R.F. (access points), it was crucial that the infrastructure could handle the high loads that would be required which is why the Teraspeed® single mode fibre optic cable was used. It was also essential for John Lewis Partnership that the infrastructure was future-proof so that there would not be the need for continuous upgrades.

John Lewis Partnership has worked with CommScope for many years and specifies SYSTIMAX products for use in both the stores and distribution warehouses because it knows that it will benefit from a premier system which will be capable of sustaining future growth. John Lewis went through CommScope’s Value Added Distributor Anixter to source the products needed for the project. As the world’s leading supplier of communications products, it could ensure that John Lewis would get the right products in the most efficient and cost-effective way using its innovative Supply Chain Services.

The whole project worked within incredibly tight deadlines and there were many different trades working together, often in close proximity and relying on each other to complete each step of the project on time. It was important to John Lewis Partnership that the entire build was completed within the time deadline specified.