Ep. #18: Loading Dock Design 101

This episode of Right from the Source Walt Sweetlick, the Director of Customer Relations and Sales Support at Right Height. He discusses what to designing a safe and productive loading dock. You're listening to right from the source, expert insights on safety, safety, Productivity, energy savings, and the city. Control. This is Right from the Source. And with us today, we have Walt Sweetlick. Good afternoon, Ken. Good to see you again. Yeah, good to see you too, Walt.

So today's topic we're gonna be talking about loading dock design. But before we do that, we'd just like to get a little bit of background on you, starting with your title and your expertise. Again, my name is Walt Sweetlick and I'm the Director of Customer Relations. and sales support at Right Height. I've been with Right Height since 1982, so close to 40 years now. My expertise is working with clients on developing plans and designs for new buildings, new loading docks.

New layouts and that type of thing, that'll make them safer and more productive. Very good. Outside of work, any hobbies, passions that you care to share with the listeners? Well probably too many, but I'm a I'm an avid sailor on Lake Michigan. We

Uh, do a lot of competitive sailing on Lake Michigan from Memorial Day till the end of September. And then once that's quiets down in the winter I spend a fair amount of time in my basement doing some woodworking and related stuff. All right. Well let's dive into our topic of loading dock design. So what are some of the current trends and also some of the current issues that you're seeing when it comes to the material handling industry that really affects loading dock design and construction?

Well I I I think today more than ever productivity is is really gaining importance. Trying to figure out product ways to get product in and out of these trailers quicker, less product damage. Of course, always with an emphasis on employee safety uh in mind is absolutely critical. So can you talk a little bit about from both a a safety and a productivity standpoint?

There might even be some designs that really can aid in in both. I mean they can work hand in hand, it's not necessarily one or the other. Absolutely. It y uh again it'll be very client specific, obviously. No secret that we've been building a lot of big box warehouses here in the United States. Depending on how that warehouse is used, might just be a very simple dock layout with a fully hydraulic push-button dock leveler, fully automatic. Dock lock vehicle restraint.

A push button overhead door all sized and shaped correctly to handle the loads going into and out of the uh the trailers. Adding the push button for the operator, it's gonna create a much safer environment for that lady or gentleman to safely place the equipment inside the trailer and at the same time create a better bridging environment to make these multiple trips in and out of the trailer for

Typical full truck load, loading and unloading that we see a lot of our clients doing these days. And as you're considering a a specific loading dock design, what are some of the factors that you're looking at when designing that perfect dock? I like to get a real real good handle on shipping and receiving trends.

for the client. Is the client gonna be in one of these quarter million, half million square foot buildings or it's gonna be a full truckload of product coming into the building, then a full truckload of product going out of the building. Once I have a thorough understanding of of the type of loads we're gonna be handling, then it's what's the load itself, what's the unit look like? Is it a palletized load? Is it some kind of bin, super sac, or maybe even a returnable rack?

And then once I understand what the unit load looks like, then I want to understand how that unit load is being handled. Uh sit-down lift truck, gas or electric will have an impact. Pallet jack, manual or electric, or maybe even a hand truck or other material handling equipment that are sometimes used. Personally, I've uh been involved in over a 500 dock. in the last five or six years using autonomous lift trucks. And uh those present a whole new set of challenges that are

Really exciting and really fun to dive into with a customer. Without maybe diving too deep, w would you care to to to humor the listeners and and some of those uh challenges, but also maybe some new features in in dealing with those kinds of setups?

Absolutely. You know, autonomous operations typically a client is willing to invest some money, get the system to work. with maybe a minimal number of employees in the safest, most efficient manner p uh possible. That means automating controls. Creating automated sequences where maybe an operator pushes one button and the dock lock engages, the overhead door opens and the dock leveler automatically positions itself.

And then the controls even go as far as to communicate in some cases with the autonomous lift truck. To let the autonomous lift truck know that that dock is ready and the autonomous lift truck can then start it. job of of loading the trailer. In some cases, when the autonomous lift truck is complete with the sequence, gotten the last pallet in, it tells our controls that it's done, and the entire process reverses itself.

So the trailer's released and ready to go without any human interface. That's crazy to think about. Yeah, it really is. But it it it's it's being done like I say on Probably over a thousand docks in the in America right now. And uh the opportunity's just waiting for more people to to get on board. Exciting stuff. From a larger not just a uh w a single loading dock position, but from an entire uh loading dock face uh, you know, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty stations.

What would you tell somebody who's maybe designing almost a a large uh distribution center or fulfillment kind of center where you have this large face with all these dock positions? What what kind of design tips are you looking at when you're kind of thinking about more than just a single dock but, you know, dozens of them. Bigger is better. Yeah. Yeah, and uh not necessarily i in equipment.

But uh a client that's designing a half a million or a million square foot building has to look at the bigger picture. They have to understand the traffic flow in and out of the building. They have to consider spacing the the doors on wider center lines. Many times an architect or a contractor will encourage them to jam as many doors as close to pause together as possible, yet it doesn't always create the best layout for the operator.

So we're asking or we're encouraging clients to consider spreading these doors out a little bit wider. Instead of 12 foot center lines, maybe look at thirteen or fourteen foot center lines. For sure understand the proper door size. Get a door that's at least nine feet wide by at least ten feet tall. Have a proper dock height. And then at a minimum have a dock leveler that's at least seven feet wide by eight feet long.

Again, depending on the load configuration, depending on the type of material handling uh equipment, it may make sense to go longer and it may make sense to go wider on the dock levelers to create uh the efficiency that the client is looking for at those docs. So when you are kind of sizing out, I mean you m you mentioned some some feet uh and and sizes for a few items there.

How are you kind of coming to those conclusions and and how do you look at a facility and kind of determine what the appropriate size maybe dock door is or leveler? Um what are some some tips that people can kind of take with them when when sizing that out? We like to see the trailer or the truck picture framed, if you will, inside the overhead door opening when the dock door is open.

So imagine a trailer back to the dock. Dock attendant's now in charge, so they restrain the trailer. They open the overhead door. What we want that dock attendant to see are the floor of the trailer, the side walls of the trailer, and the roof of the trailer. We don't want the dock attendant to see the door jams. We don't want the dock attendant to see the door header. And we don't want to see any interference from the building floor or foundation wall of the building.

Full access to the back of that trailer is absolutely essential for a safe and efficient operation. And obviously, you know, some facilities are gonna have different kinds of trailers backing up into them and that kinda plays into the larger layout where maybe you do have different size dock doors and in different areas uh or does that not really play a large factor?

A lot of discussion uh lately about the last mile, getting things to your point, from a fulfillment center to my house. What type of truck, what kind of vehicle takes it from that fulfillment center to my house? And in those cases, we think there are some opportunities. to expand and go uh uh outside the box if you will on different types of dock layouts and dock designs. Uh there's more talk uh in this last mile discussion about fulfillment centers in urban areas.

where you don't have the big truck courts that you have in a suburban or freeway location. And uh we think that we've got some pretty good ideas up our sleeve to help clients out in those situations as well. Awesome. So definitely some stuff coming down the pike. Oh absolutely. No no question about it. As far as the things that you are hearing now from customers, whether it's a a current problem or or challenge that they're experiencing or

or maybe ones that they're worried about in the future. What what kinds of things are you hearing from customers as as really big challenges as it relates to loading dock design. It varies so much by industry. In food, in beverage,

In pharma and in even some consumer products now, the seal between the back of the trailer and the building wall has become absolutely positively critical. White light in that transition between the building and the trailer is just not acceptable with our clients right

And so coming up with tighter seals that still maintain proper access to the back of the trailer is critical for many of our clients to not only create the loading environment that they they need But to create the sanitation and security environment that their their product demands.

So what are some of these solutions? Uh I guess in in this particular example that you gave that uh that right height can really help solve. Sure, absolutely. So in this in this ceiling category, we've uh invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of resources into coming up with Better dock enclosures, especially in the dock shelter category, that maintain the proper access to the back of the trailer while sealing up not only on both sides of the trailer.

But creating a a a very tight seal across the roof of the trailer in the one area nobody ever wants to talk about, but it's getting more attention every day. is underneath the trailer. So coming up with enclosures that seal on all four sides of the trailer, top, bottom, and both sides, while maintaining proper access. And minimizing maintenance concerns.

It's been a a critical design criteria for our products for the last couple of years. It's been very well the products have been very well received. Now obviously depending on what industry you're in, uh the solutions can vary quite vastly.

Um can you and and Reite Height obviously n well known for the dock lock, for example. Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the industries where the dock lock makes a lot of sense and maybe some other industries where other types of vehicle restraints uh exist.

that uh could be excellent solutions that not only Right Hide provides but just simply are available. Absolutely. So we believe very strongly that manufacturing plants making a a product, a widget, can of soda, can of beer, whatever the case may be, they're typically going to ship out of that plant in a full truckload quantity, pretty conventional, over-the-road, either refrigerated or dry trailer. So to your point, conventional dock locks will work very well in that case.

We've got a variety of products in that category that will meet different price points, have different functionality depending on how far the client wants to go with their overall dock safety and security program. But we've been very, very successful in that category. At the same time, when that truckload of beer gets to a beer distributorship, that exact dock lock will work very well on their receiving dock.

Yet when they load their trailers to deliver to bars and taverns and restaurants and convenience stores and grocery stores, beer depots, their trucks are typically uh equipped with hydraulic tailgates. different lifting apparatus on the back of the trailer that prohibit a successful engagement with a conventional vehicle restraint to their fleet. So we build a whole nother category of restraints to capture the tires of those

trucks and trailers. It has become a very successful solution for those designated docks that will see those types of trucks. Small example but a a very common example. Yeah. A pharmaceutical industry we see the exact same thing. Full truckload, quantities from manufacturing to distribution, distribution to hospitals, clinics, Pharmacies and what have you, typically a need for lift gauge trailers, typically a need for a different type of wheel based vehicle restraint.

We're well equipped to handle that needs to be. Can you talk a little bit about um some of the controls that interact with either, you know, a a dock lock, a leveler? Um, you know, we've talked a l a little bit about that so far, but Um would love to hear your take on advanced controls and how they can really kind of bring an entire dock.

uh position together. Absolutely. The trend is towards a push button operated equipment. We we alluded to that earlier. Push button overhead doors, push button dock levelers, push button dock locks, push button dock lights. Etcetera. The question on controls is how do you integrate the controls to make sure that the operator is using all the f uh safety features and functionality that the controls were intended to provide. And so we do that typically with interlock uh sequences of operations.

Very simple example. Trailer backs into a loading dock. Dock attendant now wants to load or unload the trailer. When the trailer initially backs in, The only button that will be active on the control box is the one to lock the trailer. Create a safe and secure work environment first.

Once the controls are satisfied that that trailer is properly secured, now from an environmental standpoint, we want to uh open that overhead door, knowing that that trailer is already sealed up to the building. So its second logical step would be to open the overhead door. Once we've completed that step, third and final step would be to lower the dock level or position the dock leveler on the bed of the trailer.

Those uh push buttons are sequenced that you can't accomplish B until you've accomplished A, and you certainly can't accomplish C until you've accomplished A and B, and then accomplish C. Another great piece of how Right Height kind of brings all of that, all of these single pieces of equipment together to create a a safe. an efficient work environment.

You have to bring things together in order to to gain the maximum benefit of your investment in in quality equipment. There's no two ways about it. Well, I think that does it for our uh scheduled questions.

here Walt, but if there's anything else that you wanted to touch on that you feel like we might have missed that you wanted to share with our listeners related to loading dock design. Dock design is not a cookie cutter situation. You really need to rely on an expert. To understand all the intricacies and to help, if you will, work with your architect, your design build contractor.

some of the other people that are involved in the the construction of the building. Somebody asked me recently if you were building a building, how would you design the docks or what would you do on the dock design? Well I find myself in the involved in helping build a building right now. And I'm finding out uh daily that the architect has a lot of very, very, very important questions that need to get answered and we're still months away from putting a shovel in the ground.

But boy, it's i i this is the most important critical time of the whole the whole process. So I guess the the moral of the story is it's never too early to start talking about good dock design. on a new building, uh if you want to get it right the first time. 哇哇 Uh that is all the time we've got for today. So appreciate you being here sharing all of your insights

It's always a pleasure to have you here on the show. Always an honor and pleasure to spend time with you, Ken, and uh look forward to the next opportunity. Thanks a lot. Uh so for our listeners, be sure to follow Right Height on all of their social media platforms. and visit RightHeight.com for additional information or to connect with a team member. Thanks for listening.

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