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Equipment Buying Guide: Mezzanine basics
By Lorie King Rogers, Associate Editor - Modern Materials Handling, 5/1/2009
When workspace is tight, a mezzanine can raise your facility's capacity and productivity to a new level.
Are you squeezed for space? Is your distribution center cramped? A mezzanine might be a cost effective answer to increasing capacity and functionality by using the vertical space within your building.
In the theatre, a mezzanine is an intermediate level or floor. In the world of materials handling, a mezzanine is a pre-engineered or custom-designed structure that can be incorporated into a warehouse, distribution center or manufacturing facility to increase storage capacity or create additional production areas and workspaces. It can be made of structural steel, roll-formed steel, aluminum or fiberglass and built to fit exact specifications for the area, height and load requirements. The right mezzanine in the right place can have a significant impact on capacity, productivity and efficiency.
"Given the increase in the cost of construction, mezzanines are a less expensive way to add space," says Don Derewecki, assistant vice president at TranSystems (732-636-2666, http://www.transystems.com/). "They can also provide physical proximity for functions that need to be close together."
Mezzanines can offer a number of benefits and advantages, according to the Storage Equipment Manufacturers Association (SMA, 704-676-1190, www.mhia.org/sma). For example, you can:
- Virtually double available floor space through efficient use of existing cube in the facility,
- Increase productivity,
- Avoid or minimize moving expenses,
- Minimize disruptions during installation,
- Avoid the need to rent, build or purchase additional space,
- Avoid or minimize additional property taxes,
- Make optimum use of existing heating, ventilating and cooling systems,
- Provide demounting and relocating options (in most cases),
- Provide expandability for future growth, and
- Provide possible tax advantages through accelerated depreciation.
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