Allen Engineering Corp. dedicated and opened its new 34,000-square-foot distribution center and 4,500-square-foot training facility at its Paragould, Ark., factory and headquarters. The facility combines three separate warehouse locations into one. The facility includes new offices for AEC Logistics, product support and quality management.
The distribution center, adjacent to the AEC factory, contains finished goods warehousing, service parts warehousing, product packaging, and shipping operations in one self-contained building. The new facility represents a total investment of $1.7 million.
The new training and meeting facility is located on a mezzanine over the AEC factory floor. It was designed to host 100-plus people at a time and includes three separate meetings areas plus a full-service employee break area. The training facility is fully ADA-compliant with elevator access to the mezzanine. It also contains smart meeting rooks with video conferencing and other capabilities. The facility was designed for AEC’s many in-house and industry training events and meetings held at its headquarters throughout the year. During the week of the Oct. 12 opening, the facility was host to the Allen Concrete College with more than 60 guests in attendance. The company invested $300,000 into the facility.
With the addition of the distribution center, AEC’s manufacturing and warehouse space now totals 173,000 square feet and its office and training space totals 18,000 square feet. With space made available by moving finished goods into the new distribution center, Allen is implementing a new factory floor layout in fabrication and assembly to improve flow and efficiency. AEC also purchased and is installing a new 4,000-watt sheet metal laser for fabrication at a total investment of $650,000. Also two separate assembly areas are being combined into one for improved material flow, labor utilization and efficiency.
AEC is a designer, manufacturer, distributor and marketer of the Allen line of concrete and related equipment sold around the world. The company was founded in 1964 by Dewayne and Mary Ann Allen, a husband and wife team. The company is still family owned and operated run by their son Jay, based at the headquarters. Allen’s product line represents a complete system for the site-prep, placing, finishing and paving of all types of concrete.