![]() ![]() For example, Digi-Key collaborated with the local airport to extend their cargo capabilities and include more direct flights to key shipping areas. Just like Digi-Key’s power partners stepped up to support this economic development, other Thief River Falls entities are also adjusting for the company’s continued growth. In the construction process, Digi-Key also took on aggressive retrofit projects at the existing facility, such as sensor-activated LED lights, high-efficiency water heaters and more. The company prioritized efficiency and sustainability in the building’s design, including elements like a sun-reflecting white roof membrane and facility-wide LED lighting. Digi-Key takes pride in using that energy wisely. Much of the PDCe’s automated racking, 22 miles of conveyors, product lifts, etc., are powered by electricity. The Anderson substation expansion in Thief River Falls is similar to recent substation upgrades in Fargo and Grand Forks – all supporting communities on the grow. The city works very closely with Digi-Key to make sure that they have electric redundancy in place, that the power keeps flowing, that their rates stay competitive and that they’re well positioned for future growth.” “If we experience an outage, even of just a few minutes, it causes extreme disruptions for Digi-Key, and that has a monetary component to it. It’s very much a hand-in-hand partnership between Digi- Key’s expansion and growth and the electric utility,” explained NMPA General Manager Jasper Schneider. “Digi-Key and Thief River Falls have become synonymous. The substation expansion project wrapped up in June 2020, in plenty of time for the final phases of PDCe construction. They determined the Anderson substation, originally completed in 2000, needed a second 115/15-kV transformer to create the needed capacity of the Digi-Key expansion. The Joint System of Minnkota Power Cooperative and Northern Municipal Power Agency (NMPA) worked with Thief River Falls Municipal Utilities to ensure Digi-Key and its neighbors have the level of power required to keep operations moving. “We have to have continuous, steady power.” Stepping up for power Lauer is grateful that a reliable flow of electricity will not be an additional worry. The project team had to navigate both a polar vortex weather event and the COVID pandemic during construction. (Minnkota/Michael Hoeft)īut this path to “Christmas morning” didn’t come without its challenges. ![]() The new 2.2 million-square-foot Digi-Key expansion has a base floor large enough to fit 22 football fields. The transition will take about nine months, at which time employees will reap the full gifts of a more efficient, more ergonomic, smarter Product Distribution Center. ![]() Digi-Key is nearly finished with the software-testing phase of the enterprise, and will then start to migrate 1.7 million parts from the original building to the new space. The systems will work together to process and ship the company’s 27,000 orders a day – up from 11,000 when Lauer was hired 16 years ago. But the new system, just from a user experience for our team, is going to be much better.”ĭigi-Key’s expansion houses a new best-in-class warehouse management system and OSR (order storage and retrieval system). We know its capabilities – and it’s very capable – and we’ve taken it well past its design capabilities. “Feeling kind of like a kid at Christmas,” Lauer laughed. It’s been a long journey since ground was broken on the expansion in 2017, but Digi-Key Vice President of Order Fulfillment Chris Lauer is giddy to finally see packages rolling down the line in the near future. (Minnkota/Michael Hoeft)ĭigi-Key has distribution down to a science, and the new PDCe will streamline its mission of the same-day shipping of batteries, computer parts and other electronics components to homes and businesses around the world. Mark Schmitke, Digi-Key manager of community relations, describes one of the several picking and packing processes that will take place in the facility expansion. ![]()
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