Lam Research opens its largest US warehouse
Lam Research has gathered all of its logistics operations in California under one roof in Livermore. At the heart of the new hub is an automated storage system that retrieves parts in under 30 seconds.
The new logistics hub covers more than 470,000 square feet, roughly 43,700 square metres, and is Lam Research’s largest warehouse in the US, according to a blog post from the company. The site will serve Lam’s high-volume manufacturing plant in Livermore, as well as product development at the company’s labs at its headquarters in nearby Fremont. The warehouse was inaugurated on 28 September.
The main idea is to replace several separate logistics sites with one. According to Lam, this makes it easier to respond quickly when customers change build plans or ramp up new technologies.
“We have centralised Lam’s California logistics operations into one hub so we can move faster, plan better, and respond to our customers with the speed and accuracy they expect,” said Karthik Rammohan, Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Enterprise Solutions at Lam Research, at the opening ceremony.
The automated storage and retrieval system covers about 40,000 square feet (around 3,700 square metres) and uses 15 robots. It holds around 150,000 storage bins with capacity for more than 500,000 unique part numbers, and cuts the time to retrieve a part from six minutes to under 30 seconds. An adjacent metrology lab will support outbound deliveries and regional R&D.
Troy Rainey, director of Lam’s US warehouse operations, says that gathering everything in one place makes it possible to move resources quickly as demand and priorities shift.
“This enables us to rapidly reallocate resources as demand and business priorities shift, while eliminating the costs and inefficiencies associated with moving people and materials between multiple facilities,” he says.
The warehouse is expected to support more than 200 jobs by 2027.
