WorkflowContract Logistics & Warehousing

Warehouse Solution Design

Warehouse solution design that turns a shipper's data pack into three costed options, plays the first contract peak hour by hour, and has the price challenged before two people sign.

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The problem

A multi-year price built from a week of spreadsheets

The data pack arrives with the RFP: a year of orders, lines, items, inbound containers and inventory. A solutions engineer opens the files, removes duplicates and test orders by hand, and often misses returns hiding as negative quantities. Profiling sits in one workbook, labor and peak sizing in another, vendor quotes are pasted from email and the tariff lives in a third.

A vendor's claimed robot rate slips into the price, a shift is added and the wage line is never redrawn, and capital is recovered over a longer period than the term. The VP and the CFO read a summary deck, usually without the peak played or the price traced back to the data.

Built forSolutions engineersSolutions design VPsCFOsBid managers

The Problem Today

A provider prices a multi-year warehouse contract in spreadsheets, with peak sizing, quotes and price in separate files.

$22.06: median hourly wage, hand laborers and material movers, 2025 published

Kept in separate workbooks

Order files
Labor rates
Quotes
Tariff

Vendor rates priced as factA robot's claimed pick rate goes into the price
A crew change, cost unchangedA shift added late and the wage line never redrawn

The Solution

Data pack profiledOrders, lines, items, inbound and the peak week, each tied to rows
Three designs side by sideSpace, labor from standards, equipment, cost and price for each
The first peak playedThe first contract peak, hour by hour per design, then the price challenged
Two people signDesign approval from the VP, price approval from the CFO

Built-in controls

No price rests on a vendor's claimed rate
Outside notes wait for a named reader
Nobody signs a design they proposed

What You Get

The bid team offers a price tested against the first contract peak, and knows which assumption carries the risk.

Each number tracedA value opens its assumption and its data rows
Risk rankedWage, rent, growth and inventory moved one at a time
Past rulings rememberedShown at the moment of the next price

Features

Warehouse solution design features, from the data pack to the signed price

Solutions engineers, the VP of solutions design and the CFO use them to design and price a warehouse bid. The screens follow a cookware brand's data pack from profile to price.

demoThe shipper, the vendors, the team and the numbers here are sample data.

01Data pack
Shipper data pack profiled, each cleaning decision signed by a person
- Duplicates, test orders and returns found in the files. Rows the shipper's export doubled or mislabeled are caught before they inflate labor and space.
- Each removal signed, assumptions flagged. Nothing is dropped without the engineer's decision, and family-average carton sizes stay marked for the analyst to confirm.
- Peak week and month-end pallets from the rows. Space is sized on the peak month-end, and the peak week shows its own arithmetic, rounding included.
02Steer
Labor and peak crews redrawn mid-run when the engineer changes performance
- Plain-language steer during the build. A new site staffed with new temps can be planned at a lower first-peak performance without rebuilding the model.
- All options redrawn together. Peak crews and agency temps change across all three designs, so the comparison stays like with like.
03Design board
Three warehouse designs built side by side on the same shifts from one profile
- Space, labor, equipment, cost and price per option. Each pick method is costed on the same profile, shifts and standards, so no option looks cheaper on easier assumptions.
- A peak verdict on each option. An option that misses the first contract peak says so in its column, with the shortfall in orders.
- A vendor-claimed rate holds its price. An option resting on a robot maker's claimed pick rate is held until the provider has measured data from its own site.
04Number trace
Each labor number traced to its engineered standard and its data rows
- Hours by function from engineered labor standards. The labor line rests on the company's own standards, each with a basis and revision, rather than another site's habits.
- Any number opens its assumption. The VP or CFO can follow a figure to the rate and rows behind it, and change the assumption in the what-if.
05Peak week stress
First contract peak played hour by hour through each warehouse design
- Peak grown by the RFP's forecast. Each design is tested on the first peak it must ship under contract rather than on last year's.
- Capacity computed from people and equipment. The lower of the crew rate and the equipment rate sets each hour, so a design short of people shows it.
- Staffing limits from the site and the agency. Temps are capped at what the agency said it can supply a shift, so the plan is one the site can staff.
06Outside requests
Measured site data asked of the robot vendor in fixed fields, its price held
- Measured data asked in fixed fields. Rate, weeks measured, SKUs and lines an order come back as values, and the design changes only through them.
- Price held while the request is open. A vendor's reply from its own reference site is read in as fields, and the price stays held until the provider's own site data exists.
- Free-text notes held for a person. A note from the vendor is never compared, and proposing waits until someone has read it.
07Margin review
The price read the way the CFO would read it, the agents' own draft included
- The agents' own cost errors caught. A cost line missing from the agents' draft is found and added before the price reaches a signature.
- Points for the engineer, with options. Clauses that protect the margin are the engineer's call, answered with a reason the audit trail keeps.
- Cheaper options explained. The review says why a lower-cost design is passed over, so the CFO does not have to ask.
08What-if
3PL pricing model what-if ranking the assumptions that carry margin risk
- Assumptions editable with their sources. Wage, rent, performance, growth and agency temps can be changed, and all three options redraw.
- Risks ranked by margin effect. The bid team sees which assumption hurts most, so the terms in the schedule address the real exposure.
09Sign-off
Design signed by the VP and price by the CFO, after each opens the evidence
- The preparer cannot sign. The engineer proposes, and two other people approve: the VP for the design, the CFO for the price.
- Signing waits on opened evidence. The VP opens the stress result and the standards, the CFO the margin review and the schedule, before signing is possible.
- A later change clears both signatures. An edit to a signed design sends it back through the chain.

Solutions engineer, VP, CFO and bid manager on one warehouse price

One builds the design, two sign it, and one places the signed schedule in the response.

Solutions engineers

Turn the shipper's data pack into designs and propose one for signature

Profile, space and labor built from the rows
Each number traced to its assumption
Challenger points with the evidence beside them

VPs of solutions design

Sign each design and own the rules that govern pricing

The first contract peak played before signing
Labor standards with basis and revision
Rulings kept as rules once approved

CFOs

Sign each price as second person

The price read the way they would read it
Risks ranked by their margin effect
Capital and storage exposure stated in dollars

Bid managers

Place the signed price schedule into the RFP response

A schedule they cannot edit
Assumptions stated as the RFP asks
Internal cost and margin kept out

More screens

The CFO's signature, the schedule, the vendor portal and the design queue

What the CFO, the bid manager and the robot vendor see around one design.

Second signature dialog for the CFO: $21,604,800.00 a year, margin $3,244,800.00 at 15.02%, minimum storage and unrecovered capital clauses — **The CFO signs the price second**Price $21,604,800.00 a year at 15.02% margin, with the storage minimum and capital clause, and a reason code and the CFO's own words before signing.

Price schedule for the RFP response: rates and volumes totaling $21,604,800.00 a year, the Saturday shift rate, terms and stated assumptions — **Section 7 as the shipper receives it**Storage, handling, kitting, re-pack and returns totaling $21,604,800.00, the peak Saturday shift billed as used, the terms and the assumptions the RFP asked for.

Vendor portal: a site data request with fields for measured pick rate, weeks measured, SKUs and lines an order, a report upload and an optional note — **The request in the vendor's own portal**The robot vendor sees only the requests sent to it: fields for the measured rate, weeks, SKUs and lines an order, a report upload and a note a person reads.

Rules kept: never price on a vendor's claimed robot rate, size storage on the peak month-end, and a proposed minimum billable storage rule — **Rules kept from past designs**Never price on a vendor's claimed robot rate, size storage on the peak month-end, pass the peak only with spare capacity, and a proposed storage minimum.

Design queue: open and recent warehouse designs with owner, stage, orders a year, design and RFP due dates, one stopped on a data error — **Designs on their clock**Open and recent designs by owner, stage and due date: one stopped on a data error, two at risk, the cookware bid already in the RFP response.

Audit trail: the bid manager placing the schedule, the CFO's second signature, the VP opening the stress result and signing the design — **The trail from proposal to hand-off**Proposal, point answers, documents opened and both signatures in time order, each with its reason and the role it was signed in.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

The design, the price and each rule stay with named people

No price on a claimed rateA vendor's claimed robot rate holds its option's price until the provider has its own measured site data.

No row dropped without a personEach cleaning decision on the data pack is signed by the engineer.

No signature by the preparerThe engineer proposes; the VP and the CFO sign, and any later change clears both.

No price edits by the bid managerThe signed schedule goes into the response exactly as signed.

No cost or margin to the shipperWages, standards, quotes, cost and margin stay inside, and the schedule says so.

Six inputs behind each option, from the shipper's files to the site's answers

The shipper's data packOrders, lines, SKUs, inbound containers and month-end inventory, as received.

Engineered labor standardsThe company's own rates for each function, with basis and revision.

Finance standardsBurden, first-year performance, productive hours, cost of capital, overhead and target margin.

Landlord and equipment vendor quotesRead as fields, with claimed rates kept apart from measured ones.

The site general managerWages, shift differentials, hires by date and agency temps a shift, answered in fields.

The shipper's RFPTerm, growth forecast, inventory plan, shipping promise and the price schedule it asks for.

What bid teams ask about warehouse solution design

What is warehouse solution design?

Warehouse solution design turns a shipper's data into a building plan and a price: space, pick method, labor by shift, equipment and a tariff the provider can live with. Here agents profile the data pack, build three options, play the first contract peak and challenge the price before two people sign.

How does contract logistics pricing work here?

From operating cost by line, labor, occupancy, capital recovery, equipment, packaging and overhead, then a tariff at the target margin: storage per pallet a month, handling per order and value-added work per unit.

Why test the first contract peak and not last year's?

Because the design must ship the peak it will face under the contract, grown by the shipper's forecast. A design sized on last year's peak can pass on paper and fall short in its first season.

Can a vendor's claimed throughput set the price?

No. A claimed robot rate holds that option's price until the provider has measured data from its own site. The vendor answers in fields, and a note offering a better rate waits for a person to read it.

Who signs a logistics solution design and its price?

Design approval belongs to the VP of solutions design, after opening the peak result and the labor standards. Price approval follows from the CFO as second person, once the margin review and the schedule are open. Whoever prepared it cannot sign.

Contract Logistics & Warehousing