Nebraska Warehouse

In 1959, a public warehouse was usually a multi-story converted factory that relied on less-than-adequate freight elevators and hand jacks to move inventory. Most of these old buildings had thirteen foot ceilings and wooden floors that had a view all the way to the basement. As customers' orders were phoned in and sometimes even mailed in, employees used giant ledger books to track the manually posted inventory.

The distribution center of the 21st Century is a single story, thirty-one foot clear facility that features innovations such as: narrow aisle racking, bar code scanners and man up pickers. Customers' orders go via EDI and Internet, and fast-turning inventories are updated in real time as they move from the warehouse floor out the door, with no clerical intervention.

With all these changes, there is one tie that links the 1959 Nebraska Warehouse Model to today's version: service. Service was the main product that we had to sell back then and it remains the main product we still provide today. Of course, innovation, being able to adapt change, a willingness to take risks and drive to move ahead of the pack provided benefits to Nebraska Warehouse and its customers. The pace of change in our industry is even faster today, but we have never lost sight of the basics of old-fashioned service.