When Growth Becomes Your Biggest Problem
Picture this: it's summer 2021, and the team at 3StepIT is celebrating. They've just moved into sleek, modern premises in Växjö, Sweden, a significant upgrade from their cramped facility in Klavreström. The champagne is flowing, boxes are being unpacked, and everyone's excited about the room to grow.
Fast forward six months. Those same spacious floors are now a maze of standard shelving units, stacked with laptops awaiting reconditioning. What once felt like abundant space now feels suffocating. The irony isn't lost on anyone: 3StepIT's success in promoting circular IT solutions, helping companies embrace sustainability through refurbished equipment, has created a storage nightmare.
The Tipping Point
By late 2022, the situation had become critical. Every laptop that came in for reconditioning needed a home, but the shelves were full. The team found themselves playing Tetris with inventory, wasting precious time hunting for specific units and, occasionally, frustratingly picking the wrong equipment for orders. The error rate was climbing, and so was the team's stress level.
Martin, the warehouse manager, remembers the turning point: 'We were growing so fast that we were literally running out of floor space. We knew we either had to expand our building footprint, which wasn't feasible, or completely rethink how we were storing equipment.'
The Search for a Solution
The team didn't just want a plaster fix. They needed a system that could scale with their ambitions whilst maximising their existing footprint. They did their homework, reaching out to multiple suppliers across Sweden to explore retrofit options for their warehouse.
The conversations were revealing. Some suppliers offered incremental improvements: denser shelving and better organisational systems. But Constructor came to the table with something different: the Tornado storage system, a vertical carousel solution that would literally turn their storage problem on its head. Better yet, it could be retrofitted into their existing warehouse without major structural modifications.
A Retrofit That Changed Everything
In January 2023, the retrofit project began. Our team arrived to dismantle the old shelving systems and install two gleaming Tornado machines in their place. The beauty of the retrofit was that 3StepIT could continue operations during much of the installation. One section at a time was converted, minimising disruption to their daily workflow.
These weren't just storage units. They were automated vertical systems with custom software designed specifically for 3StepIT's workflow, seamlessly integrated into their existing warehouse infrastructure. As the installation team bolted down the final pieces, there was nervous excitement in the air. Would this retrofit actually deliver on its promise?
The transformation was immediate and dramatic. Where 250 square metres of floor space had once been consumed by sprawling shelves, the retrofitted Tornado systems occupied just 40 square metres, a footprint reduction of 84%. By storing vertically instead of horizontally, 3StepIT had essentially reclaimed an entire warehouse section without adding a single square metre to their building.
The Results That Speak for Themselves
But the real magic happened in the daily operations. The retrofitted automated system brought laptops directly to the staff instead of staff hunting for laptops. Picking orders became a streamlined, almost zen-like process. The efficiency gains were staggering: a 200% improvement. Tasks that once took fifteen minutes now took five. And those frustrating picking errors? They'd dropped to nearly zero.
The team that had been drowning in chaos six months earlier was now operating like a well-oiled machine. The reclaimed floor space? It's now being used for quality control stations and a more comfortable packing area.
What's Next
The success of the retrofit hasn't gone unnoticed. In early 2024, 3StepIT is planning a second phase. A third, larger Tornado machine will be retrofitted into another section of the warehouse to keep pace with their continued growth. It's a far cry from those overflowing shelves of 2022, and proof that you don't always need to move to a bigger building when smart retrofitting can transform the space you already have.
Today, when visitors tour the Växjö facility, they see a company that's not just talking about sustainability and efficiency, they're living it. By choosing to retrofit rather than relocate, 3StepIT has proven that sometimes the best way to grow isn't by expanding outward or moving buildings, but by building upward within the walls you already have.