Yamaha breaks ground on SMART Warehouse in Newnan, Ga.

Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation (YMMC), based in Newnan, Georgia, broke ground Thursday on a new, advanced and innovative “SMART” Warehouse, the first-of-its-kind for Yamaha Motor Company worldwide.

Using state-of-the-art automated storage and retrieval systems, the new 200,000 square foot facility will be capable of reducing response time for fulfilling dealer orders for Yamaha WaveRunners, ATVs, side-by-sides and golf cars by more than 50 percent.

“The new Yamaha SMART Warehouse will improve our overall operational efficiency and the velocity of material flow to our factory assembly lines, allowing us to ultimately get product in the hands of our dealers and customers faster,” said Mike Chrzanowski, president and CEO of Yamaha Motor Corporation. “The demand for all our outdoor recreational products produced at this factory continues to exceed supply and we are pleased to bring this new warehouse facility online as soon as possible.”

SMART is an acronym for Sequenced Material and Reduced Transportation.

The SMART Warehouse’s automated storage and retrieval system for the medium parts will be capable of retrieving and putting away 240 containers per hour, compared to the current rate of 170 containers per hour. The small part automated system will be capable of handling 2,400 containers per hour, in comparison to the current capability of 550 containers per day.

The new systems will enable Yamaha to reduce forklifts by 50 percent using automatic conveyors and tuggers to move parts through the SMART center to the factories.

The Newnan community also stands to benefit from the new Yamaha SMART Warehouse.

“The significant investment Yamaha made in this new facility underscores the company’s long-term commitment to our YMMC employees as well as the City of Newnan and Coweta County,” Chrzanowski continued. “This system within the SMART Warehouse will bring higher paid and more skilled jobs into Coweta County, including robotics experts, software developers and systems engineers.”

Designed by SSI SCHAEFER, the new Yamaha SMART Warehouse will also include an observation platform for groups such as students from local schools to learn more about manufacturing and automated processes.

Yamaha expects to complete the SMART Warehouse in 2024.