As transportation costs go up, and lead times go down, the ability to respond quickly to customer needs has grown more important. As a result, among those businesses that plan to add distribution facilities in 2008, there is a lean toward larger buildings to hold more inventory.

This is according to the latest Facilities Trends 2007 report from the Warehouse Education Research Council. The report is a study on physical characteristics of companies’distribution networks based on a survey of WERC members.

The report, done every five years, presents data that distribution managers can use to benchmark facilities and compares today’s information with data collected in the last survey to help identify and understand trends and anticipate how current trends may affect …