Distribution center (CEDIS)
Facility from which retail points, customers or branches are supplied. In Mexico it is commonly called a CEDIS. Chosen on transit-time geometry before price.
A distribution center is the facility from which retail points, customers or branches are supplied. In Mexico it is almost always called a CEDIS — short for Centro de Distribución — and you will see that acronym in every local listing and lease.
What distinguishes it from a warehouse
A warehouse holds; a distribution center moves. The difference is the objective: a warehouse optimizes storage capacity, a DC optimizes outbound speed and coverage.
In practice that changes the design: a DC has more docks per square meter, more area dedicated to preparation and consolidation, and less to deep storage.
How the location is chosen
By transit-time geometry, not by price per square meter. The question that orders the decision is where the shortest transit times originate toward most of your delivery points.
That is why the geographic center of a country usually beats the border when distribution is national: it minimizes average time in all directions at once, instead of optimizing for one.
Factors that weigh
- Access to the main highway corridors
- Intermodal connection if volume justifies rail
- Proximity to parcel carriers if you dispatch through that channel
- Availability and cost of operational labor
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