Warehouse Storage Strategies – Part II
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President – CBF Industries
In Part II in our series of warehouse storage strategies, we will take a deeper dive into ways to optimize your operations, provide a safer worker environment and reduce your overall operating costs. From receiving to using automation, we hope this post will provide helpful information that you can employ in your operation today. Happy reading.
Regardless of the units your facility receives and stores, employing some warehouse storage strategies and tips can make getting and staying organized easier. Here are some warehouse storage ideas that can help you get started.
Technology. Technology. Technology.
Many technological advances such as hand-held product scanners have helped to make efficient inventory management possible for warehouses around the world. Using the latest technology in your facility may help you to further improve your efficiency. In addition to increasing your efficiency, tapping into resources such as the IoT can help you recognize new potential revenue streams, manage risk and improve your warehouse’s safety procedures.
Product Labeling Is The Key
The use of product labels in your warehouse can also help you to manage your inventory more efficiently while reducing picking errors. Your employees will be able to identify what they need simply by looking at or scanning the SKU on the relevant boxes with a hand-held device. If you’re using an automated inventory tracking system, the system can adjust your inventory level of individual items as they are pulled from your shelves. All of this will increase your staff’s efficiency and keep clutter and messiness to a minimum.
Only Allow Authorized Traffic
Regardless of your policies, procedures and setup, it critical to minimize unauthorized traffic in your warehouse. To keep everyone safe and ensure your inventory count is accurate, you should prevent non-employees from accessing your warehouse floor. People who aren’t authorized to be in your facility won’t be able to go through boxes or disrupt your workflow by acting as inadvertent barriers to the products your employees need to fulfill orders. A common practice is to have all your warehouse staff wear the same colorful t-shirts, ball caps or vests, as it will make it easy for you to immediately recognize a person who should not be on the floor.
Automation Is The Hidden Profit Center
Employing automation such as robots can significantly cut your labor costs. Although your pay back may take some time, in the end they can make a huge impact on your bottom line. You can also automate your warehouse with conveyor systems, which are an affordable automated storage and retrieval solution. The automated vertical storage solutions that are available on the market provide many benefits including increased safety and reduced product damage and theft.
Standardize Shipping Cartons
Standardizing shipping cartons is the key to speed and error reduction. Reducing the number of options your employees have to choose from can help your staff make the appropriate choice faster and fulfill orders more rapidly. Having only two or three standard box sizes for your most popular items and only a handful of custom ones for special items that are ordered infrequently will help optimize your shipping expenses, as well as reduce the amount you spend on shipping cartons.
Drive Efficiencies Through Employee Incentives
Instituting employee incentive programs is a great way to increase worker performance. This could include additional pay for fulfilling orders quickly and accurately. However, it is also important for your employees to complete the day-to-day tasks that are necessary to keep your facility organized, including cleaning and moving misplaced items to the correct location.
Don’t be too worried about an incentive program being too expensive because the rewards you provide don’t have to cost a lot of money. Instead, they can be as simple as letting someone park in a prime parking spot exclusively for a week, allowing the employee to drive a prized automobile for a day or making a small donation to the person’s favorite charity. Another key is ask your employees what will motivate them. This will make your incentive program a huge success.
Conclusion
As discussed in Part I in our series, going vertical is the key to an efficient warehouse storage strategy. In Part II, we discussed the importance of such things as automation, product labeling and carton size standardization. While these may seem obvious, most times they are overlooked.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to leveraging your warehouse storage strategies. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Warehouse Storage Strategies – Part I
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President – CBF Industries
The most common problem most warehouse owners and managers face is maximizing their warehouse storage space and minimizing their overall operating costs. It might seem like a tough challenge, but fortunately, there are many solutions to this seemingly daunting task.
Given this, we are continually asked to provide suggestions relative to leveraging warehouse efficiencies and reducing costs. We will expand on this more, but the key strategy is a proper pallet racking system. This post is intended to provide a few tips and hard learned lessons that will help you get on the right track to a more organized operation.
Think Upward Not Outward
Industrial warehouse report data suggests that using a pallet racking system can create a safer working environment for your employees and improve the efficiencies in your warehouse operation. A pallet racking system can increase the amount of floor space that’s available for use because it stores your inventory vertically instead of horizontally, optimizing the space between your facility’s floor and ceiling. This type of system can help you keep your warehouse organized, making it look like there is an actual rhyme and reason to your storage area, because it prevents you from storing an overwhelming number of horizontal lines of product on your floor.
Most buildings calculate floor space size in two-dimensional square footage. Unless you add on and outward, you have no realistic way of expanding your horizontal area. Your warehouse space is finite unless you think outside the box. Your solution isn’t expanding outward or leasing a separate facility. That only increases your operational expenses like staffing, taxes and utilities.
The solution to maximize warehouse storage is to think vertically. Think of the excess area you have above your current storage footprint. You likely have double or more cubic feet of unused space waiting to be filled. That’s provided you have an efficient system to maximize your vertical storage.
Yes, your solution to the common storage problem is three-dimensional. It’s building upward, not outward. And there are efficient systems available for you to maximize warehouse floor space that brings an excellent return on investment.
Pallet Stacking – A Recipe For Disaster
You may own your facility outright, but likely you’re the same as most warehouse and distribution center operators — you lease your building. Based on this, many operations maximize their vertical warehouse space by stacking pallets on top of pallets. This strategy might sound simple, but it is not efficient or effective. Pallet stacking forces your warehouse workers into repeated lifting, lowering and restacking pallets to get what they need to pick and fulfill orders. That’s not the best way to take advantage of vertical warehouse space.
This stack-and-restack method is time-consuming and can create safety issues like pallet tipping and load collapses. It also exposes workers to more forklift operations. Again, stacking is not a good way to maximize vertical warehouse space.
Some warehouses rely on fixed racking to elevate inventory loads. Conventional racks are safer than simply stacking pallets, but they also need forklift assistance. You might have lighter inventory products manually stored and retrieved. However, this places strain on your employees that can lead to muscle fatigue and lost time. Injuries should not be a result of poor warehouse storage strategies.
Conclusion
Your best plan to increase storage volume at an economical and efficient cost is implementing a vertical warehouse pallet racking strategy. This approach will increase efficiencies, reduce costs and provide a safer environment for your employees. They’re simply the best invention to hit the warehouse and distribution scene in the past century.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to the best strategies to employ for your warehouse operations. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Important Tips For Keeping Your Pallet Racks Safe
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Most of our customers assume that pallet racks, once installed, are good to go forever. It is no fault of their own as many racking suppliers simply don’t explain the importance of on-going maintenance and repair. This post is intended to provide an overview of the key areas you need to look for to keep your racks safe over the long haul. In addition, this post will provide a basic overview of checks that every storage facility manager should include in their regular inspections to ensure that pallet racks are safe. The majority of pallet rack structural failures result from common mistakes. Let’s take a look at the areas we run across on a frequent basis.
First things first, create a checklist
Creating a checklist and setting aside a schedule for these rack inspections is key to maintaining your rack system and increasing your warehouse safety.
Load placement
Drivers should be trained to deposit pallets correctly on the rack beams. They should be square and if possible should overlap uniformly on front and back. This helps you maintain evenly-distributed loads, which are vital to maximizing rack capacity and saving wear on your beams. Also, pallets out of square can cause accidents in 2-deep rows when the other side is being loaded. Placing the load only onto wire decks, where the pallet isn’t supported by rack beams, can greatly reduce capacity.
Install netting or wire guards
These safeguards are relatively inexpensive solutions and can be invaluable in particular in areas where there is foot traffic, order picking, or other human activities in the aisles below.
Understand your rack usage prior to specification
The two main rack safety points are the proper initial design of the structure, so it doesn’t collapse and proper training of personnel to ensure a clear understanding of the structure’s operational characteristics. If you inherited the pallet rack in your operation from someone else, find out the details of the rack system and its design. Keep a copy on file so everyone has access to the information.
Ensure proper installation & maintenance
If your uprights are not properly bolted to the floor, or have loosened over the years, rack accidents can occur. Check them regularly to be sure. Boltless beams should always be secured to the rack. Check the rivets after installation to be sure they fit snugly and that safety clips are utilized. Monitor them over time to be sure they haven’t been knocked out of place.
Don’t overload
Well, that is obvious, but how do you enforce it in a large warehouse? It’s a matter of documentation, product distribution and training. Train your warehouse staff to understand what the capacities of your racks are, and what each load might weigh. Post capacities on the racks so anyone using them can understand at a glance how much weight the beams can take. Beam capacity is much easier to understand than upright capacity. Basically, though, if you have heavy, tall loads that result in spaces more than 48″ between beam levels, you should call a professional to certify that your rack can take the load. The rule of thumb is that the greater the vertical space between beam shelves, the lower the upright capacity.
Replace damaged racks
This is another no-brainer, but it’s amazing the battered and beaten uprights we’ve seen. We understand that it is a pain to unload racks, take them down and put in new uprights or beams. But if something is damaged and it’s carrying thousands of pounds of inventory, it can trigger collapse in entire rows, endangering people and costing much more than simple replacement.
Conclusion
To keep your warehouse racking safe, you will need to perform preventative maintenance on a weekly basis. If you have questions regarding capacity or replacing shelving components, contact your local material handling company for assistance.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to understanding best practices in pallet rack safety. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Types of Pallet Racking Systems
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Customers often ask us about the different types of pallet racking systems. Given this, it seems that there is much confusion on the topic. This post is intended to provide an overview of the varying types of pallet racking systems. So here we go.
Very Narrow Aisle Pallet Racking
This is a compact version of adjustable pallet racking, creating a higher density and capacity storage system without the need for more space.
This type of adjustable pallet racking is compacted by narrowing the aisles, resulting in a space saving of over 40%. The minimum aisle width must be 1.5 m in this type of system. To be able to work correctly in the warehouse with these VNA racking systems, special handling equipment for VNA is required.
Double Deep Pallet Racking
This is a conventional storage solution, but which shares common features with compact racking. In this type of industrial racking system, the pallets are stored at two depths, thus achieving higher storage density. Unlike standard adjustable pallet racking, in double deep pallet racking the operator does not have direct access to all the pallets stored.
Double deep pallet racking must also be used with special forklifts equipped with telescopic forks or a pantograph mechanism to easily and quickly access the second pallet stored.
Industrial Racking for pallets
Pallet racking is a type of industrial racking designed to support large loads that will be lifted by the handling equipment.
Adjustable Pallet Racking
This is a type of industrial racking that stores pallets mechanically using forklifts. The forklifts access the goods via the aisles that run parallel to the racking, and have direct and immediate access to all the nit loads stored. They have a standard aisle width and store a single pallet at the back of the racking.
Compact Racking
Compact Racking is a high-density storage system that fully optimizes warehouse space and height by reducing the truck’s work aisles to the maximum.
In these types of warehouse racking systems, parallel aisles are generated inside the structure, where forklifts can enter and move around for the pallet loading and unloading process.
These systems are suitable when the problem of space takes priority over direct access to or selectivity of all the unit loads stored.
Drive in Pallet Racking (LIFO)
The drive in compact system is the most used. It only requires one access aisle for the forklift and works according to the LIFO (Last in, First out) stock management method, where the last pallet in is the first one to leave. This type of compact storage is recommended in warehouses with homogeneous products that have low rotation of material.
Drive Through Pallet Racking (FIFO)
Drive Through racking needs two work aisle accesses, one on each side of the racking. Works according to the FIFO (First in, First out) method, where the first pallet in is the first one to leave. FIFO is a storage system recommended for warehouses with high rotation products. however, space optimization is less than in Drive In racking.
Live Pallet Racking
Live pallet racking is a type of compact storage system that takes advantage of the forces of gravity and pushing to optimize pallet storage. Its peculiarity is that using these 2 forces, the pallets are moved inside the racking to their desired position.
Conclusion
Although the industry provides many additional types of pallet racking systems, these types of configurations appear to be the most popular. It is key to understand what your warehouse management goal is prior to selecting the specific type of racking system.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to selecting your pallet racking system. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Tips to Leveraging Your Pallet Racking Systems: Part I
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President of Sales and Marketing
In this three part series, “Tips to leveraging your pallet racking systems”, we will be providing numerous tips on warehouse management best practices. At CBF industries, we have been providing the highest quality pallet racking systems and installation for over 30 years. The pallet rack itself is only one aspect of warehouse management best practices. It’s how you use and manage these systems that’s the key. So let’s dive right in.
Reconfiguring Is Okay
The pallet rack solution that worked for your warehouse 5 years ago might be inefficient now because your enterprise has grown, or you realize that you aren’t using your mega-sized layout to its full capacity and it’s time to downsize. Either way, it’s smart to implement a continuous improvement process to analyze how your system is working and determine ways to make it better. For instance, you might have started out a few years ago with a simple pallet-in, pallet-out approach in your retail space. Ten years later, you realize it’s smarter to adopt a pick-and-pack operation to keep pace with e-commerce demands and organize a wider variety of SKUs. Watch and discuss market trends with your warehouse team so you’re prepared to ride any wave that comes your way. Whether you install a new racking system or reconfigure an existing one, add extra capacity into it to accommodate future growth.
Keep Expectations and Specifications Realistic
Especially if you’re buying used pallet rack, it’s common to purchase over-specified racking that’s capable of holding far more weight than you’ll ever need. Figure out what you’ll really require, and look for racks that fit within that range. The key metric to keep in mind is Universally Distributed Load (UDL), or Safe Working Load (SFL). This defines the weight that a pair of beams can support. In general, beam costs and capacities scale together. At the same time, be careful not to under-specify your load requirements. Doing so can render them incapable of keeping up with demand, leading to a weakened infrastructure or collapse.
Move Your Lowest Beam Up
When workers go to lift goods out of racking from the floor level, they have to raise the pallet load up and over the lift truck’s reach leg, being careful not to hit the beam above. To make this process easier, add a little extra distance between the ground and the first beam. Ideally, aim for around 300 mm more than the space between the other beams in the bay, if possible.
Professional Pallet Rack Advice You Can Trust
Optimizing your pallet rack layout for maximum storage capacity doesn’t have to become an operational challenge. With the right tools and resources, you can invest in a solution that maximizes your investment, turning your warehouse into an efficient material handling space. Need someone to help you design, build, improve or repair your pallet rack system? That’s where we come in. We’re industry experts committed to helping warehouse and distribution center professionals understand the best practices to use. Contact us today for the trusted advice you need.
LIFO
Utilizes a Last-In/First-Out (LIFO) racking type system is great for a high volume of product and limited number of pallets per SKUs. Knowing the pallet type is important if using this type of racking to ensure a correct installation.
Get your team to assist you in selecting the right pallet rack for your operation and design the best layout. This ensures you improve your storage capacity and overall productivity. Once the design is agreed upon, carefully monitor the project implementation to ensure a smooth installation.
Conclusion
In part one we covered some simple steps that can be taken to ensure maximum utilization of your racking systems. From reconfiguring to the benefits of LIFO racking system strategies.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to leveraging your pallet racking operation. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Benefits of Elevated Raised Storage Space
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President of Sales and Marketing
This post is intended to provide you with the benefits of a raised or elevated storage space. Raised storage areas are an excellent solution for many workplaces. Whether you have a large warehouse or a smaller area, elevated spaces provide additional storage and help you take advantage of unused warehouse areas.
With flexible and tailored storage options, your business will better operate with the creation of a safe and cost-effective solution within the workplace.
Storage space is one of the biggest issues for warehouses. As companies grow, warehouses find it challenging to accommodate this growth. Relocation is often a prime consideration. But this isn’t always a viable option. Relocating is often an expensive, inconvenient and a time consuming endeavor. Hence the benefits of raised storage areas.
Better productivity
It’s not just about costs and space, but raised storage areas help improve productivity as well. This can be achieved by designing warehouse raised storage areas that enable convenient access and handpicking. This optimizes the workflow of employees. Thus, improving productivity. Pallet racking manufacturers usually account for this factor when building these raised storage areas.
Customization options
Raised storage areas aren’t a “one size fits all” situation. Each solution is customizable based on each warehouse specification needs. In other words, you won’t have to worry about going for a standard option that doesn’t address your exact requirements.
More space
Raised storage areas offer the perfect solution for addressing storage space issues by utilizing unused warehouse space. With enough airspace available, multiple levels of storage can offer further storage capacity.
Cost reduction
Limited capacity storage in warehouses affect business growth decisions of companies. If your warehouse is unable to accommodate growing capacity needs, companies may need to limit their expansion. This can prove to be costly in the long run. Raised storage areas helps your organization keep pace with bigger warehouse needs by maintaining the same real estate.
Putting unused airspace into use eliminates the cost of setting up a new space with bigger capacity, making warehouse raised storage areas a cost effective solution.
No relocation challenges
Warehouse relocation is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. In addition to the cost of acquiring a new warehouse location there’s a lot that goes into relocating your warehouse. This includes planning a new storage space, getting permits, and moving everything from your existing location, among a few others. Raised storage will help businesses avoid these issues by eliminating the need to relocate entirely. This would also mean your business would be able to serve the local customers and expand your presence at the same time.
Conclusion
Many benefits can come through a carefully planned warehouse management strategy as it relates to understanding the benefits of elevated storage areas. These systems can be a bit tricky, so consulting with a pro will help you avoid any mistakes and accelerate your success.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to understanding the benefits of elevated storage spaces. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Pallet Racking Professional Consulting and Design Tips
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President – CBF Industries
Many of our potential customers are realizing the value of a professional consultant when it comes to proper warehouse design and the appropriate pallet racking specifications. More and more warehouse professionals are seeking out the pro’s to get the job done right. This post is intended to provide the key points to look for in a professional warehouse consultant.
When it comes to designing your warehouse, sometimes you need to let a professional take charge. Many professional organizations offer both consulting, custom design, and layout services for your warehouse. These skilled teams can bring many benefits to the future of your business. With professional consulting and custom design, your warehouse can be created with maximum efficiency in mind. This will increase the overall productivity of your company, as you will have better storage of your products and more simplicity in the process of stocking and picking.
The main benefit of hiring professional services for the layout of your warehouse is a more efficient pallet racking storage space. There are numerous configurations that can be used in any given warehouse, but only one of them can be the most efficient system. A professional will be able to determine what system that is, and he or she will also be able to advise on how to best implement that system. Professional warehouse designers can also recommend the top products in the industry and find affordable options. Ultimately, hiring a professional to customize your warehouse design and layout will bring major advantages to the operations of your business.
The Rewards of Trained Professionals
The most important part of your business is your warehouse and the staging of your pallet racking systems. This is where you store and process the products that will be shipped to various facilities and customers, often across the country. Because warehouse efficiency is key to productivity and profits, you should only trust a professional with its design and layout. A trained professional will be experienced in all of the different ways that a warehouse can be configured, and he or she will be able to maximize the efficiency of the space that you are working with.
Keeping Pace With Advanced Technologies
Another benefit of hiring a trained professional to design your warehouse is access to advanced technologies. With the latest computer design programs, warehouse design has never been easier. These programs allow warehouse designers to experiment with various storage options and find the solution that best uses the entire storage space that you have. Furthermore, a
skilled professional in this area will be fully trained in how to use these complex design programs. With professional consulting and custom design services, you are assured in the fact that your warehouse is being created with the utmost care and attention to detail.
Conclusion
As structural advancements keep trending, pallet racking design and consultation is becoming more important then ever. From utilizing trained professionals, understanding advanced hardware to efficient design, owners are reaping the benefits provided by the experts in the field of warehouse staging and management.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to best practices in warehouse design and management. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Misconceptions About Pallet Racks
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President – CBF Industries
This post is intended to provide you with helpful information regarding some common misconceptions of pallet racking systems. Over the years we have heard customer comments that range from they are too expensive to pallet racking systems fall down. Let’s explore these myths in more detail.
With literally thousands of warehouse operations across the world, there are bound to be some myths that have injured their reputation. In this post we will be talking about misinformation that gets around, whether it’s from the loaders or pickers or the warehouse managers themselves. Let’s take a look at some of these misconceptions and replace them with the truth.
Some Pallet Racks Simply Fall Down
Pallet racks fall down. Unfortunately, this type of gossip has helped perpetuate the myth that warehouse racking is unstable.
In most every instance, it is an outside force that made pallet racks fall, and nearly every time it’s a forklift or other type of loader. But when used properly, warehouse racking is incredibly sturdy and won’t fall down on its own. By used properly we mean that every weight restriction and all loading instructions are adhered to, and all employees are properly trained to work with them.
Can racking systems “just fall down”? If you purchased used warehouse racking that’s been mistreated or hire a bargain-basement installer, there is a chance that time and weight will eventually tear the molecules in the metal apart. But if you go with reputable warehouse consultants, seller, and installers, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Osha Will Turn A Blind Eye
It is critical that you ensure your systems are up-to-snuff, you can’t ignore your racking system and either will OSHA. They will be checking to make sure that it’s still safe, and they’re not going to hesitate to give you a fine if they find that warehouse racking is in danger of collapse. Their reach doesn’t end with the pallet racks, though, but extends to everything in the warehouse that could affect an employee. This could include materials handling systems, conveyor systems, mezzanine decks, racking ladders and landings, and modular offices.
The best way to stay ahead of OSHA is to contact a pallet rack inspection company. They’ll be able to address small problems before they become bigger problems, and make sure that your warehouse remains a safe place. It certainly beats the fines that OSHA can levy.
They Are Too Expensive
Pallet racks are not the cheapest of items. Yes, they represent a considerable outlay of money at first, but they’re certainly worth it as an investment in your company.
While they are on the expensive side, considering what they do for you, they’re more than worth it. They increase efficiency in a warehouse, allowing you to not only keep more inventory on hand, but also keeping everything in better order so that you can find it faster. Like replacing all your incandescent bulbs or installing low flow toilets, new racking systems eventually pay for themselves. Of course, new pallet racks also increase safety, which means that your employees are in less danger and OSHA is less likely to come knocking.
When you look at the price of a new racking system, industrial conveyor system, or other type of materials handling system, remember that they are capital equipment and can therefore be written off as such on your taxes. Investing in your business doesn’t look so bad when you realize the tax savings.
Once Installed, Pallet Racks Are Permanent
First, keep in mind that your warehouse layout design was intended for your current work methods. If a business pivots from consumer-facing to B2B, then their need for conveyor systems might go away. Companies can change focus over the years, which means that their needs in warehouse storage solutions do as well.
But here is the good news, warehouse racking can be disassembled and reassembled to meet your new needs. It can be bought, sold, added on to, taken away from, and changed to meet your needs.
Conclusion
Simple steps can be taken to minimize the misconceptions about pallet racks. The truth is, pallet racks have been around for decades and proven to be the best alternative to warehouse storage solutions.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to understanding the realities of today’s pallet racking systems. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
The Keys To Improving Your Pallet Racking
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President – CBF Industries
This post is intended to provide you with helpful tips on simple ways you and improve your pallet racking within your facility. From making items easier to move to adding a mezzanine for extra storage without adding on to your building. This is especially key for smaller warehouse operations.
If you have a small warehouse, you are probably always looking for creative ways to increase warehouse space – especially if you have a lot of products. Perhaps you are steadily growing, customer demands are increasing, or you are just simply running out of room. By improving your warehouse’s configuration, you can store more items while at the same time, enhancing your efficiencies. Read on to find out the top three ways to optimize storage in your small warehouse space.
Make Moving Items Easier with Vertical Lift Modules/Systems
Vertical lifts help raise items to the top of your narrow aisle racks and warehouse mezzanine by safely transferring pallet loads that may not fit on a forklift. The benefits of a vertical lift for your small warehouse include reducing the chance that your items will get damaged and putting less strain on your workers (so they have less of a chance of getting injured). Vertical lifts can also be configured to meet your specific height, speed, and load requirements.
When you have a small warehouse, and you want to maximize its storage potential, you have to make the most of what you have. Each warehouse’s needs are different, and those needs can vary as your business grows. By implementing one or a combination of the storage solutions discussed above, not only will you increase your operational efficiencies, but you will also have the flexibility and space to adapt to any future changes.
Use Pallet Racking to Take Your Storage Out and Up
Pallet racks are designed to allow you to store your items in horizontal rows with multiple levels, for a variety of storage applications. There are various kinds of pallet racking systems, but the most useful ones for small warehouses are narrow aisle pallet racks. This system is an excellent choice for growing businesses that want to add storage space to their current warehouse (versus moving their entire operations to a larger location). They work by decreasing your aisle space so you can add in additional racks and make better use of both your roof height and floor area. Having less floor space available is also advantageous because it discourages your workers from leaving debris and empty pallets laying around (which can be a safety concern), and still allows room for machinery like fork trucks. By utilizing narrow aisle pallet racks in your warehouse, you’ll have access to each pallet and can configure them to meet your needs and requirements.
Build Mezzanine Racking Systems to Take Advantage of Your Vertical Space
Having a mezzanine in your small warehouse helps to utilize your existing overhead space to its full potential. In addition to virtually doubling the amount of usable floor space, a mezzanine platform allows you the ability to increase your production and gives your employees more area to work. Adding a mezzanine workers platform is one of the best ways to improve your warehouse storage without the cost of a building expansion.
Conclusion
Simple steps can be taken to maximize the space for storage in your warehouse. From building mezzanines to making items easier to move. These warehouse strategies can increase your efficiencies and reduce your overall storage costs.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to improving your pallet racking strategies. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.
Your Worst Nightmare With Pallet Racking: Collapse
By: Larry Rausch – Vice President – CBF Industries
Yes…a warehouse pallet racking system collapse is every operator’s worst nightmare. But the good news is it can be avoided. This post is intended to provide you with helpful tips on how you can avoid a dangerous event with your racking system and even loss of life. From specifying the correct system to preventative maintenance, you will be on your way to an injury free work environment. This is especially key for large and busy warehouse operations.
Warehouse racking is a vital part of your operation and should be safe for all operators who work with your racks. This, however, is only true when pallet racking is carefully selected and diligently maintained throughout the years. Following are some of the most common causes of pallet rack collapse along with tips for avoiding them.
Overloading The Top
Pallet racking that is over-weighted at the top and under-weighted at the bottom will invariably tip or collapse. Events like these can be devastating. Heavy, high-density items should always be housed in the lower bays. The proper positioning of these goods can actually improve the stability of the entire system. Heavier items should never be positioned at the front where they can place undue stress on any in-built stability components. Instead, these should be evenly balanced or positioned at the back. Ultimately, a good center of gravity is vital for ensuring that no high-density items are able to pull racks forward.
Wrong Racking System Used To Store Products
Specifying the right racking system is the first step in ensuring the safety and security of both products and people. Heavy, high-density loads will likely require bolted pallet racking systems as opposed to a standard, teardrop designs. Working with seasoned suppliers is often the best way to identify the ideal components for your needs. You can trust these professionals to assist you in building an effective system. In addition, they can provide on-going guidance over the long term to ensure your safety.
Poor Installation
It is important to have your pallet racking systems professionally designed and installed. Used pallet racking can provide substantial savings while offering the same level of security as new systems if installed correctly. This makes it important for companies to always collaborate with sellers that offer ongoing support on all their products. An insufficient racking design can result in stiff fines and penalties if safety regulations are not met. It can also result in lost products, physical injury and even death.
Support Beams Are Incorrectly Spaced
It is critical that your support beams are correctly spaced to ensure maximum stability. Vertical beam spacing, particularly as it pertains to the height of the very first beam level, is the one factor that will ultimately determine overall storage capacity. Seasoned suppliers can determine the load-bearing capacity of these structures according to the current beam spacing and can make any necessary adjustments for safely accommodating the intended load.
Lack Of Preventative Maintenance
Racking systems inevitably will suffer damage from lifts and other objects that negatively impact these structures. A common cause of pallet rack collapse is simply general negligence. When racks are hit, overloaded or suffer any other form of damage, they should be immediately reviewed by experienced professionals. Damaged components should be swapped out and all other necessary, structural corrections should be made. These efforts are designed to help businesses avoid the penalties of non-compliance and the devastation of significant property loss and the loss of human lives.
Conclusion
Simple steps can be taken to ensure maximum safety of your racking systems. Beam spacing, proper loading and on-going maintenance are the keys to safety and security. And as we mentioned in a prior post, OSHA is watching.
We hope this post provided you helpful information as it relates to pallet racking safety. To speak with one of our technical experts, please call 1-216-229-9300. And thank you for reading our post.