The lift truck is a very important tool to help employees raise and transport heavy weight supplies and goods with efficiency and speed without straining their bodies. The way a business uses this tool can significantly affect its profitability.
Free stacking pallets is the most common storage system. Utilizing this storage system is both easy and economical for your lift truck. Free Stacking Pallets is positioning one pallet over another to make a stack of goods. This is a stable storage technique and is recommended when dealing with huge amounts of similar goods, or numerous pallets of similar height and dimensions. The disadvantage of this specific method is that it only enables access to the objects placed last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
It is important to have a pallet racking technique that involves the stable storage of different sized pallets. Using a Last In First Out or First In First Out method, would allow for easy access of any pallet. It enables the rack to change shape and grow depending upon daily requirements. This particular technique requires aisles which are wide enough to enable a lift truck to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The disadvantage is that this method means less pallets can be handled in the setting. This might not make a difference if there is adequate space available.
Like Pallet Racking, the method called Narrow Aisle Racking enables a First In First Out or Last In First Out system. It differs in that a special narrow lift truck is used. This means that smaller areas are required between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking way. The advantage is that much more goods could be stored in the same area. The downside is that you will have to transition to a new truck if you already own a regular forklift truck. The cost of acquiring special machinery might be a deterrent to adopting this specific system of storage.
It is vital to utilize your lift truck to its full potential. It pays to analyze your time costs in retrieval and storage of pallets. Afterward you could determine whether there are more efficient means to use your forklift in order to speed up the process or to increase the usable space of your units. Greater efficiency means greater profitability.