Investing in quality warehouse racking reduces clutter, increases productivity and maximises warehouse space.
Avoiding warehouse woes
Badly organised warehouses are chaotic and dangerous. Workers struggle to find products and forklifts speed past scattered pallets on the floor, potentially even creating health and safety risks.
Many high street brands like Crew Clothing and Phase Eight are expanding their online ordering divisions. Online customers demand speedy deliveries and items to be in stock. A badly organised warehouse cannot provide accurate and speedy order processing.
The advantages of organised warehouses
You do not have to deal with online orders to benefit from an organised warehouse. A well designed palette warehouse racking system solves a number of logistic issues. Palettes are organised and stack up from the floor, so warehouse space is maximised. Dealing with deliveries and order picking is made more efficient, helping workers stay at their most productive.
You need the help of your warehouse racks manufacturer to help you reorganise your warehouse.
Choosing the best warehouse racks
Warehouse racks vary in their design and specifications, so there are a number of points to consider when choosing them.
First, you need to know how many stock keeping units or SKUs you are dealing with. An SKU number is a unique code assigned to every stock item type. Each rack will store one or more SKU items and you need to know their dimensions and how many of each SKU item will normally be stored.
You need to calculate the weight of each pallet that will be loaded onto shelves so that there is no danger of exceeding the maximum load limit of a rack. The type of products stored needs to be considered – are any items perishable or fragile? Do some items need to be stored in climate controlled conditions? Are items picked singly from cartons and open boxes or in full cases? What is the turnover on each item – hours, weeks or months?
High turnover items may need to be stored near packing stations to minimise picking travel distances.
Creating the ideal warehouse racking system is complex and, all the above factors need to be analysed in order to buy the best types of racks and position them in a space maximising way. Your warehouse racks manufacturer will be able to help plan a racking system.
Warehouse racks construction and types
Strong and durable warehouse racks are made from tough tubular steel with strong platforms for holding goods. Protectors need to be firmly anchored in the ground near the racks to prevent collisions from forklifts and trolleys.
Most racks are adjustable so that they can be changed to cope with alterations in stock types. They can be made in custom sizes to fit the available space and can be built with lots of aisle space for pickers to move between racks.
Drive-in racks are used to store large quantities of the same type of goods. Forklifts can drive into them to deposit pallets, which are loaded from the back to the front. This is a great way to store more pallets in the available space, Double entry systems allow forklifts to load palettes from both sides. Drive-in palettes are not suitable for picking lots of different small items, but are ideal when lots of the same items are stored together.
Push back racks have a nested cart system that slides palettes on inclined rails. Like drive-in racks, they are good for the dense storage of the same items. They are a first in, last out system as the first pallet loaded is the last that can be accessed.
Carton flow racking systems are good for boxes and small items in cartons. They are loaded from the back and rollers move them to the front using gravity. This type of system is useful for high volume order picking of smaller items.
Whatever system is used for high volume order operations, a warehouse needs good warehouse management technology that monitors goods from when they come into the warehouse,e to when orders are dispatched. Warehouse management systems help workers locate items, become aware when order are dispatched, and inform the customer that their order is on its way.
Bespoke warehouse racking systems
Most warehouses use standard rack parts to create custom sized racking systems. Sometimes, awkward-sized items need to be stored. For example, furniture manufacturers such as Alstons Sofas and The Chaise Longue Company have sofas, chairs and beds that are difficult to store on standard warehouse racks. A British warehouse racks manufacturer can make specialised racks for such items.
Long items such as pipes and steel lengths also need specialised racks to store them safely. Window manufacturers have A-frame racks that hold large sheets of glass.
At Steely Products, we have designers who can visit a warehouse to look at storage needs and come up with a bespoke design for that particular warehouse and the goods it handles.
Choosing a warehouse rack manufacturer
You need a warehouse rack manufacturer who understands your business and its storage requirement, supported by a team that can help you plan, design and install warehouse racks. They should have sales teams you trust and dedicated customer support staff.
A good UK manufacturer should be happy for you to visit their workplace to see warehouse racks being made by skilled metalworkers. If the manufacturer does all the production processes in-house there should be no delays in building racks and delivering them to your workplace.
The best manufactures will also make other warehouse equipment such as trolleys and packing tables and benches. When reorganising the warehouse with new racks, it could be a good time to upgrade the other warehouse equipment.
Whether you need to store heavy or light items, have a huge warehouse or a small storage area, you need a warehouse rack manufacturer that can supply racks suitable for all types of businesses, one that will continue to supply you with warehouse racks as your business grows. The right racks help you organise the warehouse in a way that makes your business more money.
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