The forklift truck is a vital tool to help employees raise and move heavy weight supplies and goods with efficiency and speed without injuring their bodies. How a business makes use of this tool can significantly affect its profitability.
Free stacking pallets is the most common storage method. Utilizing this storage technique is both economical and easy for your forklift. Free Stacking Pallets is placing one pallet on top of another to create a stack of products. This is a stable storage method and is recommended when dealing with many pallets of similar dimensions and height or huge amounts of the similar goods. The drawback of this system is that it just enables access to the objects placed last, so it does not allow a First In First Out system.
It is important to have a pallet racking system which involves the stable storage of different sized pallets. Using a Last In First Out or First In First Out technique, would enable for easy access of any pallet. It enables the rack to grow and change shape depending upon every day requirements. This technique requires aisles that are sufficiently wide to allow a lift truck to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The disadvantage is that this system means fewer pallets could be handled in the environment. This might not make a difference if there is sufficient space available.
Narrow aisle racking is similar to pallet racking in that it enables for a First In First Out or Last In First Out system. The difference in the technique is how the special narrow forklift is used. This means that smaller spaces are necessary between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking method. The benefit is that more product could be stored in the same space. The disadvantage is that you will have to transition to a different type of truck if you already own a regular forklift truck. The expenditure of acquiring special machinery might be a deterrent to implementing this technique of storage.
Utilizing your forklift to its fullest potential is vital since it pays to consider your storage costs and retrieval costs of pallets. Then you can find out whether there are more effective ways to utilize your lift truck to increase the usable area of your units or to speed up the process. Greater effectiveness means bigger profitability.