The forklift truck is a vital tool to help workers raise and move heavy weight materials and goods with speed and efficiency without injuring their bodies. The way a company utilizes this tool could considerably affect its productivity.
A popular storage method is Free Stacking Pallets. This is a way to utilize your lift truck that is both easy and economical. Free Stacking Pallets is positioning one pallet over another to create a stack of goods. This is a stable storage system and is recommended when handling numerous pallets of the same height and dimensions or huge amounts of the same product. The drawback of this technique is that it just allows access to the items placed last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
It is essential to have a pallet racking system that involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Utilizing a First In First Out or Last In First Out method, would allow for easy access of any pallet. It enables the rack to change shape and grow depending upon every day requirements. This method requires aisles which are wide enough to allow a lift truck to freely access the racks and maneuver easily. The downside is that this specific method means less pallets could be handled within the environment. This might not matter if there is enough space available.
Similar to Pallet Racking, the technique called Narrow Aisle Racking enables a First In First Out or Last In First Out technique. It differs in that a special narrow forklift is utilized. This means that smaller areas are required between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking method. The benefit is that a lot more goods can be stored in the same area. The downside is that you would have to transition to a different type of truck if you already own a regular forklift truck. The cost of obtaining special machinery may be a deterrent to adopting this specific technique of storage.
It is essential to utilize your forklift truck to its full capability. It pays to consider your time costs in storage and retrieval of pallets. After that you can determine whether there are more effective ways to utilize your forklift to accelerate the process or to increase the usable space of your units. Greater effectiveness means greater profitability.