The forklift truck is a vital tool to help workers raise and move heavy weight supplies and products with speed and efficiency without injuring their bodies. How a company makes use of this tool can considerably affect its profitability.
A popular storage technique is Free Stacking Pallets. This is a way to use your lift truck that is easy and economical. Free Stacking Pallets involves positioning one pallet on top of another to make a stack of goods. This is a stable storage technique and is suggested when handling huge amounts of the same product, or numerous pallets of similar dimensions and height. The disadvantage of this technique is that it only enables access to the items placed last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
Pallet Racking is a technique that involves the stable storage of different sized pallets. Any pallet can be accessed at any time, that enables a Last In First Out or First In First Out method. It allows the rack to grow and change shape depending upon every day requirements. This specific system requires aisles that are wide enough to allow a forklift to freely access the racks and easily maneuver. The downside is that this system means fewer pallets could be handled in the environment. This may not matter if there is adequate space available.
Similar to Pallet Racking, the technique referred to as Narrow Aisle Racking allows a Last In First Out or First In First Out system. It varies in that a special narrow lift truck is utilized. This means that smaller spaces are necessary between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking technique. The benefit is that more goods can be stored in the same space. The disadvantage is that you will have to transition to a different kind of truck if you already own a regular forklift truck. The cost of obtaining special equipment might be a deterrent to implementing this specific system of storage.
Utilizing your forklift to its fullest potential is vital because it pays to analyze your retrieval costs and storage costs of pallets. Afterward you could determine whether there are more effective ways to utilize your lift truck to accelerate the process or to increase the usable space of your units. Greater efficiency means bigger profitability.