The lift truck is a vital tool to help employees lift and move heavy weight supplies and products with efficiency and speed without straining their bodies. How a company utilizes this machinery could significantly affect its productivity.
Free stacking pallets is the most common storage method. Using this storage system is both economical and easy for your forklift. Free Stacking Pallets involves positioning one pallet on top of another to create a stack of products. This is a stable storage system and is suggested when handling many pallets of the same dimensions and height or large amounts of the similar goods. The drawback of this specific system is that it just enables access to the things placed last, so it does not allow a First In First Out system.
It is vital to have a pallet racking system which involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Using a First In First Out or Last In First Out system, will enable for easy access of any pallet. It enables the rack to grow and change shape depending upon daily requirements. This system needs aisles which are wide enough to enable a forklift to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The disadvantage is that this system means less pallets could be handled within the environment. This might not make a difference if there is enough space available.
Similar to Pallet Racking, the method known as Narrow Aisle Racking allows a First In First Out or Last In First Out technique. 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 way. The benefit is that more product could be kept in the same area. The downside is that you would have to transition to a different kind of truck if you already own a typical lift truck. The expenditure of obtaining special machinery might be a deterrent to implementing this specific system of storage.
Using your lift truck to its fullest potential is essential as it pays to consider your storage costs and retrieval costs of pallets. Afterward you could determine whether there are more effective ways to use your lift truck in order to increase the usable area of your units or to accelerate the process. Greater efficiency means bigger profitability.