The lift truck has become a vital piece of machinery able to lift and move products and heavy materials with both efficiency and speed. How a company uses this machine can significantly affect its productivity.
Free stacking pallets is the most common storage method. Using this storage technique is both easy and economical for your forklift. Free Stacking Pallets is placing one pallet over another to make a stack of goods. This is a stable storage technique and is recommended when handling numerous pallets of similar height and dimensions or huge amounts of the same goods. The drawback of this method is that it just enables access to the objects placed last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
Pallet Racking is a system which involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Any pallet can be accessed at any time, which allows a Last In First Out or First In First Out technique. It enables the rack to change shape and grow depending upon daily needs. This specific method requires aisles that are wide enough to allow a lift truck to freely access the racks and maneuver easily. The downside is that this method means fewer pallets could be handled in the environment. This may not make a difference if there is enough space available.
Narrow aisle racking is like pallet racking in that it allows for a First In First Out or Last In First Out method. The difference in the system is how the special narrow forklift is used. This means that smaller areas are necessary between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking method. The advantage is that more product could be kept in the same area. The disadvantage is that you would have to transition to a new truck if you already own a regular forklift truck. The expenditure of obtaining special machines may be a deterrent to adopting this system of storage.
Utilizing your lift truck to its fullest capability is important as it pays to analyze your storage costs and retrieval costs of pallets. After that you can find out whether there are more effective ways to use your lift truck in order to accelerate the process or to increase the usable space of your units. Greater efficiency means bigger profitability.