The lift truck has become a crucial piece of machinery that can lift and transport products and heavy materials with both speed and efficiency. How a company uses this tool could considerably affect its profitability.
Free stacking pallets is the most popular storage system. Utilizing this storage technique is both economical and easy for your forklift. Free Stacking Pallets is positioning one pallet on top of another to create a stack of goods. This is a stable storage technique and is suggested when handling many pallets of similar height and dimensions or large amounts of the same goods. The disadvantage of this technique is that it just allows access to the things placed last, so it does not allow a First In First Out system.
Pallet Racking is a technique which involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Any pallet can be accessed at any time, which enables a First In First Out or Last In First Out method. It allows the rack to change shape and grow depending upon every day needs. This method requires aisles which are wide enough to enable a lift truck to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The disadvantage is that this technique means less pallets can be handled within the environment. This may not matter if there is enough space available.
Like Pallet Racking, the method known as Narrow Aisle Racking allows a Last In First Out or First In First Out technique. It differs in that a special narrow forklift is used. This means that smaller areas are required between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking method. The advantage is that a lot more goods can be stored in the same area. The downside is that you would have to transition to a new truck if you already own a regular lift truck. The expenditure of acquiring special machines might be a deterrent to implementing this system of storage.
It is essential to utilize your lift truck to its full capability. It pays to analyze your time costs in retrieval and storage of pallets. After that you can determine whether there are more effective means to use your lift truck in order to accelerate the process or to increase the usable area of your units. Greater effectiveness means bigger productivity.