The lift truck is a very important tool to help employees raise and move heavy weight materials and goods with efficiency and speed without injuring their bodies. How a business utilizes this tool could significantly affect its profitability.
Free stacking pallets is the most popular storage system. Using this storage technique is both easy and economical for your forklift. Free Stacking Pallets is positioning 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 similar goods. The drawback of this specific system is that it only enables access to the items placed last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
It is vital to have a pallet racking system that involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Utilizing a Last In First Out or First In First Out technique, will allow for easy access of any pallet. It permits the rack to change shape and grow depending upon every day needs. This method needs aisles which are wide enough to enable a lift truck to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The downside is that this system means fewer pallets can be handled in the setting. This may not matter if there is enough space available.
Like Pallet Racking, the method referred to 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 spaces are required between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking way. The benefit is that more goods can be stored in the same area. The downside is that you will have to transition to a different kind of truck if you already own a regular lift truck. The cost of obtaining special equipment might be a deterrent to adopting this method of storage.
Using your forklift to its fullest potential is essential because it pays to analyze your storage costs and retrieval costs of pallets. After that you can determine whether there are more effective means to use your forklift to increase the usable area of your units or to speed up the process. Greater effectiveness equals bigger profitability.