The lift truck is a vital tool to help workers lift and transport heavy weight materials and goods with efficiency and speed without injuring their bodies. How a company makes use of this tool can significantly affect its productivity.
Free stacking pallets is the most common storage system. Utilizing this storage technique is both easy and economical for your lift truck. Free Stacking Pallets involves placing one pallet on top of another to create a stack of goods. This is a stable storage system and is recommended when dealing with many pallets of similar height and dimensions or large amounts of the similar goods. The disadvantage of this technique is that it only enables access to the items put last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
It is essential to have a pallet racking method which involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Using a First In First Out or Last In First Out system, would enable for easy access of any pallet. It allows the rack to grow and change shape depending upon daily requirements. This method needs aisles which are sufficiently wide to allow a lift truck to freely access the racks and easily maneuver. The downside is that this specific technique means fewer pallets could be handled in the environment. This might not matter if there is sufficient space available.
Like Pallet Racking, the method known as Narrow Aisle Racking enables a Last In First Out or First In First Out system. It varies in that a special narrow forklift is utilized. This means that smaller areas are necessary between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking technique. The advantage is that much more product can be kept in the same space. The downside is that you would have to transition to a new truck if you already own a regular lift truck. The cost of acquiring special machines might be a deterrent to adopting this specific system of storage.
It is important to use your lift truck to its full capability. It pays to consider your time costs in storage and retrieval of pallets. Then you can find out whether there are more efficient ways to use your forklift to increase the usable area of your units or to speed up the process. Greater effectiveness means bigger productivity.