The lift truck is a very important tool to help employees lift and move heavy weight materials and products with efficiency and speed without injuring their bodies. How a company makes use of this machine could significantly affect its productivity.
A common storage technique is Free Stacking Pallets. This is a way to utilize your forklift that is both economical and easy. Free Stacking Pallets involves positioning one pallet on top of another to make a stack of products. This is a stable storage method and is suggested when dealing with many pallets of similar dimensions and height or large amounts of the same goods. The disadvantage of this specific method is that it only allows access to the items put last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
It is important to have a pallet racking technique that involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Utilizing a Last In First Out or First In First Out system, will allow for easy access of any pallet. It enables the rack to grow and change shape depending upon every day requirements. This particular system requires aisles which are wide enough to allow a forklift to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The disadvantage is that this system means fewer pallets can be handled within the setting. This might not matter if there is sufficient space available.
Like Pallet Racking, the technique called Narrow Aisle Racking enables a Last In First Out or First In First Out technique. It differs in that a special narrow lift truck is utilized. This means that smaller areas are necessary between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking way. The advantage is that a lot more goods can be stored in the same space. The disadvantage is that you will have to transition to a different kind of truck if you already own a standard forklift truck. The expenditure of obtaining special machines might be a deterrent to adopting this method of storage.
Using your forklift to its fullest potential is important since it pays to consider your retrieval costs and storage costs of pallets. Then you can find out whether there are more effective ways to utilize your lift truck to increase the usable area of your units or to accelerate the process. Greater effectiveness means bigger profitability.