A profitable warehouse is a carefully-designed area where every square foot of floor space is utilized to generate revenue. Whether it is used to store current inventory products or as a place to put products that will be returned, every element of a warehouse must be fixated on offering a positive financial return for the company.
One of the areas of warehouse that has been seeing significant innovation in the past several years is warehouse shelving. By investing in a system that fits your company’s needs, it is possible to expand a warehouse’s capacity and pull even more profitability from a warehouse space.
Pallet Stacking
An area that has been a problem for warehouse owners for years was finding efficient ways to reduce the amount of floor space that pallets occupy. There are two warehouse shelving innovations that can help free up more warehouse floor space by finding ways to stack pallets.
Portable pallet stacking frames can be use as shelving units to stack pallets and get the off the floor. These types of shelving systems can even work on pallets that were not designed to be stacked at all.
A newer innovation to pallet shelving is being able to put pallets three and four deep on the same shelf. This allows a warehouse a significant amount of flexibility and can help to increase the profitability of any warehouse.
Movable Shelves
Static shelves in a warehouse are important because they can handle the heavier materials and offer stability. Movable shelves are also extremely stable, but they offer the added element of freeing up space that static shelves are unable to free.
Movable shelves are installed on tracks and can move back and forth to accommodate the need to access materials on the shelves. These shelves essentially collapse on themselves and allow a warehouse owner to fit twice as much shelving in an area that would normally be occupied with static shelving.
When using movable shelves, it is extremely important to make certain the weight guidelines are followed closely. According to Shaw Material Handling System, “If a warehouse staff overloads movable shelves, then the shelves will not be able to safely move back and forth on their tracks. This decreases the shelves’ functionality and also creates a safety hazard as well.”
Segmenting A Warehouse
In order for warehouse shelving to be effective, it is essential that it is properly utilized in a well-designed warehouse. For example, it is extremely ineffective to put heavy-duty shelves that will require large machinery to access them in the same area where smaller shelves will be installed that can be accessed without equipment.
Larger shelves often require hard hat areas and special equipment, which can slow down the products picked from smaller shelves. That is why a warehouse must be segmented properly if it is going to be effective. The heavy-duty shelving must be separated from the smaller shelving and each set of shelving must be put in a location that is closest to where it will be needed. For example, if larger products are usually pulled from shelves and immediately put on trucks to be shipped, then the larger shelves must be installed as close as possible to the shipping bay doors.
Running a successful warehouse requires a comprehensive understanding of logistics, as well as an expertise in product handling. Each warehouse should be designed to meet the specifications of its business and the warehouse shelving should be arranged to make the job of fulfilling orders and keeping the sales shelves stocked as easy as possible.
A warehouse manager needs to keep an eye open for innovative technology that will help to increase efficiency and profitability in a warehouse. With the right warehouse shelving in place, a company can turn its warehouse into profit center and a source of growth for the future.
