The forklift truck is a vital tool to help employees raise and move heavy weight materials and goods with speed and efficiency without straining their bodies. How a company uses this machine could considerably affect its profitability.
Free stacking pallets is the most common storage technique. Utilizing this storage technique is both economical and easy for your lift truck. Free Stacking Pallets involves positioning one pallet over another to make a stack of goods. This is a stable storage technique and is suggested when handling large amounts of the same goods, or many pallets of the same height and dimensions. The drawback of this system is that it just allows access to the things put last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
It is important to have a pallet racking method which involves the stable storage of different sized pallets. Using a First In First Out or Last In First Out system, will allow for easy access of any pallet. It enables the rack to change shape and grow depending upon every day needs. This system requires aisles that are wide enough to enable a lift truck to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The disadvantage is that this system means less pallets can be handled within the environment. This might not matter if there is enough space available.
Narrow aisle racking is similar to pallet racking in that it allows for a First In First Out or Last In First Out technique. The difference in the method is how the special narrow lift truck is used. This means that smaller spaces are required between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking technique. The advantage is that more goods can be stored in the same area. The downside is that you would have to transition to a different type of truck if you already own a regular lift truck. The expenditure of obtaining special machines may be a deterrent to implementing this specific method of storage.
Using your forklift to its fullest potential is important because it pays to consider your retrieval costs and storage costs of pallets. Then you could find out whether there are more efficient means to utilize your lift truck in order to increase the usable area of your units or to speed up the process. Greater efficiency equals bigger profitability.