The lift truck is a vital machinery to help workers lift and transport heavy weight supplies and goods with speed and efficiency without straining their bodies. How a company utilizes this machinery can significantly affect its profitability.
A popular storage technique is Free Stacking Pallets. This is a way to utilize your lift truck that is both economical and easy. Free Stacking Pallets involves positioning one pallet on top of another to create a stack of products. This is a stable storage method and is recommended when dealing with many pallets of the same dimensions and height or huge amounts of the same product. The drawback of this technique is that it only allows access to the items placed last, so it does not allow a First In First Out system.
It is vital to have a pallet racking system that involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Using a Last In First Out or First In First Out system, would allow for easy access of any pallet. It permits the rack to change shape and grow depending upon every day requirements. This particular technique needs aisles that are wide enough to enable a forklift to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The downside is that this specific technique means less pallets can be handled in the setting. This might not matter if there is sufficient space available.
Narrow aisle racking is like pallet racking in that it allows for a First In First Out or Last In First Out system. The difference in the method is how the special narrow forklift is utilized. This means that smaller spaces are necessary between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking technique. The benefit is that 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 typical forklift truck. The expenditure of obtaining special machines might be a deterrent to implementing this 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 effective means to utilize your lift truck to increase the usable space of your units or to accelerate the process. Greater efficiency equals bigger productivity.