If you are looking to upgrade or replace your warehouse storage, you need to be aware of the choices. The warehouse storage that is right for you depends not only on the stock you have but also your work processes.
If you feel that you could change the current work process, you have an even wider choice and may be able to select a storage system that delivers much greater efficiency; alternatively, you could combine different systems for different parts of the warehouse.
Pallet racking
In this system, pallets are stored in a framework of racks and each pallet can be accessed individually without moving others. Forklift drivers and human pickers, with or without ladders, can easily access stock, wherever it is.
Cheap, easy to install and flexible, it is no surprise that pallet racking is one of the most popular options for warehouse storage.
Pallet flow
This system also uses pallet racks; however, the beauty of the flow system is that it cuts out the need for forklifts and replaces them with belt or roller conveyor belts. These move heavy pallets towards, and away from, the human picker. The picker stays in one place and unloads items from the pallet – the conveyor takes the empty one away and brings up the next one to be unpacked.
With so much storage space being sorted and cleared it creates space for more equipment that your business may need like Electric Press Brakes that are sourced from links including https://www.cotswold-machinery-sales.co.uk/euromac/electric-press-brakes/. These machines are incredible and are well worth looking into especially if efficiency and quality are important to you.
Automated storage
This is where we see robotic arms at work. Until now, the robots needed to have every item individually identified in a database to know which to pick. Human pickers are very slow at picking small, individual items, and some technologies now in development will allow robotic picking of items; for example, RFID tags are revolutionising stock-take, audit, inventory and warehouse management. They transmit data about the item they are attached to, and can do this over Wi-Fi networks. They can pick small items incredibly quickly; in advanced systems, larger items can be queued and prioritised for onward transport.
As always, there is much more to know about the many different warehouse storage systems available.
