The forklift truck is a vital machinery to help workers raise and transport heavy weight materials and goods with speed and efficiency without injuring their bodies. How a company uses this tool can considerably affect its profitability.
A popular storage technique is Free Stacking Pallets. This is a way to use your lift truck that is easy and economical. Free Stacking Pallets is positioning one pallet over another to make a stack of goods. This is a stable storage method and is recommended when handling many pallets of similar dimensions and height or huge amounts of the similar goods. The disadvantage of this method is that it only allows access to the things placed last, so it does not allow a First In First Out system.
It is important to have a pallet racking technique which involves the stable storage of various sized pallets. Utilizing a First In First Out or Last In First Out technique, will enable for easy access of any pallet. It enables the rack to change shape and grow depending upon daily requirements. This system needs aisles that are wide enough to allow a forklift to maneuver easily and to freely access the racks. The downside is that this system means less pallets could be handled within the environment. This might not make a difference if there is adequate space available.
Similar to Pallet Racking, the technique known as Narrow Aisle Racking enables a Last In First Out or First In First Out technique. It varies in that a special narrow forklift is used. This means that smaller spaces are required between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking way. The benefit is that more goods could be stored in the same space. The downside is that you will have to transition to a different type of truck if you already own a typical lift truck. The cost of obtaining special equipment might be a deterrent to adopting this system of storage.
Utilizing your forklift to its fullest capability is important because it pays to consider your storage costs and retrieval costs of pallets. Then you can find out whether there are more efficient means to utilize your forklift in order to increase the usable space of your units or to speed up the process. Greater effectiveness equals bigger productivity.