The lift truck has become a vital piece of machine that can raise and transport products and heavy materials with both efficiency and speed. How a company utilizes this tool could considerably affect its productivity.
A popular storage method is Free Stacking Pallets. This is a way to utilize your lift truck that is both easy and economical. Free Stacking Pallets involves positioning one pallet over another to make a stack of products. This is a stable storage system and is suggested when handling many pallets of similar height and dimensions or large amounts of the similar goods. The disadvantage of this method is that it just allows access to the objects placed last, so it does not enable a First In First Out system.
It is important to have a pallet racking method that involves the stable storage of various 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 grow and change shape depending upon daily requirements. This specific method needs aisles which are adequately wide to allow a forklift to freely access the racks and easily maneuver. The disadvantage is that this specific system means less pallets can be handled in the setting. This might not matter if there is enough space available.
Like Pallet Racking, the technique known as Narrow Aisle Racking allows a First In First Out or Last In First Out method. It differs in that a special narrow lift truck is used. This means that smaller areas are required between the aisles of pallets than in the Pallet Racking way. The benefit is that much more product could be kept in the same area. The disadvantage is that you would have to transition to a new truck if you already own a regular forklift truck. The expenditure of acquiring special machines may be a deterrent to adopting this technique of storage.
It is vital to use your forklift truck to its full potential. It pays to analyze your time expenditure in retrieval and storage of pallets. Afterward you could determine whether there are more effective ways to utilize your forklift in order to increase the usable area of your units or to speed up the process. Greater effectiveness equals bigger profitability.