Choosing the most appropriate pallet racking and shelving system for your warehouse operation’s needs is a complex task. It needs to be done at the same time you decide on your preferred materials handling equipment, giving careful consideration to the dynamics, shape, fragility and so on of the products to be stored. Fortunately there are various warehouse simulation tools available to help test the pros and cons of the different storage solutions on offer.
Choosing racking and shelving might seem like the simplest part of planning a warehouse, but if you don’t get it right it could be very costly; you could end up spending far more on running the warehouse than is necessary.
Installing high density racking can deliver substantial carbon benefits by helping reduce carbon consumption. The general consensus is that the future of warehousing will be driven by the “carbon challenge,” which will prompt the spread of, for example, local sites using electric delivery vehicles serving in a 25-mile radius.
Trends also suggest a fundamental shift away from the ‘golden triangle’ national distribution model towards port-centric logistics, partly to cope with the predicted surge in container traffic as our new deep-water ports go live.
The challenge to cope with the continuing growth in on line shopping will also emphasise the need for faster, more accurate picking. That means much more reliance on part or full automation, backed by highly accurate picking instructions like Voice and pick-to-light.
Racking manufacturers are keenly aware of the need to help clients contain costs and meet carbon targets. Compared with VNA racking, an automated pallet storage, retrieval and sequencing solution can increase storage density by 80%. A single workstation can control the whole system, and pallet throughput is sharply raised.
The cost of such automation is of course high relative to conventional APR racking served by forklifts. But as with operations using forklifts it is the running costs that should take precedence in reaching your decision. The total construction cost for an automated system can be 30% less than a building to house a conventional racking system. And by obtaining the densest form of storage you will be minimising your energy consumption and hence your carbon generation.
The ongoing surge in online shopping will drive demand for automated warehouse storage/handling. E-tailers are expected to?deliver fast and accurately, often by?the next day. The days have gone of waiting up to a?month for goods to arrive from mail order providers; such delays are unacceptable to today’s consumers. This means automated storage is critical for success. But there is another problem for e-tailers, and that is the burden of high returns. To cope with this efficiently, retailers are turning more to automation. The future for warehousing is challenging in so many ways, but undeniably it is a future that favours automation – with storage solutions to match.
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