Political reasons have propelled the warehouse space issue into the forefront as companies struggle to find the extra space they need to deal with issues like Brexit stockpiling but how many realise that a bit of thought about one’s existing storage layout could release enough space and thus avoid costly new land buys or offsite hire many miles away?
Not many enough, suggests SEC Storage, which recently completed a design of an APR racking system for Welch’s Transport that allowed for easy alterations to the initial, wide aisles as storage needs grew by infilling with more racking, as a change over to an articulated forklift configuration took hold, which avoided any serious disruptions. Henry Watts, SEC Storage’s commercial director, commented: “In the UK we vastly under-utilise the space that we have at our disposal. It’s time that our first thought around warehousing space is not ‘let’s build some more’ but rather ‘How can we optimise the space that we have?’
The majority of sizeable warehouses are usually racked out with APR, with aisle widths varying from 3.6mt down to 1.8mt. Consequently, many users are looking to make better use of those aisles, especially if they are 3.6mt wide served by counterbalance forklifts. Closing the aisles to 1.8mt or even 1.6mt could deliver 50% more pallet spaces. The downside to this is the potential disruption to business and the cost of repositioning racks and installing new. It would not be as much of a problem if you had trucks on flexible or short-term hire. There are also cheaper, quicker methods for repositioning aisle racks with wheeled gondolas that can move an entire run of aisle racking more quickly than traditional methods.
Paul Berrow, MD of Translift Bendi, comments that there is much uncertainty around as companies are looking to utilise existing warehouses to maximise the cube. “This has led to an increase in enquiries, not only from companies wanting to move from more conventional materials handling equipment to articulated forklifts but also from companies who already have articulated forklifts but want to increase storage capacity even more.” This is where the Bendi DR Deep Reach articulated forklift is proving popular. With an integral pantograph it can stack loads two deep in narrow aisles and can lift 1.1 tonne at 600mm up to 11mt high.
Businesses also want to store higher so for some the solution has been to raise the roof, but that would be a costly, disruptive operation. Opting for mezzanines could be more practical if space permits over, say, offices within the store. If less than 50% of the overall floor area they may not need to be fire-rated, nor may they need planning permission, depending on location and other factors. Disruption need not be serious because mezzanines are free standing with all parts made offsite.
Could your yard space be used also for storage if you could reduce the lorry dwell time in the yard? Various kinds of ‘temporary’ buildings could be added to the side of warehouse buildings quickly and disruption-free.
Lastly, could software come to the rescue of space-starved businesses? They certainly could if they had a smart enough WMS system installed with an integral, or separate, stock forecasting programme. These have been known to cut total stock levels by up to 30% without harming service levels, and in some cases achieved paybacks within a few weeks. Now there’s smart for you!
Charles Smith
Feature Writer
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