Pallet Storage and Picking Best Practices
RightChain Pallets best practices are illustrated below. They can be roughly categorized as best practices related to safety, storage density, and productivity.
Storage Density Best Practices
When practical, the clear vertical space over aisles may be racked to increase building cube utilization and overall storage capacity and storage density.
Lane depths should be optimized to minimize storage and picking costs by identifying and implementing the mix of lane depths that maximize storage density, minimize re-warehousing, and maximize handling productivity inside and between lanes.
In many warehouses all of the rack openings are exactly the same size, yet the pallets they house are of many different sizes. As a result, there may be significant wasted cube capacity inside an "occupied" opening. Ideally, rack openings are sized based on the mix of pallet sizes they will house.
Productivity Best Practices
Lane depths should be optimized to minimize storage and picking costs by identifying and implementing the mix of lane depths that maximize storage density, minimize re-warehousing, and maximize handling productivity inside and between lanes.
Any of the pallet handling vehicles - walkie stackers, lift trucks, reach trucks, turret trucks - can be operated autonomously. This option should be evaluated especially when wage rates are high, labor is scare or unreliable, volumes are high, and traffic patterns are consistent.
A best practice in pallet storage and picking is to develop and pursue strong business cases for pallet automated storage and picking. A pallet ASRS is one such example.
Safety Best Practices
Pallets should be inspected for damage, loss of capacity, and/or infestation.
Pallet racks should be inspected for damage, loss of integrity, and/or instability.