Saturday, April 5, 2014

Why A Proper Warehouse Racking System Design Is Important For Your Plant

By Gwen Lowe


Keeping things in order is paramount in your plant, whether you are manufacturing, servicing other equipment or simply storing things for future use. The appropriate warehouse racking system design is necessary so that minimal time is spent putting things away and retrieving them when needed. The time to find the best system for your plant is time well spent.

The appropriate design for these elements of your plant must account for the size of materials and what platforms they are moved around on. The most popular form of racking design is the individual bay, based on the size of the average pallet. This makes it easy to place pallets into the bays and remove them from either the front or back of the bay.

Designs should allow the use of fasteners to attach them to the walls when possible. The free standing shelving will need additional supporting mechanisms and can be arraigned as needed. Needing to get into the bays from the back or side will also be worth thinking about. The many different configurations are ready for you to look at and think about.

The first thing that must be done, when thinking about a new or redesigned racking system is to get an idea of what needs to happen in any average shift. This information will be listed, by the design engineer, and used for planning the perfect system. The material of construction will be identified based on the weight that will be placed on them, the conditions of the floor, walls, atmosphere and height in which they will be constructed.

The traffic patterns that are needed will also be examined. Some materials stored in some areas may need additional space because of larger material handling equipment and their space requirements. The need for front and back access to the bays will also determine how close they can be to each other, other fixtures, equipment and machinery.

Having side access to bays is something that can be done on the extreme ends. In some cases, special systems can be arraigned to allow small materials to be slid, on tracks embedded in the floors, to reach all parts. Some of these will also move levels up and down to allow for the removal and replacement of items regardless of location.

A properly designed racking system will take into consideration all items needing to be stored, even for a short time, on and in them. Some of these units will have self facing rollers to bring material to the front area and they load from the back. Others will have tracks for specific types of pallets. Many of them will allow the storage of individual drums on sliders that assist in removing them with special attachments on fork lifts.

Having a place for everything and everything definitely being in the right place will make for a safe, clean and well operating plant. The companies who offer the many racking systems will have up to date information on all industries and what they are doing. That may include just the right shelving for your plant or they can come up with the perfect one for you and you alone.




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