3 Signs Your Warehouse Has Outgrown Your Current Pallet Rack System

The increase in sales orders has placed a strain on warehouse operations. Workers are scrambling to get forklifts and pallet jacks down tight aisles to remove merchandise from shelves. Trying to fill store front shelves and delivery trucks with products feels frustrating as warehouse productivity slows down to a crawl.

One reason for the issue may involve your pallet rack system or pallet racks. It’s quite possible you may have outgrown your pallet rack system. Your sales growth significantly impacts operations, causing your warehouse to outgrow its current shelving management system. Here are three signs to look for to determine if your current pallet rack processes are not keeping pace with warehouse growth.

Your Warehouse Has Obstructed Aisles

When going down the aisle, you may find a pallet sitting right on the floor as you need to get to the other side to reach certain products. When merchandise pallets have to be placed in the aisles because there is no more room up on the shelves, it is time to consider whether your current rack system is meeting your changing needs.

Solution: Look at available warehouse space to determine if a new arrangement can allow you to place in more pallet racks while still providing enough room for materials handling equipment to move down aisles. Measure the rack space, aisle space, and the size of merchandise pallets to create a layout that works with your specific warehouse dimensions.

Sagging Load Beams

When you first opened your business, you purchased racks that had load beam capacity levels of 3,000 lbs. Yet now your pallets are bigger and far heavier. Also, you are stacking multiple pallets on top of one another on the same shelf beams. In time, the weight of products on beams has caused it to sag, threatening to send pallets to the ground.

Solution: Upgrading pallet rack systems with stronger load beams that have high tensile strength 14-gauge steel will allow you to hold heavier pallets. You can outfit your warehouse with pallet racks that can hold from 5,000 to 7,000 lbs. load capacities to eliminate load beam sagging.

Not Enough Aisle Space

It’s easy to think that the warehouse storage issue can be solved by adding just one extra pallet into the floor layout. However, one extra pallet rack becomes two extra and then five extra as you begin to eliminate and narrow aisles. In time, your forklifts and pallet jacks don’t have enough space to retrieve items.

Solution: If warehouse floor space is limited, consider going vertical with your pallet rack needs if you have high warehouse ceilings. Pallet racks can come in 8-foot, 10-foot, 12-foot, 15-foot and 16-foot heights.

When it comes time to upgrade your pallet rack systems to better work with your warehouse, seek help from Action Wholesale Products. We have warehouse shelving, racks, storage bins and other inventory management products to increase your warehouse productivity.

Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash