Material Handling Demands
We’ve had a little fun with idea of overthinking pallet rack. After all, Occam’s Razor tells us that when deciding between 2 things, all things being equal, choose the simpler one. That seems to be a pretty good motto for material handling design as well.
However, there are times when the simple designs of yesteryear just don’t keep up with the complex demands of today’s material handling environment. This is certainly true when it comes to increasing storage capacity and efficiency without increasing warehouse size.
A recent blog post by Bob Trebilcock, Executive Editor at Modern Materials Handling clearly states the need for improvement & innovation when it comes to material handling systems. His post defines a problem that General Mills had (not enough capacity & no option to expand square footage) & gives the solution they employed (going vertical). It’s a great post & you can read it in its entirety here.
More Warehouse Space
The problem of running out of space is one that many companies hope to encounter. It often means that a company has grown & simply has to expand. The growth most often comes in the form of new construction — adding on to an existing warehouse or building a new one. You’ll also hear of manufacturers dealing with growth by buying old warehouses & retrofitting or gutting them for their needs.
Both of these options can be good ones, but finding a way to maximize an existing space shows good vision and contributes to a truly sustainable corporate philosophy. It is usually less expensive to update an old system than to build a new one from scratch. Plus, many of the original components may be adaptable to the new environment. It’s one of the reasons we designed FlexRack™ Pallet Rack to be highly compatible with other types of rack. In a world as demanding, fast-moving & ever-changing as ours is, sustainability and flexibility will be 2 keys to success in any material handling environment.
We look forward to seeing more stories like these come down the pike, & if you’re in need of a better design for your warehouse, contact one of our engineers & we’ll help you maximize your space.
Recent Comments