Spotlight On: The 10 Most Common Pallet Racking Systems

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This article, written by Mal Walker, formerly a manager at Logistics Bureau, was first published in the March / April 2018 issue of MHD Supply Chain Solutions.

Pallet racking systems pervade the logistics landscape.

Scattered across the country in distribution centres, sheds and stores, racking fixtures of all shapes and sizes store goods for our nation. But, if you look carefully you will see that not all racking systems are the same.

 

For those in the industry this is well known, but for the novice, it’s not so easy to spot the differences, let alone understand why you would use one type of racking versus another.

 

To help understand what types of racking are available, when to use them, and when to avoid them, I briefly list each type below with an explanation, estimate of utilisation and an indicative budget price to purchase (exclusive of GST). There is a sketch of each as well to assist in seeing how they operate.

There are additional types of storage racking and order picking equipment. These will be outlined in subsequent issues.

The author wishes to thank racking suppliers Schaefer and APC who advised budget prices for each racking more.

 

1. Racking Mode: Selective

 

 

Features

• Clear Aisles of 3 to 3.4m for reach trucks or 3.5 to 4.5m for counter balanced fork lifts
• Supports First in First Out (FIFO)
• Most common mode of racking
• Unfettered access to any pallet
• Allows order picking at lower levels
• Storage Utilisation: 90%
• e. for every 100 pallet places available, you can fill 90

 

When do you use it?

• Where you have a relatively low number of pallets per SKU
• When you want totally free access to any pallet, any time
• When you need to pick from pallets at lower levels

Of course, specific circumstances in your warehouse operation, which might not correspond directly with the conditions mentioned above, might mean that selective racking is an ideal solution for your business.

Our inventory management services include the provision of advice and guidance about storage solutions, so please feel free to get in touch and ask about selective racking as an option for your warehouse.

We are vendor-agnostic and we don’t sell storage equipment, so you are assured that our guidance will be totally objective, reflecting what we believe to be the best solution for your circumstances.

 

When not to use it?

• When you have a high number of pallets per SKU and you are constrained for space
• When you need to pick from more pallets than the lower level pick face will allow

 

Budget Price: $46-60 per pallet

 

2. Racking Mode: Push Back Racking

 

 

Features

• Clear aisles of 3 to 3.4m
• First in last out (FILO) for each slot
• Can be three or four pallets deep, but commonly only two pallets deep
• Pallets are pushed back from aisle by fork lift trucks
• Pallets are placed on low friction carts
• Used for full pallet storage only
• Forklift drivers need to be careful when loading in an out to avoid pallet damage
• Utilisation: 85-90%

 

When do you use it?

• When you have more pallets per SKU and want to gain greater storage density
• When order picking is not required from pallets within push back racking

 

When not to use it?

• When you need to perform order picking from pallets
• When pallets are accessed frequently for picking and are then put away again
• Where pallet to pallet contact is can cause damage to stock

 

Budget Price: $275-295 per pallet

 

3. Racking Mode: Double Deep Racking

 

 

Features

• Clear aisle of 3.0 to 3.4m
• FILO for each slot
• Pallets at lower levels must be on beams, and guide rails are used at upper levels
• Needs a fork lift truck with extendable reach and camera to assist the operator
• Generally used for placing two pallets of the same SKU in each double deep slot
• Can be serviced by reach and counterbalanced fork lift tricks and order picking machines
• Storage Utilisation: 85-90%

 

 When do you use it?

• When you have more pallets per SKU
• When greater storage density is required

 

When not to use it?

• When you need to perform order picking from pallets
• When pallets are accessed frequently for picking and are then put away again
• When you have lots of SKUs with single pallets in stock

 

Budget Price: $55-65 per pallet

 

4. Racking Mode: Pallet Live Storage

 

 

Features

• Clear aisle of 3.0 to 3.4m
• FIFO for each lane
• Pallets are placed on gravity roll tracks and move from entry to exit via gravitational pull
• High use of cube
• One lane per SKU
• Separate load in and load out aisles
• Full pallets only
• Utilisation: 85-90

 

When do you use it?

• When you need FIFO Operation and stock is moving at relatively fast rate
• When you have a high number of pallets per SKU
• Where you need high space utilisation

 

When not to use it?

• When you have few pallets per SKU
• When you need to perform order picking
• When you cannot tolerate pallets encountering others due to line pressure
• When you cannot tolerate occasional snags caused by pallets stalling on the roll tracks

 

Budget Price: $400-420 per pallet

 

5. Racking Mode: Drive in Racking

 

 

Features:

• Clear Aisles of 3 to 3.4m for reach trucks or 3.5 to 4.5m for counter balanced fork lifts
• FILO for each bay
• The fork lift drives down the lane of each racking bay to deposit or pick up pallets
• Drive in racking emulates the operation of block stacking, but with the racking there is reduced damage to pallets and stacking can be higher
• Can be up to 10 or 12 pallets deep and up 6 or 7 pallets high
• Utilisation: 50-60%

 

When do you use it?

• When FILO is not a problem
• When you do not wish to mix SKUs within each bay/lane of drive in racking
• When high density storage is required, (but be careful of the honeycomb effect) which reduces utilisation
• When staging of received or picked goods is required in a high-density format

 

When not to use it?

• Where order picking is required from pallets
• When you are planning for greater than 60% space utilisation

 

Budget Price: $165-180 per pallet

 

6. Racking Mode: Narrow Aisle Racking (Turret Truck Operation)

 

 

Features

• Clear aisle of 1.8 to 2.2m
• Emulates characteristics of selective racking
• Turret trucks retrieve/put away pallets from pick and deposit (P&D) stations at the end of each bay of racking
• Turret trucks require wire or mechanical guidance down the length of each aisle
• A separate forklift delivers and picks up pallets to and from the P&D stations
• Order picking machines may pick from pallets, but not at the same time as turret trucks
• Only one machine in an aisle at a time
• Utilisation: 90%

 

When do you use it?

• When you have a high SKUs with relatively small quantities per SKU
• Where you want good space utilisation
• When you have large amounts of goods moving and out
• When you want to improve the storage density within your warehouse

When not to use it?

• When you can’t afford to have two machines operating
• When you have limited budget
• When you have a high movement velocity and need two machines working in the same aisle at the same time

 

Budget Price: $50-60 per pallet (not including wire or angle guidance system)

 

7. Racking Mode: Narrow Aisle Racking (Articulated Truck)

 

 

Features

• Clear aisle of 1.8 to 2.2m
• Emulates characteristics of selective racking
• Articulated reach trucks can move from truck unloading to rack without the need for (P&D) stations or guidance
• Order picking machines may pick from pallets, but not at the same time as turret trucks
• Only one machine in an aisle at a time
• Utilisation 90%

 

When do you use it?

• When you have a high SKUs with relatively small quantities per SKU
• Where you want good space utilisation
• When you have large amounts of goods moving and out
• When you want to improve the storage density within your warehouse

 

When not to use it?

• When you want one machine servicing the racking
• When you have a high movement velocity and need two machines working in the same aisle at the same time

 

Budget Price: $50-60 per pallet (no guidance required)

 

8. Racking Mode: Mobile Racking

 

 

Features

• Clear aisle of 3 to 3.4m
• Mobile bases with wheels support selective racking
• Operates like a powered compactus
• Mobile racks move to allow access to pallets
• One aisle opens at a time
• Ideal for high density storage, with maximum selectivity
• Often used in cool and cold stores
• Utilisation: 90%

 

When do you use it?

• Use when there is a high amount of storage, but with modest movement of pallets
• When you are handling full pallets only
• When building and operating expenses are high e.g. cool and cold stores

 

When not to use it?

• When space is not at a premium
• When you need to perform lots of carton picking from pallets
• When you need operate in more than one aisle at a time

 

Mobile racking is an expensive solution, but a highly effective one in some warehousing scenarios. If it’s something you are considering for your company, our inventory management consultants can help you with an unbiased cost-benefit analysis, enabling you to make the right decision with total confidence.

 

Budget Price: $700-800 per pallet

 

9. Racking Mode: Satellite Racking (Deep Lane Pallet Racking)

 

For more pallet shuttleinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

 

Features

• Clear aisle of 3 to 3.4m
• High density storage system, which utilises a mobile shuttle (remotely controlled) to move the pallets through the racking
• Can be 10 to 40 pallets long per lane
• The shuttles are placed and retrieved from the racking by fork lift trucks
• Can operate in FIFO and FILO modes
• Often used as an alternative to drive in racking, because the utilisation is much higher
• Utilisation: 90 to 95%

 

When do you use it?

• Used when there is a high volume of products moving through of each SKUs
• One SKU per lane
• Used to overcome the poor space utilisation of drive in racking

 

When not to use it?

• When you need to pick from the pallets

 

Budget Price: $185-250 per pallet, $50,000 per shuttle

 

10. Racking Mode: High Rise Racking (Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems)

 

 

Features

• Clear aisle of 1.8 to 2m
• High density storage system usually serviced by automated cranes. Can be single or multiple pallets deep, open or closed face
• Needs dedicated building, rack clad or free standing
• Utilisation: 90 to 95%

 

When do you use it?

• Use when land space is limited, and/or if there is a high volume of products moving in and out of the system
• The number of pallets per SKU becomes irrelevant as the system is automatic and all pallets are accessible

 

When not to use it?

• When budget is limited
• You do not need to pick from pallets (If you do these can be done elsewhere in the distribution centre)

 

Budge Price: $350-400 per pallet. But don’t forget the price of the building $950-1000/sqm.

 

Rack Up the Savings with Improved Inventory Management

 

Improving inventory control and management is one of the fastest routes to end-to-end supply chain cost reduction, and your choice of warehouse storage systems is a crucial element in the success of your IM strategy.

Of course, there is a lot more to effective inventory management than the way your store your pallets, and at Logistics Bureau, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of IM services to help you with all aspects of the challenge.

From diagnostics to direct intervention, our consultants can provide you with the impartial support that equipment, software, and solutions vendors have no incentive to offer. In return for our fees, we deliver genuine value through recommendations that are right for your business, not for any partners on the supply side.

We even offer an initial no-obligation, inventory management consultation free of charge, during which we’ll review your storage or other IM-related situation, identify the key issues to resolve, and help you develop an action plan to address them.

You can learn more about this offer, and the types of IM challenges that we help our clients to solve, by paying a visit to our inventory management services page. We think you’ll like what you find there!

 

The vast majority of warehouses and distribution centres organise the distribution of their storage by installing Pallet Racking. The racking designed to store pallets optimises the available space and adapts to each company’s storage needs.

We analyse below the different types of pallet racking that can be installed in a warehouse and outline their characteristics and differences.

 

 

What is pallet racking?

Pallet racking is the system of grouping goods on pallets or other auxiliary elements to create a unit load that facilitates their storage and transport in the different phases of the supply chain.

It emerged during the Second World War to optimise transport and was originally only manufactured in wood.

Nowadays, it is about grouping the most used goods in warehouses and logistics in general, with most of the racking designed to store heavy loads specifically designed for the storage of pallet loads.

Pallet loads play a key role in almost all the logistic stages of the company, in both their handling inside the warehouse and in the transport stages.

There is a wide variety of types of pallets according to their dimensions or manufacturing material; however, the vast majority comply with standard measurements for which both industrial racking and forklifts and the rest of the tools and machinery involved in their handling are designed.

Major advantages of pallet racking

The palleting of goods for their subsequent storage on industrial racking has several advantages that can be summarised below as:

• Optimisation of loading and unloading times
• Compacting of goods and better use of available space

• Greater safety

  in transport of products
• Greater flexibility for their transport and handling
• Simplicity for stock and inventory control
• Reduced handling, transport and storage costs

 

Choice between a selective or compact system

Among the wide variety of pallet storage systems set out below, there are two major types of racking in particular, firstly, selective storage systems (or with direct access) and, secondly, compact storage systems, which aim to increase the density of the racking to expand warehouse capacity.

Before weighing up the most suitable pallet racking option, the company must determine its storage characteristics and its current context. In this phase, it should be evaluated whether to prioritise the selection of a system that fully optimises the available space because our warehouse has a reduced surface area or very high per square metre floor price, or, if in its case, the available space is not a problem and the aim is to prioritise easy and quick access to the unit loads.

The type of product to store, inventory management to be performed, stock rotation, etc. must then be considered.

The most compact storage systems are the automated or semi-automated solutions (such as the AR Shuttle, the Clad-Rack Warehouses or the automated systems with stacker cranes) which we will not discuss in this list, focusing on non-automated pallet racking instead.

What are the main types of Pallet Racking?

The different types of pallet racking include the following systems:

Adjustable Pallet Racking

This is the most common and simplest pallet racking system, and is designed to mechanically store pallets using forklifts that run parallel to the rows of racking.

It is not a compact system, so it requires quite a wide surface for its installation. Its main advantage is direct and quick access to all the unit loads stored, as well as its versatility and adaptability.

Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) racking

VNA pallet racking is an adaptation of the adjustable pallet racking system, but with better use of the available space in the warehouse. The width of the work aisles is reduced so as to reduce the necessary floor space for their installation, and direct access is maintained to all the pallets stored.

It needs special narrow aisle forklifts to move about and operate in the warehouse.

 

Double deep pallet racking

Double deep pallet racking is another adaptation of the adjustable pallet racking system, modified to increase the storage capacity.

In this case, optimisation is achieved by adding an extra position for pallets at the back of the racking, storing the unit loads at 2 depths. The advantage is the greater storage capacity, but the disadvantage is loss of selectivity or direct access to each and all of the unit loads.

Drive In and Drive Through Compact Systems

Both Drive In and Drive Through Compact Racking are a type of high-density pallet racking system that optimise the available space in the warehouse.

In this system, work aisles are eliminated, and the forklift enters the racking structure for loading and unloading operations.

Drive In racking works according to the LIFO system with a single entry and exit aisle for the forklift, while the Drive Through system works with the FIFO method and has an access aisle for loading and the opposite end for unloading pallets.

Live Storage for pallets (FIFO)

FIFO Live Storage Pallet Racking is a storage system that has a compact structure and lines of rollers with a downward incline to move the pallets from where they are deposited at one end of the racking to the other end at the back.

It is a FIFO system, where the first pallet to be loaded is the first one to be removed, enabling perfect stock rotation in the warehouse.

 

Push-Back Pallet Racking

Push-Back Pallet Racking has a very similar structure to FIFO live storage systems, but here the pallets are stored according to the LIFO (Last in, First out) method.

When the forklift loads a new pallet, it pushes the previous pallet to the back. The Push-Back system also has beds of rollers or trolleys, which enable the displacement of the pallet through pushing.

Mobile Pallet Racking

In Mobile Pallet Racking systems the structure is installed next to some chassis guided by rails on the floor, which enables the lateral displacement of the racking modules.

It is a compact structure which, thanks to the displacement of the racking blocks, allows work aisles to be opened for the operation of forklifts.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of asrs rack. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.