By Marissa Velazquez


Warehousing is the provision storage services for various types of goods that include among others, raw materials, goods-in-process and finished goods. Such storage is required between the point of production and the point of consumption or use. The warehouse is often used when ready market for the goods is not available at the given time. It may also be used to stock goods in large quantities in an area where they can be easily obtained by retailers. There are important things to consider when choosing a warehouse racking system design .

When choosing the design, you need to consider the size and type of goods that will be handled in your facility. If you will be dealing with huge machines and vehicles then you need to have very stable racks made of heavy metal. There is need to leave space for movement of these machines and for installation of equipment such as cranes.

You have to know the environmental requirements of your goods. Goods that have a high probability going bad within a short period of time require more space. They have to be stored separated from each other and with good air conditioning. This is the case for goods such as foodstuffs. The case is different when dealing with non-perishable goods. These types of goods can be stored closely packed to each other.

Pallet racking is one of the most commonly used designs. In this system, goods are stored on pellets. There are very many variations of this storage system. The common feature to all of them is that the racks are all horizontally oriented with multiple levels of racks. Storage and retrieval of goods is facilitated by forklift trucks. The biggest advantage associated with pellet systems is that there is an increase in storage space.

One of the types of pellet type is known as selective pallet racking. Two forms of this type exist; a roll formed type which is made up of horizontal beams that are held in place by clips and a structural type. The use of clips makes movement fairly easy. The beams can be adjusted through the vertical plane so that loads of different sizes can be accommodated.

The second type is the structural type. This type is made up of horizontal beams joined to uprights using bolts. This arrangement gives them great stability and they can support great heights. A common design involves the use of uprights that simultaneously provide support to the roof. They can easily be dismantled and rebuilt whenever the need arises.

The selective arrangement has a huge advantage in that it makes it very easy to access the goods stored in the facility. This is a very useful characteristic for facilities that have a quick turnover. Some of the areas in which this arrangement is used include inventory rooms for retail shops, wholesale shops, cold storage applications.

There are several precautions that one needs to take as they think of coming up with a warehouse racking system design. Loose and damaged parts of the racks should be repaired in a timely manner to minimize the risk of accidents. At the same time, fire fighting equipment should be made available in clearly visible locations.




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