As long as your warehouse has four walls, you have limited useable space. Since you are paying for the full floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall area, optimizing that space becomes a critical economic and operational goal. Pallet racking is nearly ubiquitous in warehouses and distribution centers because it maximizes vertical space and opens up floor space to help meet that goal. However, there is more than one style of pallet racking, so how do you choose the rack system (or systems) that will meet your facility’s precise needs?
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A good place to start when evaluating rack systems is by completing an analysis of your inventory (number of SKUs and SKU volumes), turn rates across the product lines, seasonality concerns, and of course, space availability. It is also essential to consider your inventory flow from dock intake through order processing.
Armed with a thorough operation overview, you can consider your storage racking options. Selective pallet racking is the most common warehouse rack because it’s typically the lowest cost and least complicated to build and use. However, it requires more space than a high-density system that can also offer productivity benefits. Let’s take a look at selective vs. a popular high-density system, pallet flow rack, as a good comparison between static, simple racking and dynamic, high-density pallet storage.
Pallet flow rack is one of the most flexible warehouse storage solutions for palletized or crated inventory. It is easy to use, low maintenance, fully customizable, and efficient. It is best suited for an inventory mix of a limited number of high-volume SKUs.
The system comprises multiple levels of individual SKU lanes fitted with rollers or wheeled rails set on a downward pitch. Pallets are loaded from a rear aisle and then flow to the opposite aisle for extraction. The separate aisles allow for less forklift congestion at the rack and concurrent load and pick activity. Pallet flow lanes average between 2 – 6 pallets deep, but the system can allow for lane depths of 20+ pallets, making it a contender for very high-density storage needs.
Besides multi-level pallet flow designs, the roller or wheeled rails can also be floor-mounted. Floor-mounted pallet flow is ideal for case picking from palletized stock –usually reserved for high-volume, medium-turn rate SKUs. Floor-mounted pallet flow is also ideal for minimizing forklift travel for pallet intake, dock staging, and supercharging high-volume layer picking.
Designing your pallet flow system will depend on your pallet and inventory specs. The system is customized to the size and weight of your inventory and does allow for pallets of different shapes and sizes, unlike other high-density systems such as push-back and drive-in rack.
Selective rack is often called simple selective because it is essentially vertical uprights connected by horizontal beams to create pallet storage bays. Now a little more engineering goes into the system, but effectively it functions to store palletized inventory in single-deep rows stacked vertically on numerous levels.
Selective pallet racking allows you to take full advantage of your facility’s vertical space to optimize storage density while maintaining quick, efficient pallet storage and retrieval and 100% SKU accessibility. It is ideal for low-volume, high-SKU inventory. It supports first-in/first-out (FIFO) inventory management and requires a single aisle for loading and pallet retrieval.
Selective rack rows are often placed back to back to reduce the required number of aisles and consolidate space. Additionally, lower levels of the rack system can be equipped with wire decking or other decking options to convert the space for individual item storage. Selective racking is also considerably more affordable than other systems, with minimal installation and maintenance costs.
Nationwide pallet rack installation crews can be an important consideration when purchasing racks, especially for multiple locations. WOI vets all installation crews for safety, insurance, experience, and sound financials. These are essential considerations for any pallet rack purchase that includes installation. Demolition and liquidation service availability are also important considerations when reconfiguring or relocating warehouses and distribution centers.
Our professional installation team ensures that the finished product meets your expectations, and while we are on the job, you can be sure that we follow strict safety protocols.
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We realize what is riding on selecting the right storage solution for your facility. You must blend your capacity and operational needs with your budget –we can help. At WOI, our pallet rack designs are customized to satisfy your unique needs. We work with top-quality manufacturers to ensure durable, long useable life for your pallet rack system.
The WOI team offers over 180 years of combined material handling experience to ensure your space works to solve your warehousing challenges. Moreover, we are determined to deliver 100% Customer Satisfaction on each project through our Total Satisfaction Experience™ (TSE).
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Selective storage systems are those whose characteristics make direct access to the unit loads stored in them possible. As a result, in selective storage any goods stored on the racking can be selected and unloaded directly.
Selective storage systems are the most commonly used type of solution in warehouses and distribution centres, being an adjustable pallet racking system. However, their main advantages and some of their limitations or drawbacks should also be considered.
As with any storage system, there is no perfect solution for all warehouses. The most appropriate type of industrial racking will depend on the needs of each company.
The main advantages of the systems that allow selective storage are:
As its very name indicates, selectivity or direct access to each unit load is one of its main advantages. This is particularly important in companies that store a high number of different products or references and which require regular handling.
By having direct access to the unit loads, in selective storage the loading and unloading process by the handling equipment is faster and simpler than in compact storage systems, in which the operator must handle the load in more complex situations and which require greater precision. Also, it won’t be necessary to handle unit loads other than the one we want to access.
Selective storage systems are perfectly adaptable to unit loads of different sizes and weights, and also facilitate and an orderly distribution of goods.
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Compared to compact automatic systems, selective storage systems are more economical and have a lower initial cost. Being more conventional systems and with a simpler structure, generally their design and installation are cheaper, so if the warehouse has sufficient space, they are normally systems that facilitate warehouse profitability.
Compaction is also possible in selective systems, although not to the levels of systems such as Drive In racking or FIFO live storage and LIFO systems. To maintain total selectivity of the unit loads, compaction must be produced with the narrowing of the work aisles of the forklift. These characteristics are used to design the very narrow aisle (VNA) systems, which are operated by special forklifts in order to move along these narrower aisles.
There are also hybrid systems that do not allow total selectivity of the unit loads, but which do offer greater compaction, such as the double deep pallet or mobile pallet racking systems.
The versatility of the different types of selective racking solutions makes them perfectly combinable with other storage systems, generally picking solutions at their lower levels.
It is very common to install longspan shelving or carton flow rack systems at the lower levels of selective solutions. This combination makes it possible to use those low-level spaces to store manual products in the warehouse, and all the available space at height is exploited for the selective system of pallets.
By reserving each available storage space for a single unit load, and a product reference, inventory control is much simpler and can be checked at a glance.
However, in compact storage systems, there is an added difficulty with stock management.
In contrast to the advantages indicated above, selective storage systems have some limitations to consider before deciding if they are the right system for a warehouse.
Requiring more available space in the warehouse is perhaps the main limitation of selective storage. If a warehouse has reduced space for its storage needs, selective systems won’t be the best option.
As a work aisle will be required for each racking structure, the efficiency of the space will be limited.
As a general rule, selective storage systems are designed for companies whose warehouses are going to have in stock a low or medium volume of goods with a high rotation. It is a characteristic to bear in mind for companies with a high number and volume of unit loads, as an increased storage cost could be incurred.
Despite being more economical in their design and installation, their storage costs per square metre are ultimately higher, because they are not compact and require more space to store the same unit loads.
With its clearly defined advantages and disadvantages, selective storage can be applied in warehouses with the following characteristics or needs:
We analyse below the differences between the different types of systems that allow selective storage, mainly adjustable pallet selective racking and VNA.
We will then outline 2 storage systems that cannot be considered completely selective, namely the double deep pallet and mobile pallet racking systems.
Adjustable pallet racking is the most traditional selective storage system.
It consists of a simple structure made up of frames and beams, and is designed to store unit loads mechanically using forklifts. The forklifts access the pallets from work aisles that run in parallel to each row of racking. Selectivity or direct access to the unit loads is total.
VNA (Very Narrow Aisle) Racking is simply an adaptation of the adjustable pallet racking system in which the work aisles along which the forklifts pass are significantly narrowed.
Special VNA forklifts, occasionally wire-guided for greater safety, are used. Thanks to this narrowing of the work aisles, the selectivity of all the pallets is maintained, but space optimisation of up to 40% can be achieved.
Double Deep Pallet Racking is also an adaptation of the adjustable pallet racking system, but in this case it cannot be considered a fully selective system.
A similar structure to adjustable pallet racking is designed, but it allows pallet storage at 2 depths, so storage density is increased, but direct access to all the unit loads is lost.
In Mobile Pallet Racking a structure with a similar base to adjustable pallet racking is designed, but here the structure is mounted on mobile bases that allow the racking blocks to be moved in 2 directions.
A high-density compact structure is therefore generated and only the work aisle in which we want to operate and access the load is open.
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