Pickers receive the list of products needed to fill shipments. The pickers head out into the warehouse walking endless steps to fill each order. Each picker travels miles each day as they walk through rows of static racks and locate the items on their picking sheet. Does this describe the picking operation in your warehouse?
This scenario hardly qualifies as an excellent example of productivity.
There are better options. Carton flow racking is one.
Carton flow racks are highly specialized racking for use in warehouses. These racks, also known as gravity flow racks, have a design based on gravity. Individual rack shelves are manufactured on an angle based upon the application. As the name implies, these racks accept products in loads smaller than pallets, such as cartons or totes.
The scenario mentioned at the beginning of the page described an old-fashioned and inefficient method of order picking. Carton flow racks eliminate unnecessary walking for pickers. Instead, pickers walk a few steps to lanes for items on the picking list. This difference alone saves companies up to 50% in labor.
Another reason to consider investing in carton flow racks is product consolidation. Static racking frequently requires products be spread out over a larger area in the warehouse. Not so with carton flow racking. These racks consolidate product into a smaller footprint, once pallet loads are broken down, creating additional space. This is particularly helpful for warehouses at or nearing capacity.
Carton flow racks function as an independent piece of material handling equipment or part of a larger system. This flexibility allows smaller operations to benefit from picking efficiency offered by these racks. Larger, fast-paced distribution centers also benefit when combing the racks into sophisticated pick modules using multiple types of racking and conveyors.
One last reason to invest in carton flow racking is its use of first-in, first-out (FIFO) shelving. Products enter the rack on one side, roll down the shelves on rollers and pickers remove to fill orders on the other. FIFO ensures the oldest products are first in the picking sequence, a very helpful process for products with time-sensitive expiration dates.
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