A warehouse may be broadly defined as a building serving a multitude of functions starting from storage and stockpiling of goods, maintaining the inventory while it is stocked inside and finally dispatch of the stored goods to their designated destinations.
Warehouse Logistics :
As the name suggests, the warehouse logistics is an integrated operation which extends beyond the conventional notion of shipment of goods.
Rather, it can be defined as the detailed planning and the associated strategies that encompass the procedures of the organization, management, and implementation of complex warehousing operations, that might range from micro to macro levels.
In many other industries, manufacturing plants and storage facilities, logistics extend beyond the regular operations that deal with the flow of physical goods and information, apart from the planning, management, and execution of complicated operations.
It deals with complex factors like organization, movement, and management; including the reception and despatch of inventory.
It also caters to other intricate warehousing operations like pest control, handling of damaged goods, adhering to safety policies, human resource management and finally terminates in providing customer returns.
Palletized Racks :
Being one of the most ancient storage and retrieval systems employed in early warehouses, these still find their indispensability in technologically advanced warehouses of these days.
These are specialized material handling systems that stack goods on pallets or skids. Though they vary according to their structures, design, materials used for construction; the functionality is more or less common: that is the storage of palletized materials in the form of horizontal rows having multiple tiers.
Automation being introduced in warehouses has seen forklift trucks or cranes to retrieve and place products on the designated racks. All of the different types of stackable pallets, however different they are in terms of construction or design, have a single objective to increase the storage density.
Relationship between Stackable Palletised Racks and Warehouse logistics :
These racks come along with a lot of factors that positively influence warehouse logistics.
- Assurance of accurate and real-time inventory count : When equipped with a robust WMS, stackable racks provide the ease and transparency to track the inventory in the possession and its specific location within the warehouse.
- Decreased Returns : An accurate look at the inventory through the stackable palletized racks ensures that the items are delivered to the proper destination, thus minimizing the chances of their return.
- Auto replenishment of stocks : Stackable racks provide easy accessibility to all the products at all times and they have the advantage of pick-up ( from lower levels ) and drop ( at higher levels ). A minute observation is possible through these racks which might prompt actions of replenishment once the inventory seems to get depleted.
- Maximizing Warehouse space : Stackable pallets have numerous sub-categories: selective pallet racking is made of either rolled steel or structural steel; which provides the option of utilizing the height of the warehouse. Hybrid pallet structures are also found but usually, they are integrated into the structure of the warehouse that they have to serve.
Very narrow aisle pallet racks again provide maximum utilization of the warehouse floor as the rails and aisles are either collapsible or extremely narrow, allowing the excess spaces to be utilized. These excess spaces aid in manual movement as well as the movement of automated devices serving warehouse operations.
Moreover, these stackable pallets are easily reconfigurable, re-adjustable, reinstallable after dis-assemblement, corresponding to the warehouse and the organization requirements.
Hence we can conclude that Stackable Pallet Racking systems provide a huge boost to warehouse logistics efficiency.