I have heard
customers say many times “It’s just rack”.
To be sure, rack is equipment, treated as a commodity that should be
cheap in cost and quick to purchase and install. However, like most things that appear easy
but are found to be complex after further inspection, rack can become
troublesome very quickly.
On the
surface, rack is simple. When looking at
it rack appears to be merely frames, beams and maybe some wire decks or cross
bars. However, it requires further
assessment.
Our storage
rack holds a myriad of products and they vary from full pallets of all types to
individual item storage. As the loads we
store can be of significant weight, we must have a safe means of storing the
weight while using as much of available cubic space as possible “Safely”.
If you
access YouTube, you can find videos of rack accidents where the beams and
frames were overloaded beyond rated capacity, under-protected from damage and
misapplied.
So let’s
look out for several things when planning our rack system so we can be
efficient while being safe.
·
What
kind of load do you expect to hold and is it palletized or individual
items? What is the anticipated weight
per rack beam level?
·
How
many beam levels will be in a bay? Are there different weights anticipated for
each level of the bay or is it standard?
What are the beam level dimensions? It matters to the overall capacity
of the frame.
·
Are
your pallets of consistent quality? If
not, perhaps wire decks or decking is required.
·
Be
honest with your employee assessment.
Are they rough with the equipment when handling pallets? Have you experienced damage in the past? Should we make provisions to protect the
frames columns and end of aisles?
·
Will
the equipment be in a cold room or freezer?
·
Are
you in a zip code with seismic ratings that may require larger footplates or
aisle ties?
·
Do
you anticipate the need for sprinkler coverage?
·
Are
hazardous material barriers required?
·
What
type of forklift do you use and what is the maximum height it can reach to
store and retrieve pallets? (Companies have bought rack only to find out their
forklifts could not reach the top level of the rack)
·
What
is the turning radius of your forklift?
Aisle sizes matters.
·
What
kind of product density do we need? Many
SKUs or a few SKUs with high volume.
Some companies buy used rack. As such, do you know the frame and beam capacities of what you are buying? Do you know where it’s been and subjected to in the form of loads and abuse?
In the end,
rack is a commodity. However, it must be
designed in advance with plenty of detail about what you plan to store and how you
plan to keep your associates safe and equipment damage free.
For more information from Greg, view his page at www.trifactor.com/greg
