Principles of Pallet Storage Design - Warehouse Rack

1 Principles of Pallet Storage Design A Guide To Pallet Storage Design In The Context Of Industrial Storage And Materials Handling One of two no-nonsense guides to safe Storage from Redirack THE Principles OF. Pallet Storage Design . A guide to the basic Principles of Pallet Storage Design , in the context of modern industrial Storage and materials handling CONTENTS. Foreword Page 4. What is a store? 5. How wide? 8. Which Pallet ? 9. How high? 12. Pallet rack layout 15. Which Pallet , which rack ? 18. How much can be stored? 19. Alternative Pallet Storage layouts 22. FOREWORD. Increases in the cost of square footage, the high cost of building materials, higher labour charges, expensive equipment, and stiff penalties for late deliveries and damaged goods. The key to success in the Storage and materials handling business is, to a great part, knowing how to get over these hurdles.

2 The science of Storage and materials handling is a fast- growing science. New systems and techniques come thick and fast. But a close look at the science' will reveal a basis of simple fundamentals and good oldfashioned common- sense. The title of this booklet, The Principles of Pallet Storage Design ', may sound much like that of a complicated textbook. Far from being complicated, it is like the science it is about, mostly common-sense. Although only a very concise guide to basic Principles , this booklet will provide you with the basic formulae necessary either for designing a working Storage installation, or for improving an existing one. It won't, of course, turn you overnight into a leading Storage and materials handling expert. But it will, we hope, help you over some of those hurdles that exist in the business of building and operating a successful Storage installation.

3 WHAT IS A STORE? Before we can begin to analyse stores, Storage any alternative in the way goods go out, shown methods, materials handling and so forth, we must in the second column. To make matters more know what a store is. And we must identify the complicated, in any store there can be several of unique characteristics which make it a store. these combinations operating at once. To help us arrive at a definition, let us take a Take for example, a factory where at the end of simple store, found in every household. The most the production line, coils of wire are stacked on to common Storage item in a house is the cold water a Pallet of half a ton or one ton capacity. They are Storage tank, found normally in the roof space. moved into the store on a Pallet , so we have BULK. Water comes into the tank from the mains, IN.

4 Ideally despatches to customers are made in the water is held in the tank and is then drawn off Pallet loads, so we get BULK OUT. through various taps. BULK IN BULK OUT. Immediately we can see three of the basic characteristics of a store - water comes IN (goods However, there are times when an individual coil come in) the water is HELD (goods are stored), the has to be despatched to a customer, and this is a water goes OUT (goods go out). case of BULK IN - INDIVIDUAL OUT. Take another factory where pneumatic tools are IN HELD OUT. assembled. Bulk supplies of components come in The next distinguishing features of a store is from suppliers. In the stores different components why the water is held. are selected and put together on to a tray to make Let us look at what happens when we draw up a completed tool, so here we have BULK IN - water off.

5 Sometimes no water is drawn off. One SETS OUT. may turn on a tap. A toilet is flushed, and somebody If we consider a Pallet racking beam or a Pallet runs a bath. These things can happen individually, racking frame as one item, then at the end of the at any time, or all together, or, one single demand production line individual items are transferred to can be combined with any other demand. In other the store where they are put together to meet an words, the demand for water in a household varies order, so we have INDIVIDUAL IN - BULK OUT. from nothing, to all taps running at the same time. Of course some items are either too large or However, water comes in from the Main at a too valuable to be moved other than in individual constant rate. So it would be impractical to expect form, large diesel engines that go into mining the water from the Main to meet this widely varying equipment.

6 These are moved into, and out of store demand. At times, if all taps were being used, the individually. pressure would be very low and each user would get Under normal circumstances it is rare to get a very little water. SETS IN - BULK or INDIVIDUAL OUT. This most So the water tank acts as a BUFFER between common occurrence of sets is in the outward the fluctuating demands for water, and the rate movement, but the above is theoretically possible. of supply of water. Notice we have built up the The one exception to these definitions of flow is definition of a store - A STORE HOLDS GOODS when the holding operation is the prime function AS A BUFFER BETWEEN THE FLUCTUATIONS IN and the flow through is insignificant. An example SUPPLY OF THE GOODS AND THE DEMAND FOR of this is where the goods are held for an aging THE GOODS.

7 Process, where for example, whisky may be kept in store from five to fifteen years. Stores throughput Although the function of a store is to hold goods, the Measuring' performance way In which goods flow through a store affect the There are four criteria we can use in measuring the method in which they are held. In particular, goods performance' of a store. come in and go out in the following manner: 1. Use of volume. 2. Ease of selection. BULK IN BULK OUT 3. Ease of handling. INDIVIDUAL IN INDIVIDUAL OUT 4. Preservation of the quality of goods. SETS IN SETS OUT The Use of volume' is a statement of how much Any alternative in the way the goods come in, cubic capacity is effectively being used out of the shown in the first column, can be combined with total amount available, the volume of the goods stored compared with the volume of the building Storage capacity of layout: length x breadth x height.

8 Ease of selection' - indicates all those factors which 1 block 22 pallets x 6 pallets x 4 pallets high go to the identification of the location of the goods = 528 pallets stored, both for putting away into the stores, and for 2 blocks 10 pallets x 5 pallets x 4 pallets high getting them out to meet despatch requirements. =400 pallets Ease of handling' describes those factors that TOTAL: 928 pallets affect the handling of goods, whether mechanical handling is required, whether double handling is Each Pallet uses cubic metres. involved, the speed of handling, etc. Preservation of the quality of goods' relates to Therefore 1392 cubic metres of Storage is utilised deterioration of the goods, either by accidental in 2940 cubic metres available. damage, age, as with vegetables for example, or = usage! deterioration because goods go out of style, fridges, cookers (which although fairly robust in That allows only 42 different lines to be stored and themselves do have changing styles ).

9 Assumes every single space can be used, which will Now these factors are all inter-related. Any not be the case in practice. action to improve one factor will most likely adversely affect the others. A simple theoretical example can demonstrate this. Imagine you have a simple cubic building with one door into it. If you fill this building up completely, you will make excellent use of volume. However, if you have more than one type of item stored in there, then it would be extremely difficult to select the item you want. So what happens? Do you start creating gangways to improve the selection of goods? This will immediately reduce the use of the volume. If you require mechanical handling the gangways need to be even wider, reducing the volume, and there is always a danger that with mechanical handling the rate of damage to goods increases.

10 Of course, you might find that by block stacking the lower items will be crushed, so you may decide Pallet AND LOAD. either to store only one-high with the consequent DETAILS. reduction in volume, or put the goods on racks, which also reduces the amount of volume effectively used. The most common plea from someone investigating an efficient store is that he needs more space. In practice this is rarely so. There is usually enough volume to cater for the goods he stores. It is more likely that the requirement is in fact, for improved handling, improved selection of goods (whether putting away or despatching), or for increased protection of the goods. This is why great care must be taken to identify the more important factors relating to the optimum efficiency of the store. For a simple example relating to the use of volume, imagine a building 30 m long by 14m wide by 7m high to the inside of the ceiling obstructions, that is 2940 cubic metres.