We’ve written a lot in the past about the importance of finding the right pallet racking system for your warehouse. The right system can make your Illinois warehouse more efficient, safer, and optimize the amount of storage space available within your square footage. One system that can be very beneficial but is often overlooked as an option are carton flow racks. Take some time to learn more about carton flow systems, what they are, the advantages of using them, and whether or not they might be the right solution for your warehouse.
What Is a Carton Flow Rack?
A carton flow rack is a style of a rack system that uses gravity to feed the pallets and cartons. When you use a carton flow rack, your inventory sits on rollers that are set at a pitch. These rollers allow your products to glide to the front of the rack via gravity when the item in front of them are removed. You’ve probably seen something similar in the grocery store; you pull out a gallon of milk and the remaining jugs move forward. The concept is the same in a warehouse, except on a larger scale. These racks can be set up to handle inventory of virtually any size, from smaller items to large pallets of products. That makes them very versatile and cost-effective.
The Advantages of Using a Carton Flow Rack
There are a number of other advantages to using a carton flow rack, including:
- This system helps rotate your products through quickly.
- Carton flow systems utilize gravity as a free power source, which makes it easier to integrate with an existing system. You can add them into virtually any existing system to increase your storage capacity and efficiency.
- Carton flow storage also works well when compared with traditional floor rack systems and is ideal for all sizes and shapes of inventory.
- Carton flow racks can cut your labor costs. Labor costs are often one of the most expensive budget lines for a warehouse. Using carton flow racks can cut labor costs up to 75 percent when compared to traditional storage methods.
- Carton flow systems also increase inventory visibility, reducing the risk of lost inventory.
If you feed your inventory through the backside of the pallet (a common practice for many warehouses), there are a number of additional advantages:
- Inventory can be replenished without disturbing pickers. That means you can keep your picking team well stocked with the inventory that they need to fulfill orders without moving them out of the way or stopping their work in order to restock items. This allows both the stockers and the pickers to work simultaneously, meaning you can get more done in your warehouse.
- Stocking from the back and picking from the front allows you to work on the first-in-first-out order. This can help get time-sensitive items out efficiently and avoid waste, something that’s especially important in the food and perishable items industries.
Carton flow racks can greatly increase the efficiency of your warehouse. Not only can your restocking and picking team continue to work at the same time, it eliminates a lot of the need to move pallets more than once. Moving pallets can be difficult, time-consuming, and increase the risk of injury to your team and damage to your products. It’s also a menial task that can take away precious time from other, more important tasks. There are companies who utilize carton flow systems to move twice the amount of pallets in the same amount of time, meaning, you could potentially save big on time and labor costs.
Call the DAK Team to Talk About Using a Carton Flow Rack in Your Warehouse
If you are looking for a money-saving rack system that is both durable and sustainable, then you may want to look into a carton flow rack system. The project managers at DAK Equipment & Engineering can help you identify whether or not this is the right solution for your warehouse, based on factors such as the size of your warehouse, the type and size of items that you store, and your budget. If carton flow racks could help your warehouse work more efficiently and at less expense, we’ll find the right racking at a great price. Our team can even help get it installed in your Chicago warehouse or distribution center! The first step is to discuss the current storage challenges that your warehouse is facing and working with one of our project managers to find the right solutions.
If you’d like to learn more about carton flow racking and the other products and services available from DAK, get in touch with our team today. You can give us a call or contact us through our website for more information. We’d love to answer your questions and help your warehouse overcome any challenges you might be experiencing!
