If the flow of inventory coming in and going out faces interruption, your facility’s productivity will suffer as a result; one common cause for these potential disruptions is a lack of optimized space. Knowing the ways you can maximize your warehouse space will not only improve workers’ efficiency but can prevent unsafe situations and provide a safer working environment. Be aware of your facility’s characteristics and how you can best utilize what you have.
See if You Can Reduce Aisle Width
Your aisles will need enough clearance space to make room for vehicles, such as forklifts and other heavy machinery. Without this clearance, you run the risk of damaging the support structure of racks with your vehicles. Evaluate whether you can reorganize your racks to decrease the total amount of clearance but remain within safe parameters to allow safe passage.
Consider Increasing the Height of Your Racks
When there is more headroom to use, look into taller racking installations. It may not be financially feasible to extend your warehouse horizontally to add room, so you’ll need to consider how you can use your vertical space. Depending on rack designs, you may have to scrap what you have to install a more durable racking system to compensate for the added weight and stress.
Look Into Storing More on Your Shelves
Look at each individual shelf and determine if you have the length or depth to store more. This requires you to understand the weight capacity of each shelf to ensure that you do not overload anything with too much inventory. You never want to exceed that weight limit, and doing so for the sake of utilizing more space will jeopardize the safety of employees working nearby.
Falling Objects
By storing more inventory on each shelf, you need to consider the possibility of items falling from heights. Make sure to install pallet safety stops to reduce the chances of larger objects falling and potentially injuring staff members.
Never Sacrifice Safety for Extra Space
There are always methods to increase your warehouse storage space, but not all will maintain safety. The safety and well-being of your employees is your top priority, and valuing increased productivity above them will lead to gross safety oversights and incidents. For more shelving safety solutions, get in contact with Rack Safety Products.
