Moving pallets in the warehouse is often an important part of everyday life in such an environment. The ability to do this efficiently and effectively however is a whole other ball game. We’ve written this article to discuss different ways of moving pallets in warehouses and which of these methods we feel are best and why. So, without further ado, we’d love to get stuck right into this topic.
Firstly, we think it’s important to understand why handling and moving pallets in warehouses carefully is required. On a daily basis, so many pallets are damaged due to poor handling, impacts with forklifts, overloading or just a general lack of care from the operative or person looking after any technology.
What’s more is that a by-product of damaged pallets could actually be a damaged product too, which isn’t helpful for anybody. It’s quite clear to see then, that having the ability to move pallets in a warehouse properly is a top skill to have and could save you time, effort and resources in the long run.
One of the most straightforward ways to move pallets and most commonly used methods is using a forklift. Not just any old forklift though, it has to be a quality one that is maintained regularly and driven by a capable and qualified individual.
In addition to this point we always recommend that each driver is given full training and several top up training sessions too in order to maintain standards. We’ve seen too many times, people trying their luck at driving forklifts and it ending in disaster.
Moving onto packing and storing stock correctly now. People try to make this an art-form when really, knowing your limits and simplifying things makes the job easier. Your warehouse will be a certain size and be able to comfortably fit ‘x’ amount of pallets in it.
Therefore you shouldn’t try to overpack it and you need to organise the pallets well in order to make it easier for movement of them both in and out of the warehouse. Closely related to organisation of pallets is how they’re actually loaded.
Depositing pallets onto rack beams should be done correctly by pallet drivers. They should be placed nice and squarely, and should overlap uniformly on the front and the back whenever possible. This helps with weight distribution and maximises the rack capacity as well as the wear on the beams.
You can imagine that if they aren’t square it could cause an accident when stacked in several rows on top of each other.
Routine maintenance is key to ensuring pallets are moved properly too. Imagine the size of a warehouse and how many racks, rails, beams and pallets there will be being stored, moved and organised on a daily basis.
You need to make sure your infrastructure is fit for purpose and as in good condition as the day you installed it. No loose bolts or exposed rivets or pallets hanging off the edges and corners. All this is prone to causing accidents, damaging pallets and defacing products.
You can also look at upgrading your technology in order to see a more slick and errorless process happening. We install many different types of automation to warehouses to help the movement of pallets and stock from one place to another. We work with a number of different businesses that use warehouses as a means of moving pallets including in retail, e-commerce, industrial and more too.
Our solutions are custom-built and we never use a one size fits all approach. We supply and install conveyor systems, picking systems, stacker cranes for pallets and lots more too. Get in touch with us today for more information.
Need Help With Moving Pallets? Contact Us Today
We hope this article has helped to inform you on a few different ways and reasons to move pallets effectively. This is of course our specialist area and we offer a number of successful services to support you doing this too. Please feel free to contact us either by calling us directly on 01908 592 354 or use our online contact form.
