Protect Your Racking

Protect Your Racking

Safety is critical to the continuing function of your daily operations. Accidents can happen anywhere to anyone – a trainee, a worker who takes a wrong turn, or even an experienced operator having an off-day. Efforts to protect your racking systems not only helps to reduce damaged merchandise but it also helps ensure the safety of your valued employees.

Forklift accidents can result in pallet rack damage, costly repairs, downtime, damaged inventory, and injury to workers. Rack protection is essential to maintaining your inventory and key assets because they keep the structure safe at various impact points.

No matter the size of your storage facility, pallet rack protection will increase your productivity and eliminate damages due to narrow aisle for trucks, lifts, and individuals encountering sensitive rack uprights. These factors are important particularly when you consider the damage a forklift can cause.  ABCO provides the most suitable protector or guard for your pallet rack to ensure safety and no damages.

ABCO welcomes the opportunity to visit you and assess any at-risk products. There are several ways to protect your racking. The rack aisle protector, rack post protectors, wire mesh rack guards, and floor angle guide.  These all offer protection to the most vulnerable parts of your warehouse and business. They can be formatted into the size and shape to fit your protection needs. ABCO helps to protect your inventory, investment, and your valued employees.

Contact us here for all of your rack protection needs.

Rack Aisle Protectors - Protect your Racking Rack Post Protectors - Protect your Racking

Wire Mesh Rack Guards - Protect your Racking Floor Angle Guide - Protect your Racking

 

Pallet Racking: It’s Not Just A Commodity

Pallet Racking: It’s Not Just A Commodity

It’s not just a product, it’s a service.  It’s not just a commodity.

Certainly, if you are simply buying some uprights and beams, maybe even a few wire decks, then maybe racking is just a commodity.

However, in today’s world of expensive real estate, air tight leases and even more expensive labor, warehouse tenants are most times requiring so much more than just buying some materials.

The correctly optimized warehouse, over the lifespan of a lease, can save significant money both in real estate and labor.

But there is so much more to it than that.  There is an incredible amount that goes into even the simplest pallet racking system.  What might appear to be easy actually requires a lot of detail.

The existing floor, sprinkler system and even the amount of ingress doors the building has can affect what type of racking you can have, how tall it can be, and how you can install it.  The proper column sizing, aisle spacing and footplates can also have a great effect on your racking system.  The weight of your product, how flammable it is, and even how you package it, can severely limit your options.

The permit process, in and of itself, is a beast all to its own.  It can take up to two weeks (or sometimes significantly longer) to gather all of the necessary information for the permit package.  It is required that we submit a PE signed letter validating that your sprinkler system can adequately protect your product based on its commodity class and how it is stored.  Or worse yet, it is very possible that your sprinkler system might even need to be upgraded in some older buildings.  We also need a PE signed set of plans that show the racking, the egress/emergency lighting layout, and the racking calculations showing that the rack can support the weight of the product being stored.

For all of these reasons, and many more besides, it is important that you do not see pallet racking as not just a commodity.  If you have a deadline to hit, or you need to optimize your space, or if you need to keep your overall costs down by most effectively utilizing your space, finding the right partner to deal with is integral to a successful long-term operation.

If you don’t already ready have a relationship with a racking company, start looking for one now.  Even if you are not planning on any kind of work for years.  If you think that you might need it in the future, developing the relationship now will save time and money later.

Then, once you know you are going to move or make any alterations, start engaging your racking company early in the process.  If you pick the right one, they will actually assist in your search for a new building.  The right racking company can help evaluate the building, desired layout, the sprinkler system, the electrical requirements and much more.  And the right company will do all of this simply because they want to earn your racking business.

The individual pallet rack pieces themselves might be a commodity.  But the value of the service that goes into it, most definitely is not.  At the end of the day, the amount of money you will save by working with the right company, and creating the right solution for you, will be all the peace of mind that you need to perform at your best.

Choose ABCO Systems as your racking partner and we will do our best to help you design your space to its fullest potential.  Our design and engineering team are ready to help optimize and layout your building with not only your business needs, but with safety and efficiency in mind as well.

Give ABCO a call at (201) 507-0999 or send us an email for more information.

Basic Warehouse Design Tips for First Time Owners

Owning and managing a warehouse requires a distinctive set of skills that few inexperienced people have. Space planning, inventory management, and asset utilization are just a few of the strategies that will need to be implemented in order to maximize the value of each square foot and protect the goods being stored. Keep these warehouse design tips in mind when organizing your warehouse space for the first time. Remember, if you are looking for pallet racks and other storage solutions, ABCO Systems has many valuable options to consider.

Shop With Specifics in Mind

Rounded numbers are not always going to help you shop for the right distribution center design solutions. You are going to need exact measurements to conduct space allotment calculations. These are some of the figures that warehouse managers will need to know:

  • Exact square footage
  • Loading bay height
  • Maximum load capacity of mezzanines, racks, hoists, and walkways
  • Maximum stacking height
  • Door, hallway, and passage height clearance

Storage structures, retrieval vehicles, and other warehouse equipment are going to have to work within the physical constraints of the existing site; additionally, they will have to accommodate the nature of the goods stored. However, the goods stored cannot exceed the performance capacity of vehicles and structures so a careful compromise has to be found.

Store According to Type

Stacks are not the perfect storage arrangement for all goods; shelving cannot accommodate every item type. Having a variety of storage solutions available is optimal, although few warehouses are going to be able to accommodate all possible types of goods. Creating sections of space dedicated to certain types of storage helps maximize these solutions. This also allows for optimal access and safe, efficient retrieval.

We Can Help With Warehouse Design

ABCO Systems offers design assistance and other consultation services; just call 201.507.0999. We can help you identify exactly what equipment is required for your new warehouse.