Racking: A Case Study

The K Company provides home and office delivery of bottled water, coffee, and other related products in a mid-sized urban area. Product is delivered to the K Company warehouse by suppliers, where it is inventoried and stored until the company's own trucks make their local deliveries. The bottled water creates a unique storage problem due to the size and weight of the pallets. As the business grew, the K Company needed a way to maximize warehouse space while still providing safe storage of the bottled water.

Industrial racking was brought in to handle the job. It was ordered on the basis of weight load capacity and space requirements, as the goal was to stack pallets without taking up space used to load delivery trucks. The racking was secured to the concrete floor and block walls with carriage bolts. Shims were placed under the legs to keep each rack level. Finally, the racking was left without shelves. Instead, two steel cross beams were laid perpendicular across each compartment. This allowed the structure to carry the weight without inhibiting fork lift operations when load and unloading pallets.

The racking solution proved to be so successful that the company added a second set of identical racks for the interior portion of the warehouse. These racks were equipped with shelves for storing unused coffee and water equipment, excess office equipment, and specialized product requiring extra care. Fork lift trucks were still usable with this racking, but extra care was needed due to the added shelves.

When all was said and done, the K Company was able to maximize usage of warehouse space and maintain their current operations for another four years. When it can time to move, they took their existing racking with them while also installing more racking at the new location.