When budget planning or process improvement evaluations are in full swing you are probably looking into ways to increase productivity and correcting existing storage system opportunities. Both warehouse and manufacturing organizations share some common characteristics in storage management. Your warehouse could benefit from extra heavy duty cantilever rack systems.
Here are five key areas your warehouse should consider for improving warehouse efficiency using cantilever storage racks:
- Optimizing available space
- Accessibility to products and materials
- Flexibility of storage space
- Maintaining the quality and integrity of products or material
- Ensuring a safe work environment
Evaluate if your current storage system meets the needs of your business. While traditional shelves are common, they are impractical for some types of products. There are also hazards to leaving raw material sitting on the ground.
Let’s review cantilever shelving systems to see if they can benefit your storage facility.
Cantilever Shelving
Cantilever is an engineering term that refers to a structure or straight arm beams that project out from a single support anchor. Visualize a crane or a diving board. By design, these two things accomplish the same general task: To bear weight on the opposite end of a fixed point.
A cantilever structure can carry a large load without utilizing multiple support structures, saving space and improving accessibility. Cantilever racks are ideal for storing a wide range of heavy products such as lumber, PVC pipes, and structural steel. They also eliminate the need for large amounts of pallet racking that clutter up your warehouse floor space.
Cantilever Applied to Storage
Using a crane or diving to store products is not useful, but the concept of an anchored arm can be applied to a cantilever storage system.
By placing two horizontal braces at the same height and parallel to each other, you create a sturdy structure that can handle a variety of loads, whether they are light-duty or heavy-duty. However, it’s not practical for all products and there are a few criteria to consider. Cantilever shelving systems are ideal for products that are long and/or awkwardly shaped. Products that have a tube or bar shape are the perfect fit for cantilever storage racks arms.
These items should be sturdy enough to support themselves for a cantilever rack, otherwise, a cantilever shelf will be the better option.
A rack will only include the protruding arms while the shelf will place a flat surface over the beams. Examples of goods ideal of cantilever include raw materials such as lumber and pipes or assembled products like furniture.
You can buy cantilever shelving systems online that are easy to assemble and customizable for your needs. Brace sets are easy to erect and if necessary, a Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc. representative can help with the installation of your rack system to ensure that your storage system is completely optimized for your unique warehouse.
Cantilever Applied to Operational Efficiency
- Optimizing available space: Any system that allows for multilevel stackable storage is an effective use of space. Cantilevers have a higher load tolerance allowing for heavy items to be much smaller space. Cantilever storage can be single or double-sided creating more options for placement. The stackability of cantilever racking presents a number of advanced storage opportunities. The height of the upright storage units means you can fit more products in your now optimized vertical storage space.
- Accessibility to products and materials: A key cantilever rack feature is accessibility from beneath. Furthermore, raw materials can be accessed without rotating it around shelving supports.
- Flexibility of storage space: Cantilever storage is customized to storage requirements for size, height, and load balance. Cantilever systems can also be applied to a mobile storage station so that products can be moved freely within a facility. The cantilever arms adjust as well so you can manage how much you want to store on a single unit.
- Marinating the quality and integrity of products or material: Storing raw material on the ground or against walls can cause damage to or warp products. Lose less product with suitable cantilever storage spaces. Products stored safely off the ground are also better protected from collisions with forklifts and other product retrieval mechanisms.
- Ensuring a safe work environment:With improved accessibility comes increased employee safety. Cantilever storage allows for a sturdy organized structure that is easy to load and unload reducing the risk for physical injury.
- Pair with automated systems:Cantilever racks maximize your vertical storage space through their ability to stack multiple levels high. This means that they can also be combined with automated product retrieval systems to ensure your warehouse is operating at maximum efficiency.
Choosing the Right Cantilever Storage
If your goal is to increase warehouse efficiency, cantilever storage is an excellent option to consider especially if you stock unusually shaped or cumbersome products.
While cantilever is not the one size fits all solution, it is an engineering marvel that improves accessibility, manages space effectively, and creates a safe work environment. Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc. has a variety of cantilever shelving systems. Contact us toll free at (855)969-4164 for assistance or if you have any questions about any of our storage systems.
