Shuttle Racks and A Few Thoughts on Drive-In Racks |
Posted: July 8, 2020 |
A drive-in rack or drive-through rack is an excellent solution for many businesses. However, there are times where a shuttle rack makes more sense in business. There are several reasons why a shuttle rack can be more efficient than a drive-in rack. In fact, there are many situations where a shuttle rack is probably safer than a drive-in rack based on the fact that humans make errors. A shuttle rack robot, generally, will not make errors unless it is in need of maintenance. Here are a few of the reasons that you may want a shuttle rack versus a drive-in rack in the paragraphs below. A drive-in rack and a shuttle rack are sometimes compared to each other in relation to efficiency. However, this is usually an unfair comparison. People want to compare them against each other because there is a lot of efficiencies built into either system. Both can use some form of movement not based around the work of a human person. The fact that this is true means that they are capable of doing a lot of work in a short amount of time. However, it does not change the fact that these two rack formats are completely different than each other. It would be unfair to judge one based against the capacity of another. A drive-in or drive-through rack is very popular in the warehouse industry. It is because a forklift can easily pick or remove products off a rack level and place them where they need to go very quickly. In fact, a lot of companies make use of this because of the efficiency of the style of rack. If you are a high-volume merchant then a drive-in rack makes a lot of sense. The only caveat to this is that you need to be very careful when using a drive-in or drive-through rack. Obviously, the smallest error can cause damage to your rack. Damage to your rack can become dangerous for your employees or yourself. The last thing you need in your business is for a shelf full of products to fall on you or your employees. A shuttle rack is similar to a drive-in or drive-through rack in that the picking and pulling of products are not accomplished by the exertion of a human's work. In fact, the work is done by a robot that is located within the rack. The robot is controlled, usually, by a remote and it picks out pallets are products of the rack level based on the inputs from the controller. Obviously, in most cases, the ability of the shuttle robot to move the product usually ends at the end of the rack. However, the use of the shuttle like this means that there is less danger for humans and there is less chance of damaging the rack from the unit itself. It is important to note that the use of either style of the rack does have a significant cost upfront. A regular pallet rack or selective rack tends to be much cheaper because they are easier to produce and they are far more common. In fact, you are more likely to find a selective rack than a shuttle rack or a drive-in or drive-through rack in the marketplace. Moreover, out of the shuttle rack in the drive-through rack you are more likely to find a drive-in or drive-through rack available as a used item. It is not usual to find that a used version of either style of rack is more expensive than a normal pallet rack, however. You must weigh the benefits of using a shuttle rack or drive-through rack against the use of a selective rack if money is an issue in your business. There is another issue that you should be aware of and that is a shuttle rack is capable of supporting a FIFO or FILO. The ability to control a shuttle through the use of a controller means that you can designate which pallet to pull forward. You can, subsequently, also reface the shelf as needed by moving the pallets around in order to get to the one they need or want. Therefore, it is faster than having your employee drive up with a forklift in most cases. The employee does not have to spend a lot of time moving the inventory around because the shuttle will do it without the extra movements of the forklift. Another factor to consider is that the shuttle rack works as long as it has energy. Therefore, it does not need work breaks and it does not need to stop unless there is some kind of malfunction. It can function through the day and the night as well. Of course, this is true as long as somebody is operating it. Therefore, it keeps your cost down because you will not have to spend as much on fuel and you can avoid possible litigation stemming from work injuries. Finally, something else to also think about is the adjustment of the shuttle rack. The answer to this is that pallet racks can be adjusted to the height that you need. Therefore, they are very flexible systems that can do just about any storage management that you find necessary. They can adjust to the situation of your business as needed. Subequently, a shuttle rack may be the right pallet rack for your business depending on your situation.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|