How to Use Long Span Shelving for a Smart Warehouse?
As storage capacity expands and product lines grow, it can be a challenge to store and account for medium and small-sized products efficiently. Typical shelving, or pallet racking, may not provide the flexibility, accessibility, or durability required for higher volume operations. This is where long span shelving comes into play, which offers a shelving system designed for the allowed fast, safe, efficient storage, picking and organization of products.
MEK Engineering’s Long Span Shelving is a heavy-duty racking system that provides a unique combination of strength, flexibility and simplicity that gives warehouses a solution to managing multiple SKU’s while maximizing the storage space of their facility and improving operations.
Here are some of the warehouse long span shelving benefits:
1. Accessibility to Every Product
One of the most common problems with regards to warehouse operation, is the speed to which warehouse workers can pick a small to medium sized product. Traditional shelving required moving other items or entering narrow aisles to access the specific product that was required, somewhat slowing operations down.
Long span shelving addresses this issue by providing easy, direct access to every unit load stored on a shelf. All SKU are apparent and easily accessible allowing for efficient management of the items in inventory while reducing the time it takes to specifically select units.
This especially applies to the warehouses with a large SKU breadth and split turnover, as units with high turnover and two SKU tot maximum accessibility will be in easy view and picking process.
2. Heavy Duty Load Capacity for Heavy Duty Applications
While most racking systems tend to focus on light and medium loads, operations in a warehouse on the other hand require storage solutions that relieve heavily laden products safely. MEK heavy duty long span shelving has built in load capacity to make it one of the strongest picking systems available.
This allows for an all shelving system on a multi-tier or mezzanine level neatly increasing square footage storage without taking up additional floor space.
3. Flexible and Customizable Design
No two warehouses are ever the same. Differences in racking and product types will change storage requirements considerably, within all industries. MEK Engineering long span shelving racks are designed for full application customization.
Adjustable beam levels spaced every 50 mm afford flexibility for shelf spacing, for storing products of different heights. The option of adding platforms to maximize height and storage is also available.
The design and assembly can be customized to fit any warehouse layout or operational demand. This flexibility ensures that the system can adapt as your business grows, making it a long-term investment rather than a temporary solution.
4. Easy-to-Use Assembly and Maintenance
When it comes to installation in your warehouse, downtime can be expensive for your operation. MEK Engineering long span shelving has been designed and laid out for success, meaning you can expect less downtime to get back to work, and to keep on working. The intent is to make the system user friendly, meaning you will not have to have special tools to adjust, add or modify your system.
The durable construction will also create less repair issues you would normally expect in a warehouse environment creating low effort maintenance for the life of the system in any size warehouse.
5. Best Use of Space
Every warehouse will have limited space, and inefficient use of the area will cost you time and money. Long span shelving allows you to maximize your use of the storage area in your warehouse, unlike most shelving systems.
Facilities can house multiple tiers, heavy loads with immediate access to SKUs (stock-keeping units), and one of the best efficiencies of density vs. access. All of which help you in product organization in your warehouse with turnover for your medium or smaller products, requiring storage, with all access.
If you can adopt a long span shelving system, think of your ability to store more goods, a greater inventory, without physically expanding your footprint to accommodate more goods being stored, it simply becomes a practical option for your storage solution.
Conclusion
For warehouses looking to create operational efficiency, improve the picking process, and expand the available storage options, long span shelving rack systems would be a smart and adjustable solution.
MEK Engineering offers heavy-duty long-span shelving options that provide your business with quality, adjustable, space-maximized shelving that can be scaled up to grow with your business and the unknown characteristics of warehousing.
Long-span shelving enables access to every item, accommodates the installation of multi-tier shelving, and can provide shelving units for the safe storage of medium and small SKUs. Long-span shelving from MEK Engineering is adjustable and customizable to allow for sufficient flexibility to grow and change with your business, easy to assemble, requires little maintenance, and ultimately, means little-to-no disruption to your business operations.
Start looking at the benefits of warehouse long span shelving installation today and start the journey towards a more functional, safer and better-organized warehouse.