Pallet racking can be the ideal storage solution for your business – unless you get your layout wrong. Maximising the efficiency of your storage isn’t a difficult job, but it does take some thought and planning to get it right.

To give you an idea of what we mean, we’ve put together some of our best ideas for maximising your space with the ideal pallet rack layout.

Spend a Day in the Warehouse

To best understand how to maximise your storage space, you need to think about product flow. Spend a day in the warehouse to see how the product is moved around – ideally, all movement should have a forward momentum, with workflow in one direction. Back and forward motion wastes time and energy, decreasing efficiency and increasing the risk of injury. When you’re planning your storage, make sure that aisles are wide enough to be used safely.

Think Vertically

A warehouse often has a lot of vertical wasted space, so consider planning a mezzanine level to provide extra storage space. Even if you don’t need it now, it’s a useful piece of future proofing for when your business expands.

Go Old School with Graph Paper

Draw a scale plan on graph paper, using 1 square per foot/metre. Draw out your ideal layout and then mark in any obstacles like columns or low hanging pipes. Do it this way to change your layout as little as possible in practice – manage the obstructions, don’t let them manage you.

Maximise Your Space with the 5% Rule

If you start your layout on the shortest wall, place racks around the perimeter, create L shape racks or place an access aisle along a wall, you’ll lose 5% space each time. Commit all four of these errors and that’s almost a quarter of your square footage wasted. By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll maximise space and allow your forklifts to move easily around the warehouse to retrieve what they need. Keep your racks as long as possible and you’ll create an efficient, safe and usable layout.

If you’re looking for pallet racking in London, we can provide a storage system that gives you all the benefits of this system, particularly if you take the time to get your layout right. Just contact us for more details.