Once viewed as a commodity, storage rack systems have taken their rightful place in the warehousing world as specialized, engineered systems designed with worker protection and high productivity in mind.
Victoria Kickham, an editor at large for Supply Chain Quarterly, started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for Supply Chain Quarterly's sister publication, DC Velocity.
Storage racks are an essential part of any warehouse, their layout and design a considerable undertaking no matter what a facility’s size or purpose. As systems become more complex to handle growth in e-commerce and a generally faster-paced business environment, they are also taking on a higher profile when it comes to safety and efficiency. A poorly designed rack system can fail on many fronts, including potentially causing worker injury if it can’t properly support the items it’s designed to hold. A well-designed system, by contrast, can protect workers from the danger of falling items or rack collapses and also help streamline the flow of products through the facility.
“[Storage] racking went from being almost a commodity to now being highly engineered,” observes Arlin Keck, corporate R&D engineer for rack manufacturerSteel King, emphasizing worker safety as the main reason for the change. “Everything has evolved over time.”
Today, racking system designers must take into account a range of factors when planning a system, including the geographic location of the project, maximum pallet size and the weight of the items being stored, facility layout and design, and the customer’s preferred style or type of racking. Doing so allows designers to create the best possible system for the operation.
Here’s a look at some key considerations to keep in mind when designing or redesigning your storage rack system with an eye toward safety and efficiency.
DESIGN FOR EFFICIENCY
Designing a storage rack system begins with some important questions, according to Joe Rooney, vice president ofBaker Industrial Supply, a Texas-based supplier of retail and warehouse storage products. The process starts with an assessment of the type of facility you’re running—a retail operation, warehouse, manufacturing facility, or e-commerce distribution center, for instance—as well as the types of products being stored and moved, referred to as “loads.” Loads can include products stored on pallets as well as hand-stacked items and boxes. As an example, a typical eight-foot-long rack shelf usually has two pallets stored on each shelf; the combined weight of those two pallets and the product on those pallets makes up the “load” on that shelf.
This catwalk uses Hannibal Industries' TubeRack, which is designed specifically to withstand the dangers of seismic events, according to the company.
Next, designers must take into account various specifications and guidelines. Dave Olson, national sales manager for racking system manufacturerRidg-U-Rak, says designers must base their design on specifications from the Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI), an industry group within the material handling trade association MHI that provides guidelines and standards for storage racks. In addition, he says, they must ensure the design meets both local and international building codes.
Rooney adds that workflow is another important consideration.
“We also have to consider how [the customer] wants to move [the items]. For a distribution center, it’s about speed. For manufacturers, speed and throughput are not as important,” he explains. “Design has gone from ‘I’ve got this 48-by-40 pallet and I need to store 600 of them and put them on this wall’ to having more of a process. Today, we say ‘Let’s look at your space and see how you can effectively and efficiently move this material.”
Depending on the operation, that may entail a basic pallet rack design, or it may require racking that is part of an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). Either way, the planning and preparation begin with the same initial questions.
“The key thing for any rack system design is the customer’s knowing its product, the mix and usage of SKUs (stock-keeping units), and how it wants to operate its warehouse,” explains Olson, adding that designers and warehouse operators must also consider the type of material handling equipment used in the facility, the type of loads being handled, and the volume of product moving in and out daily. “The customer knowing his needs is critical to formulating the proper rack system and layout—that’s where you start.”
PUT SAFETY FIRST
Designing for safety means ensuring that your rack system will stand up to internal operational damage from forklifts and other material handling equipment as well as external threats, such as earthquakes or hurricanes. Both types of threats require attention in the early stages of design to ensure both an adequate and a safe rack system.
“If [you go] back far enough in the history of racking, racking was treated like an off-the-shelf commodity with few if any design or safety regulations,” explains Steel King’s Keck. “Today, racking is a highly engineered and regulated product with design and safety requirements listed in all state building codes.”
To meet those requirements, designers must account for all loading conditions, which include the size and weight of items being stored and moved, the complexity of the racking structure being used, and seismic conditions and the location of the racking itself (indoors or out, for instance). More complex racking structures can sometimes include a mix of different structures like pick modules, multilevel platforms, and stairways—all of which can affect the load on the entire system.
In addition to adhering to building codes, rack system designers and installers will often recommend extra safety measures to protect against other types of damage and injury. Special structures can help protect against internal damage from forklifts, for example. These can include a variety of rack column protectors, end-of-aisle protectors, free-standing guard railing, pallet support bars, beam safety locks, safety netting, load plaques (affixed to racks as a reminder of their load capacity), and so on. Wire-guided vehicles can help as well; these are very narrow-aisle (VNA) forklifts that use an electromechanical system to control steering. The system is guided by an energized wire secured in the floor. Such systems help boost forklift driver confidence in narrow aisles at increased heights, helping to reduce the risk of a forklift’s hitting and damaging the racking, according to Rooney.
Reinforcing racks to withstand external threats is trickier and can involve advanced rack designs. Today, designing for seismic conditions is a part of almost every project, explains Olson. Extra steps can include using base isolation systems, which help dissipate the seismic energy exerted on a rack system during an earthquake. Olson points to Ridg-U-Rak’s “Pellegrino” base isolation system as an example. The system includes a base isolation unit that is positioned between the upright frame and the floor. The frame is attached to the base isolator, which is in turn anchored to the floor, allowing the rack structure itself to move relative to the floor. The aim is to add flexibility and allow dissipation of the seismic energy exerted on the rack system during an earthquake.
“Designs that incorporate flexibility [are important],” Olson explains, adding that structures that can provide both flexibility and strength help the entire system to flex and move. Such design features can help keep racks from “shedding” their loads, a term used to describe items falling off of a racking system.
Tubular design structures are the newest innovation to add the flexibility needed to withstand seismic events. Andrew Kirby ofHannibal Industries created a product called TubeRack specifically to withstand the dangers of seismic events; he says it was designed to save lives and was inspired by the continuously changing building codes that make it hard for warehouse operators to meet both safety requirements and profitability goals.
“We needed to change something,” says Kirby, an engineer and 30-year industry veteran. “So we came up with a solution to use a system that is flexible yet capable of supporting [a system’s] design weight when displaced. The best way to protect yourself from an earthquake is to allow the product and the pallet racking to move together. That’s what kills people—falling product.”
“The best way to protect yourself from an earthquake is to allow the product and the pallet racking to move together,” says Andrew Kirby of Hannibal Industries.
TubeRack is made from structural steel tubing and is designed to support heavier loads with less steel on lighter slabs. Its modular design eliminates the diagonal braces that connect the front and rear columns of a traditional system, helping to dissipate the energy exerted on the racking during an earthquake. This creates a less rigid system that allows the entire rack to move and flex in the direction of the seismic waves.
“With TubeRack, we take out those diagonals so we add flexibility. We let [the rack] move in the direction that the load is applied,” says Kirby, using a simple example to illustrate his point: The force of an impact between two people walking toward each other down the street is considerably stronger than the force of an impact between two people walking in the same direction. Removing the rigid diagonal beam essentially creates the latter scenario.
“The difference is in how the energy is dissipated,” Kirby says, adding that TubeRack lowers the potential for product shed during a seismic event or impact by up to 70%.
Kirby says it’s also important to leave enough space between the racking and the building to allow for movement. Other seismic recommendations include storing your tallest and heaviest loads at or near the bottom of the rack and avoiding low-friction pallets, such as those made out of plastic, to keep things from sliding around.
INSPECT FOR DAMAGE
Regardless of the threat, experts point to regular inspection and repair of damage as an essential part of maintaining rack system integrity.
“Problems can be exacerbated substantially with damaged frames or beams not properly engaged and locked,” Olson explains.
Keck adds that forklift operators should report any impacts or damage to racking immediately to allow for inspection and repair. Such policies should be encouraging, not punitive, to avoid incidents going unreported.
“If someone damages a rack, they can’t be reprimanded all the time. You have to have a program that ‘eases’ the reporting of those incidents,” Keck explains. “Workers should be encouraged to report any damaged parts or missing hardware. At a minimum, a complete rack walk-through/inspection should be done once a year.”
Many companies will do more frequent formal inspections—quarterly or even monthly—but the experts emphasize that continuous monitoring by all warehouse or distribution center staff is important. On top of that, Kirby recommends conducting a complete re-evaluation of a system every three years to make sure it continues to be safe and meet a business’s changing demands.
In the end, it all circles back to safety.
“These things are important,” he says. “[You need to] safeguard the product, and by safeguarding the product, you safeguard the people.”
Robotic technology has been sweeping through warehouses nationwide as companies seek to automate repetitive tasks in a bid to speed operations and free up human labor for other activities. Many of those implementations have been focused on picking tasks, a trend driven largely by the need to fill accelerating e-commerce orders. But as the robotic-picking market matures and e-commerce growth levels off, the robotic revolution is shifting behind the picking lines, with many companies investing in pallet-handling robots as a way to keep efficiency gains coming.
“Earlier in this decade and the previous decade, we [saw] a lot of [material handling] transformation around e-commerce and the handling of goods to order,” explains Josh Kivenko, chief marketing officer and senior vice president at Vecna Robotics, which provides autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for pallet handling and logistics operations. “Now we’re talking about pallets—moving material in bulk behind that line.”
Kivenko explains that whether items are being packaged and shipped directly to a customer’s home address or moved as finished goods to a shipping bay for store delivery, those items are first moved in bulk in some way, often by human hands and with human-operated equipment. He describes warehouses as chaotic environments in which humans move pallets and cartons in multiple ways—up and down, side to side, from receiving to storage, from storage to shipping, or via cross-docking. Automation can help bring order to that chaos.
“What we’re trying to do is relieve some of the pressure [on the] humans [doing] this work,” Kivenko says of companies that develop pallet-handling robotic technologies. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to automate some of those flows, relieve labor pressure, save costs, and keep the goods flowing.”
But automated pallet handling isn’t right for every situation, so it’s important to understand the warehouse conditions required and the protocols and best practices needed to make it a win. Here are some guidelines for applying pallet-handling robots and gaining the most from your investment.
FIRST, UNDERSTAND THE TECHNOLOGY
Pallet-handling robots fall into four general categories, explains Rich O’Connor, vice president of storage and automation for Raymond West Group, a business unit of lift truck manufacturer The Raymond Corp. They include:
Palletizing/depalletizing robots, which are used to load or unload items onto and off of pallets, usually with the use of a robotic arm for picking and placing. Today, these systems are being increasingly integrated with automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) to further streamline pallet handling in the warehouse, O’Connor explains.
Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), which are used to transport pallets within the warehouse. Often outfitted with lift decks or conveyors, or designed to tug or tow items, these robots move pallets from point A to B within a facility. AGVs, which often follow a marked guide-path or wire in the floor, have been around for many years, but the advent of high-performance guidance and vision systems is allowing them more flexibility today, O’Connor says. AMRs are self-guided vehicles that use software and sensors to navigate their way through the warehouse.
Forklift AGVs and AMRs, which can move products both horizontally, from place to place, and vertically, into and out of storage racks. They come in various styles—including stackers, counterbalanced trucks, reach trucks, and even very narrow aisle (VNA) vehicles for use in densely packed warehouses. These vehicles are more complex than those used only for horizontal transport, O’Connor explains. They must be “highly integrated” into the facility’s warehouse management system (WMS) or warehouse execution system (WES) so that they know precisely where to retrieve and deliver pallets within the facility.
Robotic pallet shuttles, which move pallets into, out of, and within dense storage racking. The Raymond Corp. describes such a system as “a standalone, automated deep-lane pallet storage system that utilizes self-powered shuttle carriages to move pallets toward the back or front in a racking channel. Shuttles are motor driven and travel along rails within a storage lane.”
O’Connor and others say that no matter which of these technologies you’re investing in, it’s important to remember that they are all part of a larger system designed to optimize operations throughout the warehouse.
“The expanding role of all these different styles working together is what’s amazing today,” O’Connor says.
SECOND, ENSURE THE TECHNOLOGY IS A FIT
Kivenko, of Vecna, also emphasizes the importance of pallet-handling robots working in concert, particularly AMRs and AGVs.
“The magic isn’t just that the robots are autonomous and driving by themselves. The magic is multiple robots—when you have a [whole integrated] system [in place],” he says. “[It’s] how the fleet operates autonomously and optimizes itself for continuous improvement. That’s where the exponential gains are. [It’s] not just about automating what a worker does; it’s about automating a system.”
But you can’t install these systems in just any warehouse and expect magic. Kivenko and others point to certain conditions that enable the best robotic pallet-handling outcomes, especially when it comes to transportation-based and forklift-type AMRs and AGVs.
“The robots that I sell are large-load machines with very expensive technology,” Kivenko explains. “They move material, generally, in larger facilities. And in order for them to produce a return [on investment]—because that’s the name of the game here—they have to be higher-velocity facilities.”
He says pallet-handling robots work best in large facilities running multiple shifts, usually more than five days a week. Wider aisles allow the equipment to move more freely through the facility and at higher speeds, to optimize efficiency and productivity. Strong Wi-Fi networks and clean, dry environments also help keep equipment running at top performance.
O’Connor agrees that pallet-handling robots are best suited to facilities with multishift operations, where they can ease labor constraints and boost productivity. And he says many customers are willing to extend the typical two- to three-year ROI period to five years in order to achieve those gains. But there is even more to it than that. O’Connor’s colleague John Rosenberger says customers must first step back and analyze their processes to ensure that, even if they have the right facility for pallet-handling AMRs or AGVs, they are moving material in the most efficient way to begin with.
“Many times, we find that the processes in place [are inefficient],” says Rosenberger, who is director of iWarehouse Gateway and global telematics for The Raymond Corp. He emphasizes the importance of analyzing existing data—from an equipment telematics system or similar—to determine the best path toward automation.
“Do you have congestion zones now?” he asks. “They’ll still exist if you automate [those processes exactly].”
THIRD, MAKE SIMPLICITY A PRIORITY
Another basic rule of thumb when implementing pallet-handling robotics: Keep it simple.
Andy Lockhart, director of strategic engagement for global warehouse and logistics process automation company Vanderlande, says that when designing a pallet-handling robotics system, “you want to minimize the processes you [automate]. When you can create [an automated system] that focuses on one task—for example, AMRs delivering pallets from a high-bay [storage rack] directly to the palletizing cell—you can do that efficiently and effectively. When you ask the AMR to do this and this and this … you are adding risk of failure.”
Lockhart’s colleague Jake Heldenberg advises customers to first test their target processes via pilot programs within the warehouse or DC. Heldenberg is Vanderlande’s head of solution design, warehousing, North America.
“If AGVs or AMRs for pallet handling are interesting [to a customer], the best thing to do is pilot one or two in an existing DC,” he says, explaining that the process can help companies troubleshoot, understand integration timelines, and gauge ROI. But pilot programs can add expense to a project, making it unaffordable for some.
“If that’s the case, then the best advice is work with a vendor who has experience integrating [the technology],” Heldenberg says. “Use their experience to benefit your business. You won’t have the same hiccups and challenges you would with a less-experienced vendor.”
“While there have been some signs of tightening in consumer spending, September’s numbers show consumers are willing to spend where they see value,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in a release. “September sales come amid the recent trend of payroll gains and other positive economic signs. Clearly, consumers continue to carry the economy, and conditions for the retail sector remain favorable as we move into the holiday season.”
The Census Bureau said overall retail sales in September were up 0.4% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 1.7% unadjusted year over year. That compared with increases of 0.1% month over month and 2.2% year over year in August.
Likewise, September’s core retail sales as defined by NRF — based on the Census data but excluding automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants — were up 0.7% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.4% unadjusted year over year. NRF is now forecasting that 2024 holiday sales will increase between 2.5% and 3.5% over the same time last year.
Despite those upward trends, consumer resilience isn’t a free pass for retailers to underinvest in their stores by overlooking labor, customer experience tech, or digital transformation, several analysts warned.
"The 2024 holiday season offers more ‘normalcy’ for retailers with inflation cooling. Still, there is no doubt that consumers continue to seek value. Promotions in general will play a larger role in the 2024 holiday season. Retailers are dealing with shrinking shopper loyalties, a larger number of competitors across more channels – and, of course, a more dynamic landscape where prices are shifting more frequently to win over consumers who are looking for great deals,” Matt Pavich, senior director of strategy & innovation at pricing optimization solutions provider Revionics, said in an email.
Nikki Baird, VP of strategy & product at retail technology company Aptos, likewise said that retailers need to keep their focus on improving their value proposition and customer experience. “Retailers aren’t just competing with other retailers when it comes to consumers’ discretionary spending. If consumers feel like the shopping experience isn’t worth their time and effort, they are going to spend their money elsewhere. A trip to Italy, a dinner out, catching the latest Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds films — there is no shortage of ways that consumers can spend their discretionary dollars,” she said.
Editor's note:This article was revised on October 18 to correct the attribution for a quote to Matt Pavich instead of Nikki Baird.
A real-time business is one that uses trusted, real-time data to enable people and systems to make real-time decisions, Peter Weill, the chairman of MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), said at the “IFS Unleashed” show in Orlando.
By adopting that strategy, they gain three major capabilities, he said in a session titled “Becoming a Real-Time Business: Unlocking the Transformative Power of Digital, Data, and AI.” They are:
business model agility without needing a change management program to implement it
seamless digital customer journeys via self-service, automated, or assisted multi-product, multichannel experiences
thoughtful employee experiences enabled by technology empowered teams
And according to Weill, MIT’s studies show that adopting that real-time data stance is not restricted just to digital or tech-native businesses. Rather, it can produce successful results for companies in any sector that are able to apply the approach better than their immediate competitors.
“ExxonMobil is uniquely placed to understand the biggest opportunities in improving energy supply chains, from more accurate sales and operations planning, increased agility in field operations, effective management of enormous transportation networks and adapting quickly to complex regulatory environments,” John Sicard, Kinaxis CEO, said in a release.
Specifically, Kinaxis and ExxonMobil said they will focus on a supply and demand planning solution for the complicated fuel commodities market which has no industry-wide standard and which relies heavily on spreadsheets and other manual methods. The solution will enable integrated refinery-to-customer planning with timely data for the most accurate supply/demand planning, balancing and signaling.
The benefits of that approach could include automated data visibility, improved inventory management and terminal replenishment, and enhanced supply scenario planning that are expected to enable arbitrage opportunities and decrease supply costs.
And in the chemicals and lubricants space, the companies are developing an advanced planning solution that provides manufacturing and logistics constraints management coupled with scenario modelling and evaluation.
“Last year, we brought together all ExxonMobil supply chain activities and expertise into one centralized organization, creating one of the largest supply chain operations in the world, and through this identified critical solution gaps to enable our businesses to capture additional value,” said Staale Gjervik, supply chain president, ExxonMobil Global Services Company. “Collaborating with Kinaxis, a leading supply chain technology provider, is instrumental in providing solutions for a large and complex business like ours.”
However, that trend is counterbalanced by economic uncertainty driven by geopolitics, which is prompting many companies to diversity their supply chains, Dun & Bradstreet said in its “Q4 2024 Global Business Optimism Insights” report, which was based on research conducted during the third quarter.
“While overall global business optimism has increased and inflation has abated, it’s important to recognize that geopolitics contribute to economic uncertainty,” Neeraj Sahai, president of Dun & Bradstreet International, said in a release. “Industry-specific regulatory risks and more stringent data requirements have emerged as the top concerns among a third of respondents. To mitigate these risks, businesses are considering diversifying their supply chains and markets to manage regulatory risk.”
According to the report, nearly four in five businesses are expressing increased optimism in domestic and export orders, capital expenditures, and financial risk due to a combination of easing financial pressures, shifts in monetary policies, robust regulatory frameworks, and higher participation in sustainability initiatives.
U.S. businesses recorded a nearly 9% rise in optimism, aided by falling inflation and expectations of further rate cuts. Similarly, business optimism in the U.K. and Spain showed notable recoveries as their respective central banks initiated monetary easing, rising by 13% and 9%, respectively. Emerging economies, such as Argentina and India, saw jumps in optimism levels due to declining inflation and increased domestic demand respectively.
"Businesses are increasingly confident as borrowing costs decline, boosting optimism for higher sales, stronger exports, and reduced financial risks," Arun Singh, Global Chief Economist at Dun & Bradstreet, said. "This confidence is driving capital investments, with easing supply chain pressures supporting growth in the year's final quarter."