6 Things To Consider When Choosing Warehouse Shelving

There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to warehouse shelving. Factors that will determine the type of equipment you will need — size, weight, capacity, and the overall layout of your warehouse play important roles when it comes to shelving. Let’s take a look at 6 things every warehouse manager has to take into account when choosing the right type of shelving.

What is shelving in a warehouse?

Shelving in a warehouse is both a methodology as well as a mechanism — it’s how you store your goods within your property. The purpose of shelving in a warehouse is to properly hold products, items, packages, and other goods in an orderly manner so that they can be easily located.

There are various types of shelving units that can be used in a warehouse.

It’s important to note the difference between warehouse shelving and warehouse racking. Shelving is mainly used for hand-stacked manual storage — items are picked and transported by your workers and stored in units, boxes, or special bins on shelves. Meanwhile, racking — primarily pallet racking — focuses on palatalized storage. Innovatory is loaded onto pallets which themselves are transported across the warehouse by various means, including with the help of forklifts.

Things to consider when closing the right warehouse shelving

Choosing the right industrial warehouse shelving for your business can be a daunting task. There are many different types of shelving to choose from, with a variety of features and price points. To make the process easier, here are some questions to ask yourself:

-What is the capacity of your warehouse?
-What type of products do you store in your warehouse?
-How much space do you have in your warehouse?
-What is the height clearance required for your shelving?
-Do you need any special features like adjustable shelves or doors on the shelves?

Each of these issues will determine what type of shelving you will need. Let’s look at each.

Safety regulations

Safety must always come first. Choosing the right shelving unit will play a big factor in your overall safety standards. Why? Because each unit only works for certain materials or products. By choosing a more affordable unit, regardless of its capacity, you are playing with your worker’s welfare. Units that can handle different capacities and weights can easily break, overturn, bend, or even fall over. Some regions even have standards regarding the type of shelving you can and cannot use in a warehouse. For example, in a commercial or industrial setting, wood, glass, or plastic-based shelves can’t be used because they don’t pass certain fire regulations.

Floor space

Your general layout will play a determining factor in the type of industrial shelving or adjustable warehouse shelving you should invest in. Remember, the key to getting the most out of your warehouse comes down in part to taking advantage of every square inch of it.

Size and weight of the materials

Ultimately one of the biggest factors comes down to what you will use the units for — what you will place and hold on to them. The size and weight of the materials your warehouse shelving is meant to store will help you in your choice.

Determine the type of shelving

There are many types of industrial and commercial warehouse shelving units

• Metal Industrial Shelving: used to organize smaller hand-loaded items. This is a versatile system that accepts all types of materials or various shapes and sizes.
• Boltless rivet shelving: This is an ideal solution for heavy metals. They are extremely durable and versatile and easy to reconfigure due to their nuts and bolts makeup.
• Bin Shelving: bin warehouse storage shelving contains numerous plastic receptacles on its shelves and systems. They are useful for smaller items and prevent products from either falling through the racks or rolling off the shelves.
• Mobile aisle shelving: one of the most innovative types of warehouse shelving, these units have a rotary handle on the side of the shelves. Once the handle is rotated it winds the single unit along rails, either connecting it to other units or giving you access to its interior.

Ability to customize

Warehouse shelving should be easy to customize — with a few simple tweaks, a user should be able to adjust the unit, open up space, change rack height, etc.

Easy to relocate

Shelving units should have a simplicity to them. They should be easy to move, relocate, and transport. This will also be important since it will determine the assembly of the unit — if the shelves have to be assembled or disassembled at the spot or if they can be built somewhere else and moved to their final destination.

The importance of choosing the right warehouse shelving for your company

Many different types of shelving can be used in a warehouse. Some shelves are designed to be used with plastic bins, there are shelves that use gravity to hold the weight of the items on them, and there are even shelves that can be mounted on walls. The shelving you choose will depend on what you plan to store in your warehouse and how you plan to move the items around. Choosing the right shelving for your company is an important decision. It can have a significant impact on your company’s daily operations — they will determine how you manage your inventory and how you better your operations.