Warehousing Solutions – The Steps and Stages of Warehousing Solutions

Warehouses are a crucial part of the supply chain. They ensure the smooth movement of goods and help maintain productivity levels for an organization. Warehouse & Distribution Management Systems (WDMS) are essential to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and to process the associated transactions. The new age warehouses require an application which is developed factoring the ground realities of a warehouse, complexities of the processes and skill sets of those handling the cargo.

Warehousing Solutions

The most crucial part of the warehousing solutions process is getting the planning part right. Planning is preceded by something that is even more important – information gathering. Different planners go about the process in their own unique way. The usual approach is to begin with architectural designs and figuring out physical aspects of the space that is to be converted into a warehouse, that done, designers gather other vitals such as moving in and out of products and associated facts. Equipped with the necessary information, the designers will then proceed to consider implementing the best design with the following things in mind:

• Building size requirements
• Lighting
• Health and safety
• Warehouse pace
• Special warehouse requirements such as cold or ambient storage
• Commercial and office space
• Cafeteria areas
• Toilets and change rooms
• Site security
• Inbound and outbound staging and vehicle loading

A draft design is then submitted for review and post approval, civil work commences. Some Warehousing Solutions will ask you to visit their warehouses and see live demonstrations of already operating solutions to get a feel of how their designs work and behave post implementation.

Steps post implementation

After the layout has been implemented, there should be a series of checks to ensure that the layout is exactly as defined by the approved drawings. Every item should be stored according to the overall plan and this should be checked to ensure the layout is correct. If there are errors, this could lead to picking errors or lost material within the warehouse. In case of errors which are not entirely unlikely, modifications to the design can be made with your suggestions. Regular checks are done at regular intervals to ensure that everything is working fine and without fail.

AS4084 – Macrack Pallet Racking & Storage Systems

Macrack Australia is fully compliant with the Australian Standard AS4084: 2012 Steel Storage Racking. ‘This standard sets out minimum requirements for the design, fabrication and erection tolerances, test methods, operation and maintenance of steel storage racking in the limit states method’.

‘Racking should be set up, operated and maintained according to the instructions of the racking manufacturer and be in accordance with AS 4084:2012 – Steel storage racking. It should be designed specifically for the size, shape and weight of the products being stored. Racking should also be compatible with the pallets and the material handling equipment used in the workplace. For example, aisle width should be matched to the turning circle of the forklift used for picking and replenishment. Any modifications should be checked by the original supplier/manufacturer/designer. If in doubt, seek advice from the racking manufacturer or installer, or a competent person with experience in racking design and construction’ – work safe Vic.

Warehouse Management Queensland

Other items that you must concern yourself with are racking inspections and audits. These are a recommended to be conducted every 12months by a competent person. This person could be your warehouse manager or someone from the pallet racking manufacturer. Third party racking inspectors can give safety audits, but are not allowed to provide signage or give weigh loadings on a racking system. If you receive a racking audit from a third party, you should go to the manufacturer for carry out of repairs and ‘safe work load signs’, otherwise the information is not accurate and non-compliant to the standard.

If you would like to have an overview of the standards AS4084:2012 Steel Storage racking, look on the Macrack website under ‘Safety and Standards’, where there is a downloadable PDF of VIC Safe’s guide to racking.

Alternatively if you would like to know more about AS4084: 2012 Steel Storage Racking, call Macrack and discuss the issues further with our highly trained and qualified staff. (07) 3343 9788

If you need a racking audit we are happy to help, and will be able to set up an onsite meeting with one of our auditors. (07) 3343 9788

Steel Storage Systems from Mackrack

Steel storage systems for warehousing are commonly called pallet racking or selective racking. Macrack are Australian manufacturers of such systems, and have been manufacturing in Brisbane for 30 years. We are 100% Australian owned and operated, and are very proud to be the only manufacture that has this title.

Most steel storage systems are for heavy duty storage of heavy items, such as pallets, furniture, wholesale goods. Macrack manufacture these as our core item and are very competitive in price. Our steel storage system has certain distinguishing features such as a Key-Hole punched face, Front strengthening rib, and return flange. These features make our frames extremely robust ensuring that our product won’t let you down, and hence we can offer our famous Lifetime Guarantee.

Steel Storage & Shelving Systems

All our steel is roll formed in Brisbane, Including our; Frames, Beams, Bracing, Runners this makes sure that our Steel Storage Systems are competitive in price and very hardy to daily use in the warehouse environment. Our steel is 350Mpa grade which is a higher grade of steel compared to what imported racking companies use. It’s because of this that Macrack’s product is trusted by our many clients and we can offer a lifetime guarantee.

At Macrack when we get asked to design steel storage systems for our clients, we can provide a vast amount of options and variations for consideration. Because no two companies are the same we carry a large variety of stock to suit almost any need. Furthermore, because we manufacture in Brisbane we can make custom items at the drop of a hat. Most people would assume that custom items would be more expensive that stock items, but this isn’t the case. We can and do produce custom items every day and keep them in line with our standard pricing structure. It’s because of this reason that our Steel Storage systems are one of the best and our clients keep coming back for more.

Pallet Racking Queensland – Macrack

Macrack specialises in pallet racking, often referred to as Industrial shelving or selective racking. Our Pallet racking is made right here in Queensland, at our manufacturing plant in Mt Gravatt. We are one of the few remaining pallet racking companies that still manufacture in Australia, unlike other companies who now manufacture overseas. This does not mean that Macrack is more expensive, in fact quite the opposite. We are extremely competitive and can be trusted, with our high quality of steel, unlike other imported product.

Macrack has been manufacturing pallet racking in QLD for over 30 years, we happily and readily supply all around Australia, for our large client base. Our reputation is based on listening to what our clients need or want and working around that, not forcing unsuited product onto clients.

Pallet Racking Manufacturers in Queensland

We work with a vast number of industries, and have great experience in working with various products and items. For instance; Liquids, corrosive material, cold store, explosives, outdoors, furniture, whitegoods, organic material, timber, wood, lumber, conduit, steel cables, sheet steel, copper cables, electronics, refrigeration, meat production, car parts, truck parts, machinery parts, food stuffs, plus a whole lot more.

When talking about industrial shelving Macrack can offer various grades of weight loads to accommodate all your needs. From the basic light duty shelving through to a couple hundred kilos per level, all the way through to a couple tonne. The variation and configuration is endless in regards to the amount of weight stored, the levels required and configuration of the pallet racking.

Macrack is a proud manufacturer of Queensland pallet racking systems, and we would be happy to take your call for extra details you may haveon our pallet racking, or to get a free no obligation quote from our sales department. Give us a call on (07) 3343 9788 to talk through the options for pallet racking, or visit the ‘storage systems’ link on our website.

Warehouse Management Queensland

Warehouse management is the art of movement and storage of materials throughout the warehouse. Warehouse management Queensland monitors the progress of products through the warehouse. It involves the physical warehouse infrastructure, tracking systems, and communication between product stations. Warehouse management Queensland deals with receipt, storage and movement of goods usually finished goods and includes functions like warehouse master record, item/ warehouse cross-reference lists and such things as on hand, allocated, transfers in process, transfer in process, transfer lead time, safety stock, and fields for accumulating statistics by location.

Warehouse Suppliers Queensland

A warehouse manager needs to perform several crucial functions such as overseeing and recording deliveries and pickups, loading and unloading materials and supplies, maintaining inventory records and tracking system, determining appropriate places for storage, rotating stock as needed and adjusting inventory levels to reflect receipts and disbursements. An individual handling the warehouse management needs to have knowledge about inventory control and warehousing systems, loading and unloading procedures, risky and materials storage and mathematical knowledge.

Implementation of Warehouse Management System (WMS) will provide you an increase in accuracy, reduction in labour costs if the labour employed to maintain the system is less than the labour saved on the warehouse floor and a greater ability to service the customer by reducing cycle times. WMS may not serve you with inventory reduction and greater storage capacity. An increase in accuracy and efficiency receiving process might lead to reduction in level of safety stock required. But the consequence of this reduction will hardly be visible to the overall inventory levels. WMS might just not affect the factors controlling the inventory levels.

 

How to Buy Wire Industrial Shelving

With all the different kinds of shelving on the market, it can be a challenge to figure out what would best suit your needs. The answer differs depending on what you are trying to store, where the storage is located, and your available budget. Whatever the case, we can almost guarantee that there is a wire Industrial Shelving solution for you.

Serving as lightweight residential storage, all the way up to heavy duty commercial freezer applications, wire shelving is as versatile as you need it to be. Not only are there a variety of styles to meet your storage need, but each unit is modular, allowing you to customize it as your needs change over time.

Industrial Shelving in Queensland

Types of Wire Industrial Shelving

1. Chrome: The most popular and versatile of all wire shelving styles, chrome can be identified by its highly reflective finish. Each shelf holds up to 800 lbs when evenly distributed. The finish resists scratches, marring, and other cosmetic damage, but is susceptible to rust, making it for indoor, dry use only.

2. Epoxy: Epoxy coated wire shelving usually comes in black, white, or green. The special finish is baked onto the steel, which allows this style to resist rust for up to 7 years. Epoxy shelves can be used in wet or dry environments. Since each of these shelves hold up to 300 lbs, they tend to be used in more residential spaces and small businesses.

3. Stainless Steel: In many respects, stainless steel is very similar to the chrome variety. It has a metallic look, holds 800 lbs per shelf, and is quite durable. The main difference is that stainless steel is entirely rust-proof; if the surface is damaged, the exposed steel will not rust. This style can be used outdoors, in humid areas, and in other corrosive environments.

4. Poly Brite: While epoxy coating is typically a bit weaker than other varieties of wire shelving, Poly-Z-Brite is the exception. Finished first with a baked on coat of epoxy, this style is then topped with zinc-chromate electroplating. This combination is guaranteed to resist rust for 10 years, has a metallic look, and can still hold up to 800 lbs per shelf.

Nexelon: Easy to spot, this Industrial Shelving is completely guaranteed against rust and corrosion for life. This has similar qualities to stainless steel, except without the price tag or the extra weight. Great for walk-in freezers, coolers, restaurants, and areas with high humidity. Holds up to 800 lbs per shelf.

 

How to Buy Wire Industrial Shelving

With all the different kinds of shelving on the market, it can be a challenge to figure out what would best suit your needs. The answer differs depending on what you are trying to store, where the storage is located, and your available budget. Whatever the case, we can almost guarantee that there is a wire Industrial Shelving solution for you.

Serving as lightweight residential storage, all the way up to heavy duty commercial freezer applications, wire shelving is as versatile as you need it to be. Not only are there a variety of styles to meet your storage need, but each unit is modular, allowing you to customize it as your needs change over time.

Industrial Steel Shelving Systems

Types Of Wire Industrial Shelving

1. Chrome: The most popular and versatile of all wire shelving styles, chrome can be identified by its highly reflective finish. Each shelf holds up to 800 lbs when evenly distributed. The finish resists scratches, marring, and other cosmetic damage, but is susceptible to rust, making it for indoor, dry use only.

2. Epoxy: Epoxy coated wire shelving usually comes in black, white, or green. The special finish is baked onto the steel, which allows this style to resist rust for up to 7 years. Epoxy shelves can be used in wet or dry environments. Since each of these shelves hold up to 300 lbs, they tend to be used in more residential spaces and small businesses.

3. Stainless Steel: In many respects, stainless steel is very similar to the chrome variety. It has a metallic look, holds 800 lbs per shelf, and is quite durable. The main difference is that stainless steel is entirely rust-proof; if the surface is damaged, the exposed steel will not rust. This style can be used outdoors, in humid areas, and in other corrosive environments.

4. Poly Brite: While epoxy coating is typically a bit weaker than other varieties of wire shelving, Poly-Z-Brite is the exception. Finished first with a baked on coat of epoxy, this style is then topped with zinc-chromate electroplating. This combination is guaranteed to resist rust for 10 years, has a metallic look, and can still hold up to 800 lbs per shelf.

5. Nexelon: Easy to spot, this Industrial Shelving is completely guaranteed against rust and corrosion for life. This has similar qualities to stainless steel, except without the price tag or the extra weight. Great for walk-in freezers, coolers, restaurants, and areas with high humidity. Holds up to 800 lbs per shelf.

 

Warehousing and Storage – Guidelines and Best Practices

Millions of dollars are lost each year in compensating for lost hours in avoidable physical injuries. Though most warehousing and storage facilities use automated machines to stack and remove crates and pallets from one location to another, workers nevertheless end up getting hurt because of one reason or the other. If you work at a professional and have been worried about getting hurt while working at a Warehousing and Storage here are some tips following which you can keep yourself safe from physical harm.

Caring For Shoulder and Knees

The shoulders and knees bear the most of the load your body lifts. Ignoring the condition of these two vital body parts can mean premature ageing and irreparable damage to the body which does not bode well for anyone whether or not they work at a Warehousing and Storage facility.

The key to safe manual order picking is to design your workplace and provide the necessary equipment, to ensure your employees are able to lift items from locations between shoulder and knee height at all times. This, together with ensuring the item is close to their body, is the optimal position when lifting. And can help significantly reduce the number of injuries. In addition to the height at which the load is presented to the employee, other risk factors include picking frequency, the weight of the object, the shape of the object and over-reaching.

Warehouse Supply in Queensland, Australia

Best Practices for People Working At Warehousing and Storage

• High volume picking and packing should be done predominantly by mechanical means
• Physical changes to workplace design, layout and plant are more effective than administrative controls to make the workplace safer
• High frequency picking and replenishing should occur within the Best Working Zone
• Heavy objects should be handled within the Best Working Zone
• No employee should be required to routinely pick, replenish, manually stretch-wrap or palletize objects above their head height

Where employees work at height, then the equipment used to raise them should provide close access to the objects at heights and help ensure protection against the risk of falls. Adequate access to objects should be provided when picking, replenishing, palletizing and stretch-wrapping – so awkward postures are minimized.

 

 

Warehousing and Storage – Great Economically viable options

Businesses plan their endeavours with great details, fussing around with the minutes of details and on seemingly farcical aspects of business, yet when it comes to warehousing and storage some businesses just seem to gleam over the matter.

Warehousing and Storage – Usual Confusions

Warehousing and Storage are commonly confused by people. Warehousing and Storage can be used for industrial or personal / business needs. It is a commercial building that is used for storage of goods and is usually located in an area that is not meant for personal use – usually industrial areas. Wholesalers, retailers, exporters, manufacturers, and transporters use Warehousing and Storage. Moreover, warehouses have loading docks too. Unlike the regular storage units, these warehouses have forklifts and cranes for loading and unloading bulk products. In fact, these warehouses come with climate-controlled facility to store perishable items.

Basic considerations

But storage is not the all and be all of Warehousing and Storage, it has to be flexible enough to provide additional space if required. You need to ensure in advance about who will accept responsibility for damages to the goods. This is the main factor that must be considered before signing any agreement with the warehousing and Storage Company.

Costs and prices

The cost of hiring Warehousing and Storage facilities for the warehousing purpose varies depending on the services that are needed. Storage facilities range from fully manual to semi-automatic and to even fully automated, where even the cranes and forklifts are controlled by computerized software. The level of material security increases with rise in the level of automation in the warehouse. It has a direct bearing on the rent of storage units. In addition to this, storing perishable items requires climate control, such as cold storage, and hence costs more.

In a nutshell, you as the business establishment need to consider all these factors and if necessary hire a professional warehouse systems manager to do the assessment done for you.

 

Most Popular Products Made By Pallet Racking Manufacturers

High quality pallet racking has become the de facto storage solution in all warehouses across the world because it suits all the needs of a warehouse and has come to be considered an essential part of warehouses everywhere. Several different types of pallet racks are present in the market today that you can pick from, here are 5 of the most common racking solutions designed and manufactured by Pallet Racking Manufacturers.

Adjustable Pallet Racking

Adjustable Pallet Racking is perhaps the most economical and popular form of pallet racking because it provides 100% selective storage up to 12.8 metres in height, fully utilizing valuable air space.

Double Deep Pallet Racking

Double Deep Pallet Racking is just another variation of adjustable pallet racking. In order to use these however would require the use of deep reach trucks.

Drive-In Pallet Racking

Drive-In Pallet Racking provide maximum storage capacity using the minimum amount of space. It is particularly suited to store very large quantities of homogeneous products. Specially designed racks drive down aisles and store pallets on to designated storage areas.

FILO racks

When space is lesser than what is necessary for a drive in pallet racking to operate, the second best option is FILO racks or what is also known as push back racks. Each pallet is colour coded in order to aid management and maintenance and depending on the system used the racks can be placed 5 pallet deep or more depending on how the storage area has been configured.

Mobile Pallet Racking Systems

Pallet Racking Manufacturers have had to cater to every sort of storage needs and one of that was mobile storage areas which have wheel bases and move around to the location of the pallet rather than the other way round.

The reason behind Pallet Racking Manufacturers coming up with so many options was to provide buyers enough alternatives to pick from.