Warehouse racking is a huge investment for any business, and like most expensive purchases (cars, houses and so on) it requires maintenance to keep it not only in good condition, but safe, and to keep it performing the way it did when you originally bought it.

There are many ways for racking to weaken over time. In our experience, the most common cause comes from mistreatment of the racking. Stories we hear frequently are things like forklift incidents not being reported, incompetent employees who require additional and ongoing training and miscalculations on load ratings, resulting in overloading of the racking.

The consequences for not investing the time and money to look after your pallet racking can be at best, annoying, and at worst, a huge cost to the business. At the very worst, in can result in injury or death.

So what can you do to ensure you, your staff and your business stays as safe and productive as possible?

The terms 'small' and 'warehouse' are not often seen together but every now and then we find ourselves believing we have outgrown our warehouse workspace. This can happen for many reasons, such as large amounts of stock arriving all at once, slow periods, holiday periods or over ordering on stock.

But often, a warehouse can feel small simply because we are not using the space as effectively as we could be. This article will focus on what happens when we use warehouse space poorly, what we can do to avoid it and changes we can make to ensure we don't make the same mistakes again.

To get the right answers I asked our very own warehouse team the question 'what conditions make you feel like your workspace is too small?' and this is what they came up with.

Warehouse storage systems are a huge investment for small and large businesses alike, so it is important you take the time to research all options that are available.

Some questions to ask yourself before deciding on a racking system are:

• How much floor space do you have available?
• How many different product lines/SKU's will be stored in your warehouse?
• How frequently do you need to access the pallets?
• What type of forklift does your business own? Are you willing to upgrade your forklift if it means a more productive racking system for your business?
• Are the storing perishable products, or product that expire? This will assist in choosing a FIFO or LIFO system (see explanation below)
• How many pallets/storage spaces do you require?

Why should I choose a raised storage area?

Making the decision to change your warehouse or distribution centre can be daunting, and so can the process. In this article we discuss what raised storage areas do, why you would consider installing one and what kind of mezzanine floor is right for your business.

Take a look at one of our recent jobs completed in Dandenong.