Racking systems

Abstract

A racking system is one of several constituent parts of a warehouse system and can only be fully defined when all the other parameters of a warehousing operation are considered. It is totally dependent on what the user requires from the operational warehouse unit. At one end of the scale is a system that is ‘all things to all men’ and at the other end is a system dedicated to one customer with a fixed long-term requirement. Neither of these extremes is generally acceptable commercially and therefore the warehouse system becomes a compromise: in part tailor-made to suit individual customer requirements and in part with an eye to possible future changes. The more flexible the system is to cope with changing demands, the more effective it is. There is, however, always a cost penalty for this flexibility, be it in higher capital cost or lower operating revenue.