How Does Pallet Flow Rack Differ From Selective Pallet Rack

The decision to use pallet flow racking over selective pallet rack doesn’t have to be difficult but should be made with proper preparation to ensure the best-fit system for your application.  The main similarities between the two pallet rack systems are that they both support first-in/first-out (FIFO) product rotation. and that they are supported by a system of uprights and crossbeams… but aside from that, they are vastly different. Here are the key system definitions, advantages, and differences to help you make the right system choice…

Pallet Flow Racking

Pallet flow rack systems are most commonly used for storing a large quantity of pallets of the same product or SKU.  Gravity wheel or roller lanes are mounted within the rack at a slight pitch leading away from the load, or charge end, toward the pick face.  As pallets are unloaded from the front of the system, the rear pallets gently glide forward to fill in the pick position.

Pallet flow racking is an excellent space optimization method because of its deep-lane capacity and easy access to all pallets from the pick face. Fewer aisles are required to store close to double the pallet positions, saving space and increasing productivity found in less travel time to load and pick.

Pallet Flow Benefits:

• Space optimization – double the storage capacity in the same      footprint

• Efficient storage of high volume/low SKU products

• Increased productivity with less travel time to load and unload

• Ideal for high-volume, case-pick applications – manual case selection from the front pallet position with reserve pallet positions in the queue behind

Selective Pallet Racking

Selective Pallet Rack certainly has its benefits and place in the typical warehousing design but the limitation of depth (max depth is two-deep) minimizes its usefulness in many high-throughput (low SKU/high-volume) scenarios.

Selective Rack Benefits:

• Affordable – reasonable investment and maintenance costs

• 100% access to all pallet locations

• Accommodates a large number of SKUs