Racking has become a very popular storage solution especially in the warehouse environment as a low cost solution for housing a range of different sized goods. 

However, at a second glance racking does not come without its disadvantages, and this traditional way of storing and retrieving goods deserves a deeper analysis, as more and more companies are looking at the total cost of ownership, and not just the simple purchase price of racking:

• Picking and replenishing times are slow; these can be improved by increasing the number of personnel - however, this comes at a substantial cost.   
• Labour intensive; non-productive physical activities - walking, bending, stretching and climbing all contribute to fatigue and inefficiences. 
• Low stock accuracy rates; racking is an open system - there is no security or protection for stored items - items are exposed to dirt, dust and for valuable items 'shrinkage' can be a major consideration. 
• Poor cubic utilisation of space; shelves tend to be set at a certain distance apart and not adjusted to suit different sizes of goods and packages - this leads to wasted space. 
• Space hungry; frequently over 50% of the floor space dedicated to storage of goods can be allocated to access aisles for forklift truck access.   
• High cost; forklifts (purchase/rental, petrol and maintenance) and drivers (salaries, training and health & safety) can be very expensive. 

Kardex offers a range of automated and dynamic Intelligent Storage Solutions that are much more effective than traditional racking and eliminate many of the above disadvantages associated with racking.  The benefits of Kardex's solutions, at a glance, are:

• 400% improvement in picking and replenishing productivity rates is quite often achieved. 
• Motivating and retaining staff, the goods to man principle inherent in all of the Kardex range reduces fatigue and error. 
• 99.7% stock accuracy levels are often the result of introducing dynamic storage solutions
• 80% floor space savings are often the statistics quoted to us by customers integrating Kardex units into their processes. 
• Return on investment calculations prove that typically we are working on an 18 month pay back. 

To investigate how Kardex's Intelligent Storage Solutions could benefit your organisation or for a FREE No Obligation Materials Handling Audit please complete the opposite Contact Form or alternatively call 0800 317326.