To maximize storage and selectivity, savvy warehouse managers are increasingly turning from traditional techniques like floor stacking and selective racks to advanced methods such as the pushback pallet rack, which offers up to 90% more product storage than selective rack systems and up to 400% more selectivity than drive-in racks. Yet, while warehouse facilities are significantly ramping up productivity and reducing operating costs with pushback systems, proper training is required to achieve full safety and effectiveness.
"Forklift operators used to static storage systems need to shift their thinking when using a dynamic pushback system," says John Calkins, vice president of sales at Meyer Material Handling, a national reseller and installer of material handling and storage systems with considerable experience in pushback systems. "While the upside of using a dynamic pushback system is huge, failing to do so properly can compromise safety and lead to product damage, forklift damage, and pallet rack damage."
Why Training Is Needed
Unlike static, single-pallet-deep selective racks, a dynamic pushback rack system allows storing pallets 2-5 deep while providing easy access to a variety of different SKUs. Pallets are stored behind each other in a series of nested carts and are loaded from the same side of the system, eliminating separate aisles for each function. Composed of a stable rack along with a series of inclined carts and rails, the system is designed so that when one pallet is pulled, the one behind it rolls forward.
To get forklift operators quickly up to speed on the key differences between traditional static loads and the dynamic pushback system, proactive warehouse managers are training staff with the help of a free Pushback System Safe Operating Procedures User Handbook, offered by Steel King Industries, of Stevens Point, WI. The pushback safety handbook highlights best practice procedures, and illustrates them with easy-to-understand graphics.
Shrinking the Learning Curve
"Using the safety manual should cut forklift operators' learning curve in half, while helping them operate more safely and productively," says Calkins, who's familiar with the manual and plans to use parts of it to train at pushback installations he's involved with. "It captures the best practices we've learned from years of experience. It covers the three main points that every forklift driver must master to get the most out of a pushback system: controlling the load when it comes forward; properly positioning pallets; and avoiding 'cross stacking,' or the placing of pallets on multiple carts."
Because most forklift operators are used to simply grabbing a static load and going, they need training to familiarize them with the proper, dynamic way to control pushback system pallet flow. To ensure safety and control, forklift operators must pick up the pallet and slowly back out of the system, controlling the speed of the remaining pallet loads in the lane. They must not pull the front pallet out faster than the rear pallets will flow.
Positioning a pallet load so that it's centered on the cart, with the forklift forks tilted slightly upward along the incline of the rails, is also important to get the safest, most productive use of a pushback system.
Though each pushback system cart is engineered to avoid cross stacking, forklift operators can inadvertently place a pallet on multiple carts. For example, if an operator places a load too far back on the first cart so that it is sitting on top of the back stop guide, the front of the cart is exposed, potentially allowing the next load to be placed on the exposed area. Cross stacking can also occur if an operator incorrectly places a pallet that is smaller or larger than a cart is designed to hold.
Employing a pushback pallet rack system and principles covered in the safety manual, Meyer Material Handling helped one wire-manufacturing customer implement a warehouse system that essentially doubled storage in about 60% less space, compared to a previous selective rack system, according to Calkins.
"That lowered long-term overhead costs, while enabling expansion possibilities," says Calkins. "Many pushback systems can generate ROI in just over two years."