Lift Truck Tips: Narrow aisles boost efficiency for smaller operations

When lift truck customers think about narrow aisle applications, the tendency is to envision massive, hyper-efficient facilities with picking at 400 inches, according to Bill Pfleger, president of Yale Distribution for Yale Materials Handling Corp.

“Many people think of narrow aisle and picture these huge facilities with tall aisles and sophisticated warehouse management systems,” says Pfleger. “But, it’s also possible to make a lot of space very quickly by adding just one additional layer of racking for storage or picking.”

Pfleger offers the example of a customer who traditionally used internal combustion lift trucks to stack product on the ground. They did not have any expertise in warehousing methodology, but they were looking at pushing through almost twice the product the following year compared to the current year. The solution included a shift to narrow aisles with second-level order picking. “It was simple enough to add a second level of racking in the 5- to 12-foot pick zone, and the customer was able to meet their expected growth.”

The key is to understand what’s changing and what a customer thinks will change in terms of volume and SKU profiles and the equipment needed to handle that, says Pfleger. “If there are minimal changes, customers are able to keep getting more efficient in their existing space. But in cases of significant growth and space limitations, narrow aisle equipment can provide real benefits, including increased efficiency and storage volume.”

In addition to storage efficiency improvement, some small-scale narrow aisle applications can also significantly reduce inefficient travel time. “Travel time is lost time in the picking business,” says Pfleger. “Significant losses in picking occur from travel time between picks and from the last pick to wherever the finished pallet needs to be transported.”

The transition from standard aisles to narrow aisles can turn a few feet of width per aisle into productive space. In very narrow aisle setups, subtle differences in the dimensions of equipment can enable a customer to even further optimize floor space, where every inch counts. An example is a customer whose use of a slightly thinner lift truck allowed them to add three more aisles of racks, amounting to a 2% increase in storage capacity. “That was huge for them, because it didn’t require a dime of brick and mortar to achieve the desired storage expansion,” adds Pfleger.

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