Wide aisle pallet racking is also referred to as ‘conventional aisles’ and the system is widely used to store palletised goods. Usually, this type of racking is used for warehouse and/ or industrial pallet racking.
Within the system, each aisle is seen as a ‘path’ between the pallet racks that allows workers to effectively move around the systems.
Advantages of wide aisle racking
There are many benefits to installing a wide aisle racking system into your warehouse, some of which include:
- Allows easy access for a wide range of handling equipment
- Offers improved safety
- Durable but cost-effective
Disadvantages of wide aisle racking
Along with advantages, wide aisle racking comes with disadvantages. Below we discuss a variety of disadvantages:
- May take up a large proportion of your warehouse due to the space required for the racking
- You may need to compromise additional space to allow free movement for the forklift to operate correctly and efficiently
Narrow aisle racking
A type of narrow aisle racking that many racking companies offer is VNA racking. VNA stands for very narrow aisle racking and is widely used to maximise the space available in smaller warehouses. Usually, these systems are either 1.5 or 1.6 metres wide. Due to this, they free up approximately around 45% of floor space.
Benefits of installing narrow aisle pallet racking
Just like wide aisle racking, there are many advantages to installation narrow aisle racking in your warehouse. Many benefits are listed below:
- Allows you to have access to all pallets on system
- High throughput speed
- Offers up to 45% space utilisation
Disadvantages of narrow aisle racking
As of everything, VNA racking has a range of disadvantages including:
- Special trucks are required to operate the system
- The trucks are also not functional outside of the racks