As ironic as it may sound, one of the best “bad” situations that a maturing business can face is declining productivity caused by too much growth. Pallets overflowing from racking, excess traffic congestion, and backlogs that never catch up are all symptoms of skyrocketing demand – what a problem to have!
Under these conditions, building new warehouse space is typically not realistic as it would take too long and divert too many resources that could otherwise help the business right away. What’s a better near-term investment to create extra capacity in less time and at a lower cost? Narrow aisle warehouse equipment.
Narrow aisle warehouse equipment includes models of forklifts and lift trucks that are designed to operate in tighter racking aisles than standard equipment. Where standard forklifts may need 13′ wide aisles, narrow aisle lifts may only need 8′ wide aisles. Using narrow aisle lifts, warehouses can relocate their pallet racking closer together and squeeze in more total racking positions overall.
In this way, narrow aisle material handling equipment is both an enhanced equipment option and an engineering design strategy, together able to trade traffic space for storage space to achieve greater storage density in the same footprint.
Styles of Narrow Aisle Material Handling Equipment (Compared to Common Alternatives)
To better understand how narrow aisle forklifts provide higher storage densities and tighter warehouse designs, let’s review the main styles of narrow aisle equipment alongside their standard aisle and very narrow aisle counterparts:
|
Forklift Type |
Average Aisle Width |
Description |
|
Sit-Down Counterbalance Forklift |
Standard Aisle 10′ to 13′ |
Standard seated forklift that requires plenty of space to maneuver (for comparison). |
|
Walkie-Stacker |
Narrow Aisle 8′ to 10′ |
A manually operated, walk-behind lift design that cuts the lift’s overall footprint; great for tight spaces and low volumes. |
|
Stand-Up Forklift |
Narrow Aisle 8′ to 10′ |
Smaller version of a standard warehouse lift where the operator stands instead of sits, which reduces the lift’s length and turn-radius. |
|
Single Reach Forklift |
Narrow Aisle 8′ to 10′ |
Variant of the above stand-up lift where the forks extend to pick and place pallets without moving the lift’s base, reducing truck movement space. |
|
Double Reach Forklift |
Narrow Aisle 8′ to 10′ |
Identical to the above single-reach lift but designed with deeper reach depths to work with double selective pallet racking. |
|
Order Picker Truck |
Very Narrow Aisle 5′ to 8′ |
A forklift design that raises and lowers the operator so that they can directly pick products by hand from tall shelves and racking. |
|
Turret Truck Forklift |
Very Narrow Aisle 5′ to 8′ |
Turret lifts are equipped with rotating forks that turn themselves (instead of the truck) to face, pick, and place pallets. |
|
Articulating Forklift |
Very Narrow Aisle 5′ to 8′ |
These lifts combine the format of a sit-down lift with the rotating forks of a turret truck, providing familiar operability in very tight spaces. |
It’s worth noting that there is no universal definition of narrow aisle widths across all the different forklift manufacturers, warehouse engineers, and third-party technical associations involved in the industry. Instead, there are multiple definitions out there that all look similar but are not identical.
In fact, you should recognize that the dimensions you come across are often defined for sales purposes instead of technical purposes, as OEMs like to distinguish their equipment models by sales categories using metrics like aisle width. Whenever you consider a narrow aisle design project or equipment purchase, you must triple-confirm that all published technical requirements are compatible with each other. Don’t rely solely on general phrases like “narrow aisle lifts”.
Maximizing Warehouse Space & Efficiency with Narrow Aisle Equipment
Now that you understand the theory of using narrow aisle lifts to trade aisle space for storage space and have an idea of the available lift equipment involved, let’s next review exact ways that you can deploy these concepts in your warehouse. Thinking that you’re trying to solve the “problem” of excessive demand as quickly as possible, we’ll focus on options that are quick to provide commercial returns.
- Perform a Warehouse Design Review – first things first, you’ll want to assess your existing warehouse space and inventory makeup for ideal improvements. This should include creating conceptual plans for racking layout, equipment specs, inventory positions, phasing, and budget details. Through this planning, you’ll arrive at the optimal layout and equipment selections to implement.
- Procure Narrow Aisle Equipment – next, you’ll decide on purchasing, renting, or leasing new narrow aisle warehouse equipment to match the plan above. Be sure to leave plenty of time for both operator and maintenance training before putting new lifts into service.
- Relocate Pallet Racking – relocating pallet racking is especially challenging in operating facilities, so we suggest that this is performed in multiple phases over time to minimize disruptions. Dismantle and reinstall racking into its new positions, while also adding additional racking as needed to fill freed up space.
- Increase Vertical Levels – narrow aisle lifts also support taller storage heights, so now would be the time to add vertical pallet levels to further increase storage volumes. If you are adding vertical capacity, remember to have your engineer check and replace existing rack members and components as needed.
- Refine Traffic Pathing – as you reconfigure your warehouse for narrow aisles, you can also refine your overall traffic control pathing to cut congestion and improve safety. Narrow aisle warehouses typically prefer one-way traffic, which adds immediate benefits in throughput alongside higher density.
Even better, you don’t have to completely convert your warehouse to narrow aisles all at once, or even at all. In many cases, a partial conversion to narrow aisles is all that it takes to relieve the burden of overflowing storage. No matter how you choose to deploy narrow aisle improvements in your facility, the increase in storage density and productivity will render operational improvements in no time.