Push Back Rack for Food Distribution – A Case Study

Solution at a Glance:

Concern: Inefficient and Unsafe Storage System for Production and Distribution of Cheese

A producer and distributor of cheese needed to upgrade their warehouse storage system due to inefficiencies and safety concerns found within the layout of their facility.

The company distributes pallets of semi-finished goods to a dairy plant across the street to finish the cheese production process. They then bring back the finished cheese to consolidate and ship to their customers. Orders consist of multiple pallets of the same SKU.

The company’s warehouse used drive-in racking to store some pallets of products. Although drive-in rack provides high density storage and is often used for storage of products that require large, one-time moves, it was proving to be a safety risk for the products and employees. Because the forklift driver must drive into the system, retrieve the pallet, and then back out of the system, the uprights were constantly being damaged. This required the company to frequently repair the uprights, which was costly. Additionally, driving all the way into the system and backing out for each pick was causing longer pick times per pallet.

The remaining pallets of products were being stacked on the floor. Although this avoids the cost of building a rack system, the highly inefficient nature of this method is costly in terms of insufficient pick rates, elevated pick errors, and lower throughput.

The company wanted to update their material handling operation and improve the layout of their facility. Their goal was to increase the safety and efficiency of the warehouse, so they reached out to REB for assistance.

Solution: Push Back Rack for Operational Improvement

REB assessed the company’s layout and workflow to find the solution that best fits their needs. Due to the nature of their products they have a defined timeframe for shipping based on production and expiration dates. Additionally, the company ships multiple pallets of the same SKU simultaneously. Therefore, they need a material handling system that supports quick picking of several pallets of the same SKU at once.

Since they ship SKUs of products with the same expiration date concurrently, a first-in, first-out (FIFO) storage solution was not necessary. Instead, the company preferred the last-in, first-out (LIFO) storage capabilities of the drive-in racking. This, in conjunction with the operational inefficiencies that were highlighted in REB’s assessment, showed that the drive-in racking’s storage density and inventory management capabilities could be achieved with a safer and more efficient push back system.

REB designed 5 and 6-deep push back systems to replace the drive-in racking and floor stacking. Push back seamlessly fit into their operation since the company does not need to change how their pallets are stored and picked, thus improving their already familiar process.

Push back rack utilizes the warehouse cube to reduce required aisle space. It consists of carts that move along inclined rails. Each pallet is loaded from the front of the system onto a cart. Using the next pallet, the first is slowly pushed until it is aligned with the next available cart. When the front pallet is unloaded, the next pallet utilizes gravity to glide to the front position for picking. This makes it a dense and efficient storage method with LIFO product flow.

Push back rack provides density and efficiency for storing and distributing multiple pallets of the same SKU simultaneously. This is accomplished by placing each group of pallets with the same SKU in the same 2-6 pallet deep lane.

Solution: Comprehensive Project Management Services

After the design received approval, the REB project manager managed the project from beginning to final walkthrough. The project manager’s responsibilities included:

Outcome: Increased Efficiency, Storage Density, and Safety

The new material handling system has several positive effects on the company’s distribution operation. These include:

Higher density: Adding racking to the floor stacking area allows the company to store more pallets vertically than what is possible with floor stacking, thus shrinking their storage footprint and allowing for growth.

Increased pick rates: Products that were previously stacked on the floor are now organized within designated push back lanes, drastically decreasing the time it takes employees to locate all pallets needed for a pick. Additionally, the gravity flow characteristic of push back rack makes each pallet readily available in the front picking aisle of the system, as opposed to driving into the racking system and backing out to retrieve each pallet.

Higher throughput: The increase in pick rates and storage capacity allows the company to distribute more pallets to the dairy for processing as well as receive and distribute higher rates of finished cheese products to consumers.

Increased safety: No longer driving a forklift truck in and out of the rack system for every pick decreases the occurrence of rack damage from forklifts hitting the uprights. This provides a safer environment for employees and stored products. Additionally, floor stacking can be dangerous, since pallets are resting on top of each other instead of on a rack system engineered to hold the weight of each pallet. The new system removes that hazard.

How You Can Increase Efficiency and Safety in Your Facility

If you need a new storage system to improve your operational efficiency, contact REB today.

Our dedicated team of material handling experts will work with you to provide a solution that will optimize your distribution operation. We are highly experienced in identifying inefficiencies and implementing improved systems.

We’d appreciate the opportunity to help you further, whether that be more information or a quote. Fill in the contact form on this page or call us at (800) 252-5955 to get in touch with a REB representative.