Why Use Carton Flow Rack to Organize Your Space

Carton flow, also known as flow racking, roller racking and gravity flow, is a dynamic storage solution that can dramatically improve space utilization and order picking efficiency within a warehouse. Carton runners are essentially roller or wheeled conveyors. These conveyors are designed to create storage aisles within the pallet rack. These storage aisles use gravity to flow product through the racks to simplify replenishment and order picking.

How is a carton flow installed?

Most carton streams are designed to be added to new or existing pallet racking, most commonly to replace static shelving such as wire panels or flat metal shelving. Installing carton runners into pallet racking is relatively simple. Carton runners are cut to the appropriate size and, depending on your racking requirements, the carton runners are designed to sit between or on top of the pallet racking beams, creating flow-through racking. 

Why Choose Carton Runners?

When it comes to warehouse storage, space-optimized solutions such as carton flow racking systems can help order fulfillment operations, retailers and logistics providers speed up the order picking process. Carton Flow is ideally suited for facilities with case picking and/or per-pick operations. Before we look at the benefits of carton flow systems, understanding the differences between static and dynamic storage solutions can help operators choose the right product for their space.

Static Storage Solutions

Static storage is typically traditional pallet racking and shelving used to store products. They are designed to hold material on pallets in horizontal rows on multiple levels.

Static storage solutions are relatively inexpensive, which is why they are popular, but the labor to stock and pick from the racks is more extensive and requires more worker time. Forklifts are often used with this type of storage to place loaded pallets onto storage racks.

In addition to being low cost, static storage racks can be configured to go from floor to ceiling using a variety of shelves, from wire shelving to wood. With adjustable shelving, you can reconfigure, disassemble and reuse shelves elsewhere.

Static storage challenges

Static storage can create multiple pain points in order picking operations. Because product does not flow forward to the picking point, workers must spend extra time and effort retrieving product from the back of the shelf or storing the same product on multiple picking surfaces. This causes products to take up too much space, wasting space in static racks and leading to what we like to call "storage sprawl".

Storage sprawl has a negative impact on picker efficiency. Statistics show that workers using static storage methods waste 85% of their time walking around the warehouse and looking for product. If you have a static storage area in your warehouse, are workers wasting steps looking for items to pick?

Choose Us

When you're ready to get started on your carton flow project, just drop us a line and the experts at MAXRA will be happy to help you bring your carton flow design to life.