Advanced Guide to Carton Flow Racking

While this guide is meant to assist you in choosing your rack, it is still beneficial to consult with one of our professional solutions specialists. They have been working with this material every day for years and are aware of ALL the tips and tricks concerning carton flow racks. Please feel free to call us at 800-598-5532 to discuss your planned layout.

Carton Flow Racking

Put simply, the main advantage of carton flow rack is that merchandise remains better organized and easier to find/pick. With carton flow rack, the product is automatically rotated on a first in first out basis. The concept is simple and effective. Merchandise is stocked in the rear of the carton flow rack and moves toward the picking station in front on an inclined shelf equipped with specially designed roller track. When a carton is removed from the picking station, the next one in line rolls to the front. Carton flow is a great system that always keeps items within reach. Inventory is easier to monitor and control since products are fully visible at all times.

Restocking and picking typically offer the greatest opportunity for improving efficiency. With carton flow rack systems labor savings of up to 75% can be realized almost immediately. Because items are picked from the front and stocked from the rear, both functions can be performed without interference and with minimized travel.

In a static storage system such as standard shelving, the stockers and pickers are often doing a lot of unnecessary work, leading to decreased productivity. Although the static storage systems may be less expensive in the short term, in the long run they can cost you more than they initially save, especially compared with a flow rack system.

Carton Flow Rack Components

Like pallet rack, carton flow rack is modular and consists of many individual components. Units can be strung together utilizing ‘starter’ and ‘adder’ sections to create entire rows of carton flow storage. There are also several distinct types of carton flow frames and shelves that can be utilized in a variety of situations (see figure 11).

The most common types of carton flow frames are square front and layback. Square front carton flow frames are useful for picking full cases. Applications include canned goods, liqour, parts, etc. Layback carton flow frames are useful when picking from open cases. Applications may include health & beauty products, books, or other situations where the cases are differently sized. Another advantage to layback frames is that it is easier for workers to access the middle and lower shelves. This is typically where you’d store your highest turnover merchandise, thus creating faster and more efficient picking.

There are also several different types of carton flow shelves that assist in different picking applications. Straight shelves are the most common type of carton flow shelf, and are most commonly used when picking full cases. Knuckled shelves are the second most common carton flow shelf type and are useful for picking individual items from the cartons. Weld-in trays are similar to knuckled shelves but provide a larger access space from which to pick items. Finally, reverse knuckled shelves are useful for split case picking when the items are picked from the front of the cartons.

Roller track is at the heart of carton flow rack’s operation. It is on these tracks that the actual product (in cartons) rolls forward towards the front of the rack. Typically, these rollers are used in pairs to form ‘lanes’ in each carton flow shelf. These lanes keep similar products seperated. Shelf guides work with the roller track to keep product seperated. The guides are placed between laned to keep products rolling in their specific lanes so they do not cross over into other lanes on the carton flow shelves. Carton flow clips hold the carton flow shelves to the frames. Some of these clips can also be used with regular pallet rack frames to allow you to create a mix of carton flow rack and pallet rack in the same vertical space.

Static vs. Dynamic Storage Systems

Figure 9 shows a very clear comparison between static and dynamic racks. In the static system, the stockers and pickers are taking far more steps than are necessary to accomplish their tasks. They may not always take the most efficient path to the product and they will almost certainly get into each others’ way at some point. In the dynamic system, the first thing to notice is that both the stockers AND the pickers have much less distance to walk. This allows them to concentrate on stocking and picking and will allow them to get more work done. Also notice that in the same amount of space that was designated for static storage there is far more storage space available because the space is used much more efficiently. Since stocking and picking operations are now seperate, neither worker will interfere with the others’ work.

Pick Modules

Carton Flow Rack can be used either as free standing units or as part of a system in conjunction with conveyor, static storage, and multi-level mezzanines. A typical pick-module layout is shown here in a cutaway view. This multilevel system consists of two facing rows of carton flow rack with conveyor running down the middle. Pallet Rack is placed behind the carton flow aisle for restocking. The conveyors are used for staging orders, take-away for finished orders, and also to haul away empty cartons.

In an alternate version of this layout, (see figure 10, Layout 1) pallet rack can be placed over the rear of the carton flow rack, offering additional storage directly above the carton flow rack. To support the additional weight, pallet rack posts replace the standard carton flow posts and beams are substituted for sway braces. Pallet storage over the flow storage can also be used to achieve two and three tier storage systems.

Figure 10, Layout 2 shows a combination of pallet rack and carton flow supplying product of varying volume to pickers at a central conveyor aisle. Orders move away from the flow rack and enable pickers to continue order selection.

Figure 10, Layout 3 demonstrates a layout where fast moving items are stored on main picking aisles for easy access and maximum picker productivity. Restocking occurs from the center aisle without interrupting order picking flow.