The choice of the type of forklifts operating in the warehouse storage area is a very important element, both in the process of designing a new warehouse and during a technological audit of an existing warehouse. The type of trucks used has an impact on spatial parameters (height of storage racks, width of working aisles Ast and cross aisles Au) as well as on the technological and organizational parameters of the warehouse.
A multifunctional (system) forklift (English: multifunction very narrow aisle truck – VNA truck) is a device used for the horizontal and vertical transport of load units, as well as for order picking in the storage area. It should be noted, however, that the multifunctional nature of the device in question may cause problems in determining its operating parameters. Also, the random nature of order contents and load placement in the
picking area may require the use of special methods when dimensioning technological processes carried out by a multifunctional forklift [2].
The most important premises for using multifunctional forklifts in distribution warehouses are:
1) a narrow working aisle (the width of the working aisle Ast is 1.45 – 1.80 m for various models of this truck), allowing for a significant increase in the utilization of warehouse area and volume compared to the use of other types of trucks,
2) the possibility of using this type of truck both for handling storage in racks and for picking,
3) the possibility of replacing high labor costs with lower costs using a multifunctional truck.
In the case of an existing and operating distribution warehouse, changing the rack layout and reducing the width of the working aisle is done relatively rarely (due to economic and organizational difficulties). Therefore, the case of introducing a multifunctional truck into an existing distribution warehouse as an additional means of transport and picking without changing the existing rack layout should be considered.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2006.