 Shelving installations serviced by order picking trucks are a well-known alternative to multi-tier installations. The advantage of this solution lies in the optimum utilisation of the available headroom. More-over, there is no need for the order picker to walk miles in the aisles: he is safely transported and lifted to the specific storage location.
Outstanding ergonomic conditions further improve picking performance. With all the relevant data fed into the memory of the order picking truck, the driver's seat is brought into the optimum picking position which means no bending and stretching for the order picker. Tasks like lifting, carrying and setting goods down are reduced to a minimum.
Investment into this technique is relatively low, as the facility - depending on the load capacities - is standard boltless shelving or bolted shelving with the "universal" beam suited for medium-weight duties.
All that is required to guide the picker trucks (in their version as independent vehicles) are guide rails on the floor of each aisle. Thus, one vehicle can work several aisles and can also be used outside the facility. More and more of today's picking trucks are equipped with inductive steering to ensure that the truck always keeps the right distance at the picking points.
Order picking installations of this kind are mainly used in warehouses which stock a broad range of items in small to medium-sized quantities with only little variation in the order picking volume. |
