What is a high-bay warehouse?
A high-bay warehouse is a warehouse with shelves, or more precisely a storage system with high-bay racks. It can have a height of 12 up to a maximum height of 50 metres. This results in a high space utilization and storage capacity for a few hundred to tens of thousands of pallet locations. High bay racking - also known as HRL - is usually a steel construction, but can also be made of wood in some cases.
There are different types of high-bay warehouses: For example, fully automatic high-bay warehouses in silo design, but manually operated racking systems and shelving systems are also possible. In between there are some other construction variants and forms. For example, one speaks of silo construction if the racking is designed to support both the roof and the facade.
Single-deep storage is usually used as the storage technique, since here, in contrast to double rack, access to the picking stations and thus the goods is possible directly. This is the most common principle of warehousing, since only one storage unit is stored in the depth of the shelves. This makes single-deep storage very suitable for automation, for example for an automated small parts warehouse (AKL).
What is a high-bay warehouse used for?
A high-bay warehouse is used for the storage of goods and merchandise. A distinction is made between long goods and flat goods. When storing goods on pallets in the pallet warehouse, care should be taken to make optimum use of space in order to utilise the full capacity of all areas.
How does a high-bay warehouse work?
The function of storing and retrieving pallets in a high-bay warehouse is provided by a warehouse management system (WMS) or warehouse management software. This system communicates with a material flow computer and controls the material flow including the conveyor technology, the storage and retrieval machines (SRM) and any other technology of trades within the building (hall or rack storage).
In each aisle between two rows of shelves there is both a storage and retrieval area. Here in the so-called pre-area of a high-bay warehouse, the goods are delivered and picked up by the stacker crane for putaway or deposited for retrieval.
Storage or retrieval is carried out by moving the stacker crane in longitudinal direction, e.g. on rails. Storage and retrieval machines can be controlled automatically or manually. S/R machines are operated manually when "person to goods" picking is carried out in the pre-zone. When "goods-to-person" picking takes place, the S/R machine is controlled automatically. In automatic operation, this part of the warehouse must be protected against access by persons by fences, light barriers, etc.
In the automatically operated high-bay warehouse, the movement of the individual load units to the forklift transfer points is carried out by the conveyor system. The conveyor technology also includes components such as chain conveyors, lifting tables, vertical conveyors or driverless transport vehicles. If the high-bay warehouse is operated manually, the frontmost first places in the racks are always reserved for the forklift transfer points.
Advantages
- Low use of personnel
- Optimal use of space and area
- Fast storage and retrieval of goods
- Direct access to individual pallets
- Easy adaptation to changed assortment of goods
- Several application and combination possibilities with other systems possible, especially for order processing at picking islands, such as Pick-to-Light, Voice Pickingetc.
Disadvantages
- Very high investment costs
- Extensive organization necessary even before commissioning
- Possibility of total failure
- High-bay warehouses can only be expanded to a limited extent
Conclusion
Although a high level of investment is required to implement this storage solution, high-bay warehouses have become indispensable in logistics and intralogistics.
The use and flexibility of different order picking systems and solutions, combined with a good warehouse management and material flow system, makes a high-bay warehouse ideal for warehousing and order picking.
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