Because warehouse performance is all about bottom line results, understanding the facts and figures behind the benefits of very narrow aisle forklifts – and the aisles they work in – is an essential.
Our quick-read guide reveals some must-see details and also explains where to find help to make your warehouse work harder for your business. Let’s take a closer look….
Very Narrow Aisle Forklifts and Aisle Widths 101 – What You Need to Know
If you’ve been researching VNA forklift trucks you’ll know about their exceptional ability to work with very narrow aisle pallet racking to increase the capacity of a warehouse.
Why? Because more pallet racking can be used in a storage unit thanks to the narrow aisles there’s no need to find more warehouse space simply because the existing capacity has been used in a better way.
To see how this works in practice we’ll answer some questions we often hear from businesses who are assessing the benefits of very narrow aisle forklifts and racking:
• What is the width of a forklift? While larger forklift trucks can take up a considerable amount of space due to a width of over 2.4m, a very narrow aisle forklift truck can be as little as just over 1.3m wide. This makes a huge difference to the way valuable warehouse floor space can be used.
• What is the minimum aisle width for a reach truck? Thanks to the tighter turning ability of a reach truck a very narrow aisle figure of 1.6m is achievable. You can even access free help to optimise your racking layout to take advantage of this narrow aisle benefit is even available.
• How wide should warehouse aisles be? It’s simple: to unlock as much capacity as possible and increase warehouse efficiently an aisle should, of course, be as narrow as possible. While a traditional, sit-down counterbalanced forklift will need at least 3.6m to operate an Aisle Master VNA forklift will allow an aisle as narrow 1.6m and up to 15m tall.
• What is the most common aisle width? Many warehouse aisles are 3.5m to 4m wide, however often the more modern warehouses who have worked with Aisle Master have switched to around 1.6m after optimising their storage capacity and racking. This is because a finite amount of available space means businesses have worked hard on their warehouse performance to find ways to drive better results without expanding their floorspace.
• How wide should a pedestrian walkway be in a warehouse? Depending on your location, this could be three feet wider than the largest equipment used with a minimum of four feet width (per OSHA in the US) while 1.2m applies in the UK.
Very Narrow Aisle Forklifts and Aisle Widths 101 – Your Next Steps
Find out more about Aisle Master very narrow aisle forklifts – including benefits, spec and options – here.
A free, complete warehouse planning service including racking proposals and storage density calculations is available here.
The review includes customised layout diagrams at no charge to help visualise and evidence the results the right combination of very narrow aisle truck and racking could unlock for your warehouse
Questions? Simply ask one of our specialists. We’re here to help.