Warehouse racking systems are designed to accommodate large volumes of goods on either pallets or in a loose stored way. These are typically designed to be modular systems so that the shelving can extend to great heights where necessary and can easily be extended should you business need to expand storage at a later date. The variable height for shelves also means that space can be utilised in many different ways. Even with palletised goods it is possible that some goods will be stored on smaller pallets than others. It would be a foolish waste of space to use a fixed height shelf separation if many goods are stored on much smaller pallets than others.
Installing warehouse racking does benefit from forward thinking. Modular systems do provide the facility to amend the shelving arrangements in your business but, a business that is forever re-arranging shelving due to poor initial planning is potentially wasting a lot of effort.
Ideally your goods will be stored in your warehouse so that the most commonly used goods are quickly accessible whilst the occasionally used items, or goods in storage, are utilising the space in the darkest recesses of the warehouse. Some computer controlled warehouses may have detailed workflow reports and analysis tools that can arrange goods for them to maximise efficiencies in the picking operation. Even the most simple of systems that relies on human management will quickly make it evident that storing the most commonly used item in the furthest corner of the warehouse, simply because it was the only location to take a 6 foot tall pallet, was a mistake.