Carton Flow Rack in Elkridge, Maryland

Fulfillment pickers lose most of their time walking and searching. A flow wall puts many SKUs in a short run, each at a fixed position, so the picker moves a few steps instead of down a long aisle.

Because the face refills by gravity, pickers never wait for a shelf to be faced.

Retail fulfillment teams near Washington Boulevard often ask whether a carton flow rack is worth it for a small operation. If a picker spends most of the shift walking, the answer is usually yes. A modest case flow rack of three or four bays can hold the busiest hundred items in one short run.

Start there, measure the result, and grow the module down the row.

Larger fulfillment operations stack flow lanes into a multi-level pick module, with pickers on each level and replenishment behind. Conveyor often runs along the pick face to carry totes away.

Smaller buildings near Dorsey may only need a few bays at ground level. The principle scales either way.

Retail cases are usually corrugated with flat bottoms, which suit wheel rails. Polybags and soft packs need full-width beds or totes.

Lanes are sized per SKU to the widest case, with dividers holding them straight. Pitch is set for the lightest item so nothing stalls halfway.

Retail fulfillment swings hard. We design lane counts for busy days and plan which slower SKUs can be bumped to static shelving when peak items need more faces.

Labels on each lane make those swaps quick.

Elkridge has a mix of newer buildings and older Patapsco-area space with existing selective rack. Flow shelves can usually mount in those bays at pick level, with pallets above.

Reserve pallets that need rotation suit an Elkridge pallet flow system; deeper reserve of fewer items suits pushback rack in Elkridge.

In bigger fulfillment buildings near I-95, a carton flow rack face usually sits beside a take-away conveyor. Pickers fill a tote, push it onto the conveyor and keep moving down the line.

The conveyor height and the lowest flow shelf have to work together, so nobody bends to the floor or reaches over a belt. We draw both in the same elevation view.

For smaller Elkridge buildings without conveyor, a cart along the face does the same job. Either way, the case flow rack is set at the heights your pickers can work comfortably for a full shift.

Restock aisles behind the carton flow racking need enough width for a pallet jack to bring broken pallets from reserve. When the module grows, we extend the same layout down the row rather than start a new pattern.

Pick paths stay one-directional where possible, so pickers are not walking against each other during busy waves.

As a division of Warehouse Equipment & Supplies Co., we bring experience supplying and installing rack that goes back to 1997.

Visit the Elkridge service area page or the carton flow rack overview and send your SKU list for a free layout.

Baltimore Pallet Racks

1400 W. Lombard St.

Unit #687

Baltimore, MD 21223

Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

How does carton flow speed up fulfillment picking in Elkridge?

Can carton flow be part of a multi-level pick module?

What about polybagged items?

How do you handle peak season along US-1?