Pallet Flow Rack in White Marsh, Maryland

Retail distributors building store orders pick heavily from a set of fast SKUs. Pallet flow racking keeps those faces full while replenishment works behind.

Dated consumer goods also leave in order, which matters for food, health and beauty products.

A week of shipping data shows which SKUs truly drive volume, and those earn the first lanes. Start there before choosing depth.

Repeat that review before each peak season, since the fast list changes with promotions and the calendar, and adjust lane assignments to match.

It takes an afternoon.

Many White Marsh buildings run two shifts. Night crews fill lanes from the back; day crews pick from the front. The rack keeps those crews in separate aisles.

Newer bulk buildings with 32 to 40 foot clear heights can hold many flow levels. A gravity flow rack in that space stores many positions per aisle.

Older buildings along Pulaski Highway hold fewer levels.

Consumer-goods pallets vary in weight. Lanes are grouped by weight range, with speed controllers along each lane and separators at the exit.

Vendor pallets vary. Rollers need sound bottom boards running across them. A receiving check routes damaged pallets to selective rack before they jam a lane.

Retail peaks change which SKUs are fast. Before peak, seasonal items move into flow lanes; afterward they move out. Labeled lanes make swaps quick.

Building-products distributors near Nottingham see a spring peak instead of a holiday one.

Undated reserve fits pushback rack in White Marsh. Slower SKUs picked by the case sit well in carton flow rack in White Marsh.

In long buildings near Campbell Boulevard, the pick aisle of the pallet flow rack should face the outbound doors, with the loading aisle toward receiving. Product then crosses the building once.

Store-order pickers working the front can pull cases onto a pallet jack or conveyor, while reserve on the upper levels feeds the lane below.

A gravity flow rack placed this way also keeps night replenishment trucks out of the day pick path.

Weekly checks of rollers, brakes and separators catch problems early. Debris like broken wrap under a lane is the most common cause of a stuck pallet.

Entry guides and exit protection reduce damage where forklift traffic is heaviest.

Spare rollers and brakes on site let a lane return to service the same day.

In older Pulaski Highway buildings, a shorter block of fewer levels follows the same rules.

Two shifts mean two crews reading the same lanes. Labels at both ends of each lane, plus a printed lane map at the aisle entry, keep everyone aligned.

Note seasonal swaps on the map so the day crew knows which SKUs moved overnight.

That simple step prevents most picking errors after a peak changeover in the Nottingham and MD-43 buildings.

We are a division of Warehouse Equipment & Supplies Co., the parent company supplying and installing rack since 1997.

Visit the White Marsh service area page and read our pallet flow rack guide. Send your fastest SKUs and their pallet specs, and we will lay out the pallet flow racking at no cost.

Baltimore Pallet Racks

1400 W. Lombard St.

Unit #687

Baltimore, MD 21223

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

Does pallet flow rack help store-order picking in White Marsh?

Can night crews fill lanes while day crews pick?

How do you handle retail peaks?

What stops pallets in a lane?