How Pallet Racks Help Expand Clothing Warehouse Storage

March 06, 2019

The arrival of spring means new season collections by numerous brands and designers will start arriving at clothing warehouses. The idea of receiving new clothing inventory is always exciting, but it can quickly become a painstaking task if your warehouse organization is subpar. Depending on the warehouse, there could be inventory from ten or more different designers and brands all under one roof.

Pallet racks are a great option for expanding your clothing warehouse’s storage space. They help maintain an organized clothing storage system and improve your warehouse space utilization. With the additional space racking systems offer, clothing warehouses can be sure they are properly prepared to receive the new season collection shipments. Here are the benefits you gain by installing more pallet racks in your clothing warehouse.

Customization for Your Clothing Storage System

Every warehouse organization system should be customized to fit a business’ specific industry. The clothing industry is responsible for more than just clothes — it also sells shoes, handbags, jewelry, and accessories etc. Clothing warehouses can receive multiple shipments a day throughout the course of weeks, or even months, especially when the new season collections begin arriving.

Adding more industrial shelves is a common and economical storage option that can be set up for a variety of storage applications — from simple supply and inventory systems to multi-level installations. They come in a variety of sizes and can be used for light, medium, and heavy-duty storage systems.

Pallet racks can be built and installed to your specifications and hold inventory weighing more than 4,000 lbs. A customized pallet rack design is especially helpful for clothing needing to be hanged up and stored before it is re-shipped to its designated store or customer. There are even racking systems designed for last in/first out inventory, making it easier to receive and make room for new clothing shipments. Here are some pallet rack designs to consider if you want to create better clothing warehouse space utilization:

  • Pallet flow rack
  • Push back rack
  • Carton flow rack
  • Cantilever rack

Keep Track of New Clothing Inventory

The loading dock is an extremely busy area of a warehouse, so making room for new season collection deliveries is important to maintain the efficiency of loading dock operations. Without proper space utilization, new clothing inventory can be moved or placed somewhere it’s not supposed to be and workers can make clerical errors when documenting your inventory. A disorganized warehouse can negatively impact your clothing storage system in two ways:

  • Inventory going out can complicate shipment orders if workers cannot locate the right items; and
  • Inventory coming in can be misplaced or lost, and with little or no storage space, you run the risk of new items getting mixed in with older clothing inventory.

Most clothing warehouses receive orders in bulk. and while different products may sometimes be mixed into the boxes, the majority of the inventory boxes will contain similar clothing styles e.g. jerseys with jerseys and dresses with dresses. Whether you are delivering the new clothing inventory to several stores or fulfilling individual orders for customers, storing your products logically saves your workers time going across the floor to locate the shipment items.

Missing products can slow down shipping processes and extend lead times — costing you more money and lowering warehouse productivity. With pallet racks, you can store clothes by style, color, size, alphabetical order, etc. Storage labels are easier to view when boxes are vertically stacked and you gain more aisle space to drive forklifts through when stacking and transporting products.

Increase Warehouse Safety

Inventory boxes that are strewn across your warehouse floor create tripping hazards for workers and obstruct paths for forklifts trying to move around the warehouse. These issues lower the efficiency of your clothing warehouse operations and can increase costs from worker injuries and/or damaged inventory.

Keeping your floors clean of debris and empty boxes by installing pallet racks helps protect your workers from trips and falls, and provides ample room for forklifts to complete daily tasks with speed and accuracy. One way to help maintain your warehouse organization system is by performing ongoing warehouse service. When you perform ongoing warehouse maintenance, you are ensuring:

  • All preventative maintenance strategies are up-to-date;
  • Your motive power equipment runs efficiently;
  • Any and all warehouse assets are properly organized; and
  • All pallet racks are safely installed and undamaged.

While pallet racks are great for better warehouse space utilization, regular racking system maintenance is an important part of keeping your workers and new clothing inventory safe. An entire racking system can collapse if it’s not completely screwed to the floor, has corroded components, or if the industrial shelving is loose or damaged.

Scheduling rack repair and safety services help keep your pallet racks in top shape, and when you hire repair technicians from Southern States Enterprises, we provide you with a customized and comprehensive maintenance program, a written report detailing the findings of our pallet rack inspection, and recommendations on how you can correct any issues.

Clothing warehouses are filled with aisles of merchandise and new clothing inventory that needs to be tracked and accounted for at all times. Missed deliveries and a disorganized warehouse space diminishes operational efficiency and holds you accountable if products are lost or damaged even before a shipment leaves the loading dock. Pallet racks are the perfect storage and handling solution to prevent these problems and improve your warehouse organization.

If you’re needing to expand the storage space in your clothing warehouse, Southern States Enterprises is your go-to team for all your warehouse storage and handling needs. We are experts in pallet rack installation to create better space utilization and storage capacity. Contact us today to learn more about our racking system options and other warehouse services, so your clothing warehouse is ready for the new spring season collections!

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