Push Back Racking (FILO) - Advantageous For Medium To High SKU Counts

Push Back Pallet Racking is a gravity flow racking system for the accumulation of pallets, designed for FILO load management (first pallet in, last pallet out).

Push-back pallet rack provides high-density storage where pallets are stored up to five deep. Using a forklift, pallets are pushed back on inclined rails mounted inside the racking. When a pallet is withdrawn, the one behind automatically slides forward to the front position of the pallet racking.

The Benefits of Push-Back Pallet Racking:

• Excellent space utilisation
• Ideal for bulk storage, order consolidation, and despatch
• Advantageous for medium to high SKU counts
• High density, allowing for the storage of up to five pallets deep
• First pallet in, last pallet out (FILO)

What is Push-Back racking?

Push back rack is a live storage system that stores pallets on wheeled carts nesting on inclined storage rails. When a product is loaded into a push-back racking system, a pallet is placed onto a cart and pushes the pallet at the pick face back in one position.

Push-back racking for pallets has a single loading and unloading area, at the front of the structure, and the unit loads are stored by pushing the previous ones toward the back of the rack.

It can also be combined with other storage systems which makes it a versatile solution.

Why choose a push-back rack system?

Push-back racking has enjoyed rapid growth in popularity recently due to offering similar space savings as a drive-in, with typically 3 to 5 times greater selectivity. This growth has been spurred by marketing trends such as rapid increases in the number of SKUs, mass customization, and more rapid product obsolescence.

Each level in a push-back system holds a series of nested rolling carts, operating in a lane that slopes upward away from the pick face.

Improved selectivity over Drive-In, which Push-Back often replaces.

Efficiency vs. Drive-In – trucks do not need to drive into rack loads that come to them at the pick face.

Less rack. Truck and product damage vs. Drive-In- with no trucks driving inside the rack.

Advantages Over Single Selective Racking

• In a typical three-deep, back-to-back Push Back system, space savings would amount to around 40% vs. a Single Selective Rack.
• Converting an existing space from Single Selective to Push Back would accommodate an increase of about 60% in pallets stored.
• Over-head Push-Back (loaded and unloaded from replenishment aisle in rear) ensures optimal use of vertical space above floor level Pallet Flow picking system.

Matters that need attention

There are a number of particular factors to satisfy before making a push-back purchase:

• Pallet quality must be considered.
• Carts should be linked to avoiding "runaway carts".
• The slope is critical to both safety and operability.
• The "vertical profile" of the nesting carts may be critical if there are height restrictions in the building.
• The system must be designed for dynamic loads – in simple terms, this meant it needed to be stronger than static pallets. This also means that Push-Back requires more complex engineering. One substandard component and your system may not flow! Unfortunately, we've seen customers victimized in this way.
• The pushback system is starting to be misused, just like the drive-in system was once. You need to ensure that the correct SKU cross-section is stored in the Push-Back system.

Interested in finding out more about Push Back Pallet Racking or Push Back Pallet Racking options for your warehouse? Request more information now.