High-bay Warehouse

Description of high-bay warehouse

High-bay warehouses are storage areas with a warehouse building height between 12 m and over 40 m and are usually highly automated. This storage type has special requirements in terms of technological storage equipment (e.g. infeed and outfeed equipment, storage and retrieval systems, rack conveyor vehicles or storage racks) as well as warehouse management system.

Areas of application of a high-bay warehouse

The high-bay warehouse is usually found as a pallet rack warehouse. Here, the height of the storage space is optimally utilised with a small footprint, i.e. more storage capacity and a shortened logistics chain. The height is determined according to the possibilities or prerequisites of the lifting height of the warehouse loading equipment. Normal forklift trucks quickly reach the limits of what is possible here, so one resorts to storage and retrieval machines (SRM). Depending on the load capacity of the storage racks (rack construction) and the width of the rack surfaces, one or more pallets can be placed next to each other (different storage variants: single- to multiple-deep as well as single- and multiple-space storage). Flat goods and also long goods can be stored.

The size of a high-bay warehouse is given in standardised pallet spaces, e.g. Euro pallet with 1200 x 800 mm and rarely according to the area (in m2). Here, for example, there are warehouses with a capacity of more than 100,000 pallet spaces.

The warehouse management system automatically determines where the pallet with the part it is looking for is located and can then fully automatically instruct the warehouse robot to procure this part or pallet. Thus, in warehouses of such a size, hardly any warehouse workers are necessary and the warehouse functions almost without workers.

High-bay warehouses are used for large central warehouses, where the storage space is limited and many goods have to be stored. Many small warehouses at the individual production sites can be saved if this warehouse is positioned correctly and centrally.

Construction of high-bay warehouses

High-bay warehouses differ in their method of construction. They can either consist of a fixed structure (concrete construction), in which the shelves are subsequently built in as freestanding units (built-in high-bay warehouse), or the shelves themselves are used as a supporting structure for the walls and roof of the warehouse (building-supported silo construction).

After the construction of a high-bay warehouse, this warehouse can usually no longer be used for another purpose. This is in contrast to a block warehouse, which can be converted into production or office space after only minor alterations.

The financial outlay for an automated high-bay warehouse is very high.

Advantages of a high-bay warehouse:

• Low manpower requirements
• High degree of automation
• Good access to all articles
• High turnover rate
• Unproblematic stock control
• Particularly well suited for chaotic storage
• Computer-controlled

Disadvantages of a high-bay warehouse:

• Large investment requirement
• Poor expansion possibilities
• High demand for conveyors
• High control effort
• Relatively high susceptibility to faults