Warehouse storage solutions can come in many forms, from tall vertical storage to wide aisle storage.
Given that warehouse space is increasingly expensive, making the most of any existing space is a priority for businesses. The storage type and its overall effectiveness will impact pick times, stock accuracy, health and safety compliance and ultimately the profitability of the company.
Logical Storage Solutions specialises in warehouse storage solutions, designing and installing racking and shelving across the UK.
In this guide, our warehouse storage experts will explain the main systems available, how to choose between them and what to consider before committing to an installation.
However, if at any point you'd like some tailored advice about the best warehouse storage solutions for your facility, please get in touch with us.
What Are the Different Types of Warehouse Storage Systems?
There is no single warehouse storage solution that works for every operation. The right system depends on your product profile, the volume and frequency of stock movement, your building dimensions and your budget. The main categories are as follows.
Selective pallet racking is the most widely used warehouse storage system in the UK. Each pallet bay is individually accessible, which makes it well-suited to operations with a broad range of SKUs where stock rotation and direct access are priorities. Selective racking scales vertically to suit available building height and can be reconfigured as your product mix or operational requirements change.
Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) racking reduces aisle widths to as little as 1.6 metres, allowing more racking rows in the same floor area. Guided trucks operate within the aisles and can reach heights of 10 to 13 metres or more. VNA is a strong choice for high-density operations with a large number of palletised SKUs where floor space is limited and throughput is high.
Double deep racking stores pallets two positions deep per aisle, reducing the number of aisles needed and increasing storage density. It requires a reach truck with extended forks and suits operations with lower SKU counts and deeper stock levels per line.
Drive-in and drive-through racking allows forklift trucks to enter the racking structure to place or retrieve pallets. Drive-in racking is suited to bulk storage of homogeneous products on a last-in, first-out basis. Drive-through racking supports first-in, first-out stock rotation, making it more appropriate for goods with a shelf life.
Cantilever racking is designed for long, awkward, or irregular items that do not palletise well, such as timber, steel sections, pipes or sheet materials. Arms extend from a central spine column, creating open bays without vertical obstructions that would restrict loading.
Longspan shelving bridges the gap between pallet racking and light-duty shelving. It is suited to hand-loaded goods that are too heavy or bulky for standard shelving but do not warrant full pallet racking. Common applications include spare parts, bagged goods, boxed products and components.
Mezzanine floors are freestanding steel platforms that create a self-contained upper level within an existing building, effectively adding usable floor area without extending the building footprint. They are often combined with shelving, racking or conveyor systems and can form part of a multi-level pick and pack operation.
How to Maximise Storage Space in a Warehouse
Choosing the right system is only part of the story. How a system is configured and operated has a significant impact on the storage capacity and efficiency it delivers.
Use The Available Height To Its Full Potential
Many warehouse operators store goods to only two or three metres when their building structure would support racking to six, eight or ten metres. A professional survey of your available clear height, accounting for lighting, sprinklers and HVAC, will establish what is realistically usable. Every metre of additional height recovered represents a meaningful increase in capacity.
Review Your Aisle Widths
Standard counterbalanced forklift aisles typically require 2.7 to 3.5 metres of clearance. Switching to reach trucks can reduce this to around 2.3 to 2.7 metres. Moving to guided VNA equipment can take this below two metres. Each reduction in aisle width creates additional space for storage runs without expanding the building.
Match Your System To Your Throughput
A system that maximises storage density but creates bottlenecks at the pick face will reduce throughput and increase labour costs. High-volume operations benefit from storage systems that keep fast-moving lines in the most accessible locations, whether that means dedicated fast-pick lanes within a selective racking installation or a separate pick face alongside bulk storage.
Audit Your Current Layout
Before investing in new equipment, it is worth assessing how your existing space is actually being used. Common inefficiencies include oversized aisles, underused bays, poorly positioned goods and systems that were specified for a product mix that has since changed. A storage audit often identifies significant capacity gains achievable with reconfiguration alone.
What Are the 7 Storage Techniques Used in Warehousing?
There is no universally agreed list, but the key storage techniques applied in modern UK warehousing include the following:
Fixed location storage assigns every SKU a permanent home within the warehouse. It is straightforward to manage and train staff on, but it can be inefficient when stock levels vary significantly across lines.
Random location storage places goods in the next available space, maximising utilisation of available locations at any given time. It requires a robust warehouse management system (WMS) to track where goods are at any point.
ABC analysis categorises stock by movement frequency and positions fast-moving lines (A lines) closest to dispatch, with slower-moving stock further away. This reduces travel time and improves pick productivity.
FIFO (first in, first out) ensures the oldest stock is picked first, which is essential for perishable goods, products with a shelf life, or operations where stock ageing has commercial implications.
LIFO (last in, first out) suits operations with bulk, homogeneous stock where stock rotation is not a requirement. Drive-in racking is the most common system used to support LIFO storage.
Cross-docking reduces storage time by moving goods directly from inbound to outbound, minimising the need for long-term storage and the costs associated with it. It requires close coordination between inbound and outbound logistics.
Bulk storage consolidates high-volume, low-variety goods in a single area, often using block stacking or drive-in racking, to minimise handling and maximise use of available space.
Warehouse Racking Safety and Compliance in the UK
Any warehouse storage installation in the UK is subject to a defined set of legal and regulatory requirements.
Under PUWER 1998 (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations), employers are required to ensure that all work equipment, including racking and shelving, is maintained in a safe condition and inspected at appropriate intervals by competent persons. Racking is explicitly covered by this duty.
SEMA (Storage Equipment Manufacturers Association) publishes codes of practice for the design, installation, and use of storage equipment. SEMA-compliant design is the industry standard for pallet racking in the UK, and any installation should be specified and installed in accordance with the relevant SEMA code.
SEMA recommends that a detailed inspection of racking be carried out at least annually by a SEIRS (SEMA Approved Racking Inspector). In addition, a trained rack safety officer should carry out routine visual checks more frequently, typically weekly or monthly depending on the level of activity.
Racking damage is one of the leading causes of structural failure in warehouse environments. The most common source of damage is forklift truck impact to upright frames, particularly at lower levels. Damaged components should be assessed against SEMA's published damage classification criteria and, where tolerances are exceeded, the bay should be taken out of service until repairs or replacements are completed.
CDM Regulations 2015 (Construction Design and Management) may also apply where mezzanine floors or significant structural installations are involved. The responsible person at a site has ongoing obligations for the completed structure, including maintaining structural documentation and ensuring that any modifications are assessed by a competent person.
Choosing a Warehouse Storage Solutions Provider
The quality of the supplier relationship matters as much as the product specification. A reputable warehouse storage solutions provider will carry out a site survey before producing any quotation, establish your operational requirements in detail and produce a design that has been structurally assessed against the relevant safety standards.
Key questions to ask when evaluating a provider include whether they install to the required standards, whether they can provide structural calculations for the proposed installation, what their inspection and aftercare offering looks like and whether they hold relevant industry accreditations.
Logical Storage Solutions works with businesses across the UK to design and install warehouse storage systems that are specified to the operational requirements of each site.
From selective pallet racking and VNA installations through to mezzanine floors and bespoke shelving systems, our team provides practical, compliant storage solutions for distribution, manufacturing and trade environments.
Discover Warehouse Storage Systems From Logical Storage Solutions
Do you own warehouse space in the UK? Logical Storage Solutions offers leading storage services for warehouses.
On our website, you’ll find details of our services, including warehouse racking, shelving, mezzanine floors and warehouse refurbishment.
To speak with our team, please give us a call on 0845 689 1300.
Or, for any help or advice about warehouse storage systems, please send us a message and we’ll be with you shortly.