Selective Pallet Racking in Kansas City

Selective pallet racking gives Kansas City warehouses a starting point for layouts with direct access to every load. Every pallet sits in its own opening, every opening faces an aisle, and a forklift can reach any load without moving another. In the Kansas City metro, the trick is fitting that simple system to buildings that differ wildly in height.

Clear Height Drives Pallet Racking Design in Kansas City

Few metros mix building types the way this one does. The answer to how tall your uprights should be depends entirely on which building you lease.

Handling Mixed SKUs With Pallet Racking

Retail and consumer goods distributors, auto and truck parts houses, and building products suppliers in this region often carry hundreds of SKUs with one or two pallets each. Selective rack suits that profile better than any dense system because no load blocks another.

Beam elevations can vary bay by bay. Tall, light pallets go on one level; short, heavy loads of fasteners or animal health products go on another. Wire decking or pallet supports handle odd-size loads.

When a handful of SKUs grow to many pallets each, those items can move to pushback rack while the rest stays selective.

Planning Forklift Aisles for Pallet Racking

Aisle width follows the truck. Counterbalance forklifts usually need wide aisles, reach trucks work in narrower ones, and very narrow aisle equipment runs in guided lanes with tall racking on both sides.

In underground space, pillar spacing often sets aisle width before the truck does. In older KCK buildings, column lines and dock positions do the same.

Changing trucks is a big decision, so we lay out the rack around the fleet you run today and show what a narrower aisle would gain.

Adding to Existing Rack

Many Kansas City operations already have rack and simply need more of it. Matching an existing system means identifying the brand, upright profile and beam connector so new bays lock together with the old.

We check capacity labels and the condition of damaged uprights before extending a row. Mixing incompatible components is a shortcut we never take.

Rail, Interstates and Inbound Volume

I-70, I-35, I-29 and I-49 meet here, with I-435, I-470 and I-635 looping the metro. BNSF, Union Pacific, CPKC and Norfolk Southern make it one of the country's largest rail hubs, and KCI handles air cargo.

That steady freight means 3PL and e-commerce buildings in the intermodal parks fill fast. Selective rack gives them flexibility while their client mix keeps changing.

Seasons, Storms and Scheduling

Most buildings here are unconditioned. Summer installs start early before heat and humidity build, and winter jobs plan staging around the cold. Spring storm and tornado season can interrupt freight, so delivery dates get some flexibility.

Underground parks hold a steady 65 to 72 degrees, which makes them easy to work in any month. Our team handles the permit side for you.

One Partner for the Whole Floor

Warehouse Equipment & Supplies Co. has supplied and installed warehouse equipment since 1997, and one project with us can include the racking, offices, mezzanines, shelving and partitions.

Selective rows often share the floor with pallet flow rack, drive-in rack for cold rooms and carton flow rack for picking. See all components on our national pallet racking page or visit the Kansas City city page.