Steel shelves are one of the most popular types of shelving available for warehouses today.

The variety of sizes and styles in steel shelves allow for a number of uses in any kind of warehouse, retail outlet, or distribution center above and beyond other types of industrial shelving that you might see in bigger facilities. With steel shelving (and its close cousin, metal shelving) you can store a wider variety of items and goods above and beyond the bulky, big-ticket items being stored on pallet racks.

If you’re thinking about bringing some more steel shelving into your warehouse, or if you’re curious to see what it can do to help, here’s five of our favorite advantages and benefits of steel shelving:

Product visibility: As compared to other storage solutions that may be taller or more cluttered, steel shelves allow you to store goods in a way that helps your pickers find them more quickly and avoid mis-picks or mis-counts. Use steel shelves to arrange everything in an order that works best for your warehouse (by SKU, item type, size, etc) and help your pickers find their needed goods even faster than before.

Safer storage for delicate items: Steel shelves are among the most durable warehouse shelving types available, providing resistance to corrosion and damage for both the shelves themselves and any goods that need to be stored on them. A common usage for steel shelves is to store more fragile goods (like electronics, small parts, or expensive consumer goods) that wouldn’t handle being kept in a storage bin or on the floor as well.

Durability: That durability extends to the shelves themselves as well. Warehouses are pretty active areas, and most warehouse shelves will be subject to a lot of wear and tear including forklift collisions, picker damage, or things getting knocked into it during transport. Steel shelves are designed to withstand this sort of abuse without the constant need for repair or replacement like you might see on other shelving types.

Temperature resistance: Similarly, steel shelves can withstand greater variations in temperature, which makes them a prime candidate for less-than-ideal storage conditions. If your warehouse also deals in the manufacturing of goods (which can greatly raise the temperature in certain areas), steel shelves are generally able to withstand higher temperatures than other shelf types. Steel shelves can also work well in areas that may be exposed to the elements more often, such as right near a loading dock that may open to the heat or cold of the outdoors.

Customization: Finally, one of the biggest advantages of using steel shelves is the ease of customization they offer. Steel shelves can typically be expanded on with extra shelves and additional units to help increase their storage capacity or provide extra room to work with, allowing your shelves to become even more versatile and useful than they were when you first got them.

If you think steel shelves can help in your warehouse, use our steel shelving quote request form and let Shelving Inc find the perfect warehouse shelving solution for you.