Incredibly, common warehousing systems utilize only about 40% of the total obtainable space for storage of parts or goods, the rest is allocated for aisles. Piling up the cartons, bags or tins of the materials in their greatest heights does not alleviate much the wastage of space. This may be acceptable when there is not much materials to maintain, but when space is lacking, solutions have been usually found in pallet racking or building storage mezzanines. Like the notion of skyscrapers that occupy little ground space but much of it upwards, vertical storage has been a sufficient solution, at least until lately.

Mobile storage. The twin dominant problems of storage management have ever been storage space and materials retrieval. Vertical storage utilizes the available space higher than ground level, commonly vacant in most normal warehousing ways. Nonetheless, there remains the largely unused ‘road system’ for getting to and getting materials, the aisles. The warehouse forklift could only use its definite space at any one time, so that the aisle areas it is not on is wasted.

The mobile storage system pushes the shelving together if the aisle between them is not in use so that the space is not wasted. The same racks are then pushed apart when required to permit the forklift access to the materials. In this method the space between racks or shelves are used, giving as much as 100% extra storage space. The racks or shelves are moved either by persons or with mechanical assistance.

Upright carousels. Similar in concept to the restaurant dumbwaiter or the Rolodex, vertical carousels add storage space by minimizing the need for mechanical carriers like a forklift. located in bins, racks or shelves easilyreadily retrievable by humans, the aisle space between the carousels may be lessened, opening up additional space for storage. One benefit of this system is that the materials are each time accessed at the identical height level, which can be a boon for the retrieving persons. However, vertical carousels are mostly used for small-sized parts.

Automated self-storage. This one is run by computer and eliminates the need for personal involvement, at least nearly all of the time. While the materials are placed in uniform-sized containers and stowed in racks and pallets, loading and retrieval is done by an automated loading-retrieval forklift-like contraption that takes the correct module to the person at the access window. The same machine accepts the containers from the loading door for storage. So in effect the machine is the warehouseman with the human as the supervisor.

As space gets scarcer for storing materials in a manufacturing or selling enterprise, the search for solutions continues at an ever increasing rate. The first general solution course of vertical storage has been followed by mobile storage, both lateral and vertical, seemingly exhausting the alternatives so that so far no new directions are easily foreseen. However, the search has not ended and undoubtedly we will see more newfangled] solutions in the future, short of akin to a picture frame: it defines but improves the looks of a property. A formal garden less a fence will seem like an aberration in a lea; or, worse, a misplaced declaration of a desired life. A fence can limit a vista, true, but it can also create a world in its confines. Perchance a limited world, but a reserved one created to your meanings and desires.

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