• Think you can do without fork-lifts in a warehouse? The only real alternative is Some form of automation.
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Microprocessor-controlled conveyors can move loads horizontally and lorry loading via conveyor is possible with small cases, although you still need a man either end to load and unload it. And if you want to move full pallets by conveyor, you'll still need a fork-bit at either end.
Conveyors are also useless at interfacing with racking and their fixed position can get in the way of personnel or freeranging trucks.
Another option is the automated guided vehicle (AGV), essentially a wireguided box with either forks or a roller bed on top to interface to conveyor systems. Again, not much good with racking but excellent at moving goods from one
point to any other number of fixed points at ground level. And, unlike conveyors, the fixed line doesn't impede movement.
In racking, the only real alternative to a manned fork-lift is the automated stacker crane—essentially a very narrow aisle, fixed path, programmable fork-lift. Stacker cranes are good for full pallets but no good, of course, for order picking. Additionally, they are no good outside of racking and transfer of a crane from one aisle to another requires slow and expensive transfer systems.
Automation is generally regarded as expensive and inflexible and has traditionally been taken on only by the largest operations, The storage density and efficiency rewards are great, but so is the initial investment required, and payback typically takes five years or morn.