Bin Shelving with Closed Backs, Sides & Dividers Create Storage Bins for Picking

A history lesson on shelving – all steel shelving was originally bin shelving. This was before products came pre-packaged in boxes. Steel shelving today is often used only as storage shelving for boxes but in the early days store keepers would receive loose products and they needed bin shelving to help organize those products on their store shelves.

Bin shelving was commonly found in hardware stores or old time corner markets. Shop keepers would take their loose products like nuts, bolts, hardware and organize them in bins while using the upper shelves for overstock. Today bin shelving can be found in the worlds largest warehouses and distribution centers and it is used to help store and organized thousands of product SKU’s.

Bin shelving consists of open steel shelving combined with solid backs and sides and metal dividers used to create cubicles or bins on the shelf. The purpose of bin shelving is it helps divide the shelf. Bins are often located in what we call the “gold zone” or “strike zone” between the knees and shoulders – commonly where items are loaded, picked and pulled.

Metal bin shelving storage has become very popular due to e-commerce sales that rely on order picking. Everyone wants a unique location for different SKU’s. Every product needs a separate storage location. Bin shelving storage helps increase picking accuracy allowing for real-time information on what is being picked, pulled and shipped, ultimately increasing throughput.

A large shoe company ordered 46,000 bin dividers for the existing steel shelving we had sold them. The objective was to turn their closed steel shelving into bin shelving. They found that their shoes were getting mixed up on the shelves and they needed bin shelving to keep their inventory from getting mixed up on the shelf.

Steel bin picking shelving with its closed backs, sides and metal dividers also protect products by helping prevent products from falling off the shelf. Dividers are adjustable and can be retrofit into any of our exiting industrial metal shelving. They come in a variety of different sizes – too many to stock. Bin divider sizes range from 12″, 16″, 18″, 24″ deep and 6″, 9″, 12″, 16″, 18″ and 24″ tall. Allow 3 weeks for custom bin dividers. Since dividers are all made to order they are non-returnable so be careful in ordering the correct dividers size.

We’ve even created a telescoping divider that ranges in height from as small as 9″ to as tall as 24″ in height. Often times customers have a hard time determining what size shelf divider is best for their needs. A large national plumbing company came to us wanting 20,000 dividers for their steel shelving but couldn’t decide between a 12″ high or 16″ high divider so we developed a divider for them that can vary in height.