Rack System · Houston Area

Carton Flow Rack for H-Town Warehouses

Name: H-Town Pallet Racking
Address: Houston, TX, US
Telephone: (713) 965-6695
Price range: $$

Sloped case lanes restocked from the back and picked from the front, often two to three times faster than static shelving.

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Multi-level carton flow bays with a picker pulling cases in a Houston-area fulfillment building

SIZED TO YOUR LOADS — Carton Flow Rack

Carton Flow Rack delivered and put up from Fort Bend County to Galveston Bay. Asking for a price costs nothing.

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The basics

How Carton Flow Rack earns its floor space

Carton flow is built for people picking cases, totes and eaches rather than trucks moving whole pallets. Restockers feed cartons into the back of a sloped lane, and each one rolls down to a face set at a comfortable working height. When a picker takes the front case, the next one slides into its spot. With restocking happening on the far side of the rack, the pick line never has to stop and wait, which is why a picker on carton flow commonly moves two to three times as many cases as one working static shelving. Across the Houston area it anchors e-commerce order picking, aftermarket parts, medical supply and retail replenishment lines. H-Town Pallet Racking lays out carton flow bays around your pick-to-light hardware, WMS zones and outbound conveyor.

Two to three times the cases per hour per picker compared with static shelving
No more idle pickers during restock
Less stretching and stooping, and fewer strain injuries
A straightforward path to pick lights and zone picking

Pick-zone rack with painted aisle lines in a Fort Bend County warehouse

Bays with wire decks holding both cases and pallets

Built in

Features that matter

Three to five levels with 18–36 in. between them
Full-width roller or wheel-track lane options
Primary pick level set for comfortable reach
Rear restock aisle that never blocks the pick face
Ready for pick-to-light, put-to-light and WMS zones
Lays out cleanly with outbound conveyor and sorting
Designed to the adopted local building code and RMI ANSI MH16.1-2023

Price It Out

By the numbers

Carton Flow Rack: specs

Typical specs

LevelsUsually 3 to 5, spaced 18–36 in. apart

Bay width3 ft to 10 ft

Lane surfaceFull-width rollers or wheel tracks

Lane slopeAbout 3–5%

Case weightTypically 50–100 lb; heavy-duty lanes to about 250 lb

Primary pick heightAbout 40–54 in.

RestockingRear aisle, never interrupting pickers

Compatible systemsPick-to-light, put-to-light, WMS zoning, outbound conveyor

FramesTeardrop or structural channel sized for flow beds

Design basisAdopted local building code (IBC family) plus RMI ANSI MH16.1-2023

Restock from behind

Cases are fed into the high end of each lane from a separate restock aisle, usually while pickers keep working the opposite face.

Cases slide forward

Rollers or wheel tracks sloped 3 to 5 percent carry each case toward the pick side, where a lip holds the lead case in place.

A face built for people

The busiest level sits roughly at waist height, 40 to 54 inches, with slower items above and below, so the fastest SKUs need no stretching or bending.

Good fit or not

Does it suit your building?

It makes sense when

Your people pick cases, totes or eaches at high rates rather than full pallets
Pickers regularly stand around waiting for a slot to be restocked
You already use, or plan to add, lights or WMS zone picking
A zone holds hundreds or thousands of SKUs moving at very different speeds
Reaching and bending at static shelving is showing up in injury reports

Look elsewhere when

Orders ship as full pallets; pallet rack is the right tool
SKU counts are small and shelving already keeps up
Many cases weigh over 100 lb; check heavy-duty lanes or another approach
Pick speed is not a problem and the cheapest shelving is the goal

Where it shows up

Who uses it around H-Town

E-commerce fulfillment: Fulshear, Richmond

Order-picking buildings near the Grand Parkway use carton flow as the main pick face for parcel orders. Restocking from the rear keeps waves moving through busy seasons.

Aftermarket parts: Sugar Land, Missouri City

Parts distributors put mid-velocity SKUs on carton flow and keep slow movers on shelving next to it, so pickers spend their steps where orders actually come from.

Medical and lab supply: Webster, League City

Suppliers around Clear Lake pair carton flow with pick lights for accurate lot-level picking of fast consumables.

Retail replenishment: The Woodlands, Magnolia

Distribution serving the growing north side runs seasonal SKUs through carton flow, where turnover is too quick for static shelving to keep stocked.

Plant maintenance stores: Channelview, Mont Belvieu, Texas City

Maintenance storerooms supporting refineries and chemical plants hold thousands of small spare parts. Carton flow keeps gaskets, fittings and consumables at the face without constant manual restocking.

Asked and answered

Questions about Carton Flow Rack

How much weight can a carton flow lane handle?

Standard roller lanes carry 50 to 100 lb per case without trouble, which covers most parcel, parts, medical and apparel cartons. Heavy-duty lanes go to about 250 lb for dense foodservice or industrial cases. Beyond that, pallet rack or a heavier dynamic system is the better fit.

Is pick-to-light required with carton flow?

No. Paper pick lists and handheld scanners work fine. That said, the fixed face of a flow bay makes mounting lights simple, and many operations add them within a year or two once they see what the combination does for pick rates.

Will carton flow handle bags or odd-shaped cases?

Wheel tracks cope with irregular shapes better than solid rollers because each wheel adjusts to the surface above it. Uniform boxes run faster and with less upkeep on rollers. Plenty of mixed zones use both.

How wide should the restock aisle be?

Ten to twelve feet usually gives a walkie pallet jack or hand truck enough room. Busier lines sometimes widen it to about fourteen feet so full pallets can be parked right behind the flow bays during heavy restock periods.

Can carton flow be combined with pallet rack?

Yes, and it is one of the most common layouts: carton flow on the lower levels for fast movers, with pallet positions above or behind holding reserve stock and slow items. The combined structure is engineered as one system.

What drives the cost of a carton flow pick line?

Bay count, lane type, number of levels and how much integration you want. Adding pick lights and WMS integration can roughly double the project, but it also tends to roughly double pick rates, which is why many buyers choose to do both.

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The other systems

Tall run of pallet rack filled with stretch-wrapped loads in a Houston-area warehouse

Our fifteen towns

Carton Flow Rack around H-Town

We handle carton flow rack in fifteen towns around Houston, spread across Fort Bend, Brazoria, Montgomery, Galveston, Chambers and Harris counties. Each town page covers who reviews permits there, the usual building heights and the kinds of businesses we rack.

See All 15 Towns

Next step

Put Carton Flow Rack
in your building.

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