overhead doors of portland

How your choice of loading-bay hardware may be keeping your shipments out

Tired of your Portland, OR, warehouse operations unfolding as if they were managed by a headless chicken? Stop wracking your brain for solutions and think about the simple factors. It may very well be that your staff, trucks, shipments and equipment can’t move as fast as you’d like because they can’t get in and out of your facility quick enough.

Basic Space Requirements

Sure, your workers aren’t hesitant about using the doors as efficiently as possible when it’s time to punch out or take a break, but it’s not like they have to move loads as they’re doing so either. If you’re working with non-vertical doors on your loading bays, however, you’re making their routine tasks much more difficult than they need to be.

Overhead doors generally feature larger area cross sections than their hinged counterparts. As a result, they can accommodate wider, taller loads, and you don’t even have to back things in at funny angles or rotate pallets through less-than-optimal openings in a display of lift-driving expertise that would be the envy of a ballet choreographer.

Making Routine Operations More Routine

It only takes a few seconds to open up standard doors, prop them in place and start loading. Unfortunately, you have to repeat those same procedures every time you try to accept a shipment off the back of a truck or move stock out of your warehouse. Those precious seconds eventually add up, and even worse, so does the back-breaking labor your staff has to perform each time they try to bring something down from the truck or lift a load up a ramp. It’s no wonder they’re rushing for the break area.

Unlike their normal counterparts, overhead mechanisms can be operated at a button touch. Unless you’re operating out of a super-advanced facility with automatic sliding Star Trek doors, you could probably take advantage of the fact that new doors will let you get to loading as soon as the truck finishes backing in.

Potential Energy Savings

Finally, remember that overhead doors are designed for energy efficiency. Universities have spent plenty of time and academic effort studying the factors that affect overhead door energy loss in an attempt to settle on the perfect system, and they’ve even found that overhead doors could keep cycle times down to less than a minute. In addition to ensuring your workers can operate with increased speed and efficiency, your choice to install a new overhead door that keeps the heat out may also make them feel more comfortable come break time.

Ready to make the change to overhead garage doors? Let the experts at Overhead Door of Portland help. Visit us online to find out more about your options, or call us for a custom assessment.