If the time has arrived when you need to purchase machinery to help move inventory boxes in your company's new warehouse, then you need to decide if your business's needs require a forklift or of you can buy a less expensive pallet jack. Which piece of machinery is right for your business depends on many factors, such as:

• the average weight of the inventory to be moved
• whether the machine will need to do order picking
• whether the machine will be used to load/unload trucks

Here is some information on each of these uses and the best machine to get the job done:

The Average Weight of the Inventory to be Moved

Pallet jacks are designed to move around lighter inventory than forklifts. Pallet jacks use either a manual function where you pump the handle up and down or have a battery-operated lifting ability. The pump models are designed for lighter weight inventory, and the battery-operated models are made to lift and move heavier loads. Forklifts are run on rechargeable batteries as well and can move a lot more weight than battery-operated pallet jacks because they are much sturdier.

If your business manufactures lighter items such as bedding or pillows, then a pallet jack will easily be able to handle moving them around your warehouse. However, if your company manufactures bricks and masonry items, then you will need a forklift to be able to move around all of the weight. 

The Best Machine to do Order Picking and Production Floor Work

If your employees will be performing order picking or production floor work with your new machine, then you want to purchase a forklift rather than a pallet jack. The forklift will allow your staff to ride on the equipment and they move around the floor on their own power. This saves a lot of physical effort for your staff. Additionally, forklifts move across the floor at a fairly high speed and allow employees to complete order picking tasks more quickly than if they were pushing around a pallet jack.

The Best Machine to Load and Unload Trucks

Finally, loading and unloading large trucks of inventory is much easier for your employees when they use a forklift. A pallet jack is fine to move a few boxes from a shipping company, but unloading large volumes of inventory is much easier using a forklift. Also, forklifts are much more stable and safe to operate for this application and they can reach higher to remove inventory from high inside of the truck. If you receive a lot of inventory at once, go with a forklift.