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Distribution warehouse and facility productivity have risen dramatically in recent decades. However, safety breakdowns can jeopardize these gains, resulting in employee injury and costly damage to facilities and equipment.
Guard rails are vital for long runs of conveyors, palletizers, and other expensive equipment, where they often converge with forklift traffic. The right rails can reduce accidents and protect the equipment itself.
Ease of Assembly
Getting your warehouse equipment up and running quickly is vital to meeting consumer demands and remaining competitive. When you rely on a modular rail system, you can avoid delays with traditional tapped-hole racks.
Modular rails for machinery can be manufactured off-site and delivered to your facility ready to use. This process eliminates the need to tap into the existing racking and prevents the risk of corrosion from exposed tapped holes. It also cuts assembly costs because there is no need to use a nut or bolt to hold the rails in place.
Barrier rails protect racking systems from forklift damage and prevent collisions between warehouse workers and vehicles. These rails help separate pedestrian walkways from traffic zones and define clear employee movement paths. Many of these barriers come with a swing gate to allow employees access to machinery and work zones as needed. This helps promote a safe working environment for labor retention and employee morale.
Reduced Maintenance Costs
When a facility has equipment valued at more than a million dollars, it makes sense to protect it from one of the most common sources of damage – forklifts. Guard rail systems are a smart investment that can save thousands in replacement costs and the loss of production while a damaged machine is offline for repairs.
Two plants may have the same production flow, but they are sometimes different in terms of age and type of machinery. Therefore, comparing maintenance costs is a flawed management decision benchmark.
Instead, the best way to benchmark maintenance costs is by incorporating %RAV with other performance metrics. That way, leaders know whether they are achieving world-class maintenance efficiency. And a modular safety rail system that allows frontline workers to submit maintenance requests directly is a great way to engage them, making them feel like an essential part of the team and encouraging them to keep their machines running optimally.
Reduced Risk of Damage
In distribution warehouses, efficiency and productivity have risen in recent decades. Unfortunately, these gains can be jeopardized by facility safety breakdowns that cause equipment and structural damage. This damage can stifle facility throughput and undermine the quality of product storage.
Guard rails can help protect the racking and structures in warehouses by creating barriers to forklift traffic. This can prevent costly collisions that damage or destroy products, shelving, and other materials.
This protective barrier can also separate walkways from forklift traffic zones, deterring pedestrians from entering areas that are not designated as safe. For example, a 2-sided guardrail “corral” can stop pedestrians from emerging directly from entry doors into forklift traffic aisles.
Given that labor is in high demand, companies that show they prioritize employee safety through infrastructure like durable rails can benefit from a competitive edge in the hiring market. The reduced risk of damage these systems provide can be worth the investment.
Increased Safety
In facilities where equipment can be valued at a million dollars or more, guard rails provide an affordable way to keep it safe. Considering the cost of production stops, workman’s compensation claims, and lawsuits, a minor investment in durable guarding systems is wise.
Guard rails act as physical barriers, separating designated pedestrian walkways from areas with vehicular traffic. This helps protect employees from accidents and unauthorized access to potentially dangerous zones.
Barrier rails also help prevent damage caused by straying forklifts or warehouse carts maneuvering around the facility. They are especially effective at protecting implant offices, racking systems, mezzanines, and inventory.
Modular safety rails can be easily installed and repositioned as needed to address specific hazards and risks in the warehouse. They are made off-site and require fewer installation workers, drastically reducing installation costs. The reversible gates attached to them allow for safe and easy access when necessary.
