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When it comes to ensuring your warehouse is as safe as it can be, there are some obvious and less obvious tips to consider. Having a safe warehouse environment is a legal requirement, but even beyond those requirements there is always more you can do. Safety solutions tend to not only make your warehouse safer but also more organised and efficient. Let’s discuss the safety value of shelving and racking options, elevated walkways, forklift barriers and car park solutions.

Ensure your Warehouse Shelving and Racking is Safe

When we think about warehouse safety, we typically think about machinery and personal protective equipment (PPE). Undoubtedly it is incredibly important to ensure that your machinery is running smoothly to compliance. It is also a legal requirement to ensure that both staff and pedestrians are appropriately dressed and protected from hazards while in your warehouse. However, the structural integrity of your shelving and pallet racking should never be overlooked.

Whether poorly designed, made and installed, badly stacked or ineptly managed, shelving and racking can pose a serious risk.

Poor quality racking can collapse, while badly stacked and managed shelving and racking can lead to objects falling and tumbling, with sometimes severe consequences.

The first step is to ensure that your pallet racking and shelving comes from a reputable manufacturer with a first class installation and maintenance service.

Second, it’s vital to ensure that you and your staff are following Australian safety guidelines when it comes to stacking goods. These guidelines include things like layout, safe working loads, operating instructions, the nature of the goods, collision protection and how to report a potential hazard or damage.

Finally, installing high-quality pallet leg protection can keep your racking and shelving safe from what’s going on on the ground floor. Pallet protectors stop forklifts and other machinery in their tracks and stop a collision from occurring.

Consider Elevated Walkways to Protect Employees

The easiest way to keep employees safe is to give them alternative walkways that keep working machines like forklifts and people on foot completely separate.

In a warehouse, everything should have its proper place, with good protective barriers demarcating each space.

However, barriers can take up a lot of space, and there may not be any direct way to walk through a warehouse when large machinery is being operated. So how can employees get around?

Installing elevated walkways is a great way to save space and also keep employees safe from traffic.

Elevated walkways are lightweight, easy to install and make transit around your warehouse safe and simple.

Elevated walkways use metal grilling for excellent grip, and handrails to prevent falls. They also free up your floor space for greater utility.

As with pallet racking and shelving, ensure that all your elevated walkways and stairs come from a reputable manufacturer with a first class installation and maintenance service.

Protect Pedestrians and Equipment with Forklift Barriers

Similar to the ethos behind installing elevated walkways, a lot of warehouse safety is about managing traffic and preventing collisions. This is where forklift barriers come in.

It’s not possible to undertake all warehouse operations from an elevated position, so ground personnel also need to be securely separated from incoming traffic.

Warehouse barriers not only provide a barrier against accidents, they also demarcate space and can be used to direct traffic appropriately through a colour code system and signs.

Warehouse barriers can be used to protect staff and pedestrians, as well as warehouse features such as shelving and racking, walls, offices, and stored goods.

Extend Safety Precautions to your Warehouse Car Park

Warehouse safety doesn’t stop at the door, it also extends to the outside spaces and car park. Work Safe Australia include car park safety as part of their warehouse traffic management guide. They recommend clearly marking spaces with traffic flow line markings and signs. However, you may also want to consider speed bumps, wheel stops and safety mirrors, to ensure that the space is manageable and well-protected.

By admin

Writing and blogging is my passion. Providing meaningful information to readers is my object.