5 Benefits of Installing Guardrails Throughout Your Warehouse
Posted by Rhino Rails on Jul 29, 2024
Though guardrails may not be necessary in every part of your warehouse, installing them regardless can provide you with a wide range of benefits. Furthermore, rails come in a variety of measurements and styles, making it possible to create a unique warehouse space.
As you look for ways to improve the look, safety, and efficiency of your warehouse, explore these six key advantages of designing a rail system:
1. Using Guardrails Protects Your Infrastructure
Even mild impacts from a forklift can significantly damage your metal inventory racks. You can work to minimize such incidents by requiring forklift certification and safety training for your employees, but even so, accidents will still happen and your warehouse infrastructure will require repairs.
Relying on guardrails can work to minimize impact damage to your warehouse's inventory racks, walls, and other parts of its infrastructure. They stand out several inches, ensuring a driver will only hit them, not the items they are in place to protect. And since steel rails have the strength to stand up against forceful impacts, you won't have to worry about driver accidents destroying your infrastructure, even if an accident occurs.
2. Reduced Product Damage
In addition to affecting the integrity of the facility's infrastructure, forklift impacts often result in product damage and waste by shaking things loose and causing them to fall. Additionally, forklifts can crush, puncture, or dent products with very little force.
In the same sense as the previous benefit, installing rails along your warehouse's aisles places a barrier between your forklifts and your inventory. You won't have to worry about drivers riding too close to products or damaging items in corner slots. Even if they should make a sharp turn, they will collide with the rail before they get close to your inventory.
3. Guardrails Promote Better Traffic Flow
The distinct yellow color of the guardrails you install will help keep forklift operators aware of turns, narrow spaces, and other driving hazards.
Guardrails are especially useful in fast-paced environments where multiple forklift drivers are sharing the same spaces. The eye-catching appearance will help your employees stay alert to changes that will affect the flow of traffic. They'll be able to anticipate stops sooner, for instance, which lowers the risk that they end up colliding with one another.
4. Increased Worker Safety
It's not uncommon for on-foot workers to share a warehouse space with forklift operators. You might have employees conducting cycle counts, working on special projects, or searching for specific items, for instance. In any case, you'll keep those employees safer with rails separating them from forklift traffic.
There's also the matter of implied safety. If a worker feels unsafe, their concerns will inhibit their ability to work productively. The increased presence of guardrails will give them a stronger sense of safety. That will boost their confidence and help them deliver their best work in turn.
5. Customized Layouts
Outlining your warehouse layout with steel rails can help highlight crucial areas within your facility, thereby making it easier for new employees, visitors, and facility managers to navigate the large area. You can install them around machinery, office spaces, and forklift parking areas, for instance.
You can also create permanent work areas by installing rails to outline a floor plan. For example, you might need to rework finished products on a regular basis. That will require workers to set aside a work area amid forklift traffic. Using rails can help distinguish these areas. While a forklift can drive over a painted line on the floor, steel rails will keep drivers from encroaching on these areas.
6. Compliance With Safety Regulations
As you manage your warehouse, you must remain in compliance with federal and state safety guidelines. Even though you technically comply by painting yellow or red lines on the floor or walls, that paint will wear or chip away over time. As a result, you can be issued a safety violation even though you initially thought your facility was compliant.
Installing safety rails in these areas supplements painted surfaces by creating barriers that can't erode. While you should still touch up worn paint, adding rails in your facility demonstrates your company's dedication to workplace safety.
Find Guardrails to Meet Every Need
By working with a reliable guardrail supplier, you can create a rail system that meets the unique needs of your warehouse. Regardless of the size or layout of your warehouse, steel rails will help you design a safe and aesthetically pleasing environment. For their relatively low costs, these safety features deliver a wealth of advantages.
