Can Rack Guards Prevent Product Loss?

Enhance Warehouse Safety with Rack Guards

Rack guards offer a convenient solution to companies looking to protect their warehouse racks, equipment, and products. These steel guards are durable enough to withstand forklift impacts, ensuring that your material-moving equipment won't cause costly damage to your infrastructure. Devising a system for installing the guards will help you get the best possible protection.

Use Data Analytics to Measure Traffic Flow

While you ordinarily use warehouse management software to measure the flow of inventory, you can leverage that same data to address safety. Analyze your inventory transactions to identify the racks that see the most forklift traffic. You'll likely find that the most visited parts of your warehouse also have the highest number of accidents.

These high-traffic areas are the first places to set up guards. You can use rack guards to reinforce the sections of racking that suffer the most damage. Since impact-related product loss usually parallels rack destruction, the guards will deliver multiple benefits in these busy zones.

Protect Staging and Picking Racks

In addition to identifying high-traffic areas, you should also highlight specific racks that get more usage. Staging racks and rack positions that see rapid pick-and-fill processes will suffer more daily wear and tear. Add rack guards to reduce the repair needs for these locations.

Forklift drivers often feel rushed to pick from these spots. Without any barriers in place, it's easy for them to misjudge a pallet's position and puncture the product with their forks. Rack guards reduce the likelihood of this costly type of damage. To ensure proper fork placement, position the guards to create a narrow entry for each row.

Choose the Right Protection for Your Warehouse Racks

As you determine the rack guard placement in your warehouse, consider the style of racks in the facility. The available options include rack leg guards, edge guards, end guards, and other types of protective barriers. However, not every type of guard is suitable for every type of rack.

For example, VNA (very narrow aisle) racks prohibit the use of protruding guards. Similarly, you won't need guards in the aisles. For this type of system, corner or end guards will protect the outer edges of the racks.

A good rule of thumb is to pick the guards that will offer the most protection without introducing new obstacles or compromising productivity.

Consider Your Inventory Storage Needs

Your products will also influence the style of rack guards you'll have in your facility. Heavy items, such as machine parts, require stronger, more durable racks. Since impact damage can weaken these racks, it might be necessary to install more guards. In this situation, you might need a full system of guards running along each aisle.

Similarly, hazardous or volatile materials demand extra safeguarding. Guards that protect the guardrails, rack locations, and aisle corners will offer more safety under such conditions.

Conversely, a warehouse that stores paper products or empty plastic bottles won't need as much security. In this situation, end guards and corner guards may offer sufficient support. Evaluate your facility's history of product loss to estimate the level of protection you need.

Take Rack Height Into Account

Tall racks let you store more items in a smaller area. Unfortunately, these racks come with certain drawbacks. One of the more concerning problems with tall racks is that the higher locations are less stable. A fork can hit a rack leg hard enough to cause the higher positions to wobble. If one pallet on a top level falls, it can lead to a cascading effect that destroys multiple pallets' worth of products.

Use more rack guards around tall racks to minimize this danger. The guards will keep forks from directly impacting exposed locations. Keep in mind that these types of racks require more safeguards on the ends of the aisles and in front of the legs.

Update Your Rack Guards

When the time comes to repair or replace your warehouse racks, make it a point to include rack guards with the installation. Also, add guards to any new racks you install as you expand your warehouse.

Keeping up with the need for rack guards helps you maintain the highest protection for your racks, products, and personnel. It will also help you save on the cost of installing guards throughout the facility at one time.

Rack Guards Are a Solid Investment for Your Organization

When you install rack guards in areas where impacts are most likely, you'll see an immediate change in your operating costs. You'll lose fewer products, and your rack system will require less frequent repairs. Combined with devices like bollards and guardrails, the right rack guards can help you create a safer and more productive warehouse environment.