Conduct a Safety Audit for Guardrail Needs

Prioritizing Warehouse Guardrail Safety

As a business owner or operations manager, warehouse safety is sure to be a high priority for you. Auditing your safety plan regularly for proper guardrail positioning is one of the best things you can do to keep structures, equipment, inventory, and — most importantly — people out of harm's way.

Still, with so much advice out there about guardrail placement, how do you prioritize which areas to focus on? Discover what you should be taking into consideration as you conduct your safety audit to determine your warehouse's guardrail needs.

The Importance of Warehouse Guardrails

According to the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), there are about 35,000 serious forklift injuries per year. The same agency calculates that warehouse employees have an incidence rate of 5.5 per 100 employees, which is more than double the rate seen across all industries.

As a result, OSHA issues guidelines for warehouse guardrail selection and placement. If you don't follow these rules, your warehouse could incur serious fines and penalties, including a complete business shutdown. Having guardrails in place protects your business from this outcome.

Additionally, guardrails keep everyone safe at work and help prevent serious injuries. These structures protect employees from potentially deadly forklift collisions. They also safeguard the building structure and heavy-duty fuel and electrical equipment. Without guardrails, a warehouse facility is full of opportunities for safety violations and disasters.

What to Consider in a Guardrail Safety Audit

Any safety audit is a big deal because there's so much at stake. In addition to compliance requirements, you need to consider anything that can harm your employees, equipment, or building structures. Here's an in-depth overview of what you should account for as you solidify your guardrail needs.

OSHA Guidelines

Before you begin your audit, ensure that you have familiarized yourself with the latest OSHA guidelines regarding guardrail placement for a safe environment. These guidelines cover a lot of ground, including:

• Vertical post and horizontal rail spacing
• Guardrail height
• Guardrail materials and construction
• Fall protection for mezzanine levels
• Visual warnings near loading docks

You should be able to audit your warehouse according to OSHA's guidelines to ensure you're ready for a compliance inspection and aren't running an unsafe operation.

People-First Thinking

As you conduct your safety audit, it's important that you make protecting people your top priority. When possible, there should be a guardrail in any location where a human being might come in contact with a forklift.

You'll want to ensure there's a solid barrier to delineate walking lanes from the ones in which your forklifts ride. You should also place barriers near dock areas, work cells, and picking areas. This significantly reduces the likelihood that even one life will be lost due to a collision.

Structural Impacts

In addition to people, you must keep your building structure safe. You should ensure that you are protecting walls as well as columns supporting the roof, mezzanines, or elevated platforms from damage. These structures are particularly vulnerable to impact, which could ultimately jeopardize a building's integrity and put your workforce in danger.

Elevation Changes

During your walkthrough, note any areas where forklifts navigate elevation changes of more than two inches. You should also consider guardrails around the dock, which can be multiple feet off the ground when no trucks are present. Having guardrails in these areas keeps forklift drivers from careening off the side of an elevated area.

Dangerous Equipment

Depending on the type of warehouse you run, you may have heavy-duty equipment that performs functions such as:

• Generating power
• Charging forklift batteries
• Refueling your forklifts
• Controlling some of the automated features in the building

A forklift running into this kind of equipment will cause downtime for the business and could lead to dangerous explosions. You'll need guardrails around these areas to prevent harm to employees and the property.

Inventory Protection

In any warehouse setup, the metal racks that hold your inventory can easily create blind intersections where employees don't know what they're walking or driving into. To avoid collisions that can cause injury to people and damage to your product, consider placing guardrails at the ends of inventory aisles to properly divide and control traffic.

Guardrail Safety Audits Ensure Robust Protection at Every Turn

Keeping your employees, equipment, and inventory safe is about much more than regulatory compliance. Having the proper safety measures in place protects your business and the people who work there at every turn.

Strategically placed guardrails can prevent injury, death, and expensive damage. Conducting a safety audit to ensure you have them in the right places can preserve human life and help your business thrive.