Do Guardrails Improve Traffic Flow?

Optimizing Warehouse Traffic Flow with Guardrails

Warehouses have a lot of moving parts. From package handlers to pickers to forklift drivers and managers, people in vastly different roles must work together seamlessly to accomplish a common goal of ensuring a product gets to customers who want to buy it.

This is a daunting task that requires good strategic management, and traffic flow throughout the warehouse must be part of that plan. Without a traffic flow strategy, your warehouse can:

• Operate inefficiently, causing missed deadlines and lost revenue
• Sustain costly damage to the structure, equipment, and inventory
• Experience safety incidents that can hurt employees or result in loss of life

While you must consider multiple elements when it comes to traffic flow, guardrails are among the most important. Learn how installing high-quality guardrails in the right places can help people and inventory move safely and more efficiently through the building.

How Well-Placed Guardrails Support Safe and Efficient Traffic Flow

Guardrails can bring a number of benefits to your warehouse, including improvement in traffic flow. Here are four ways that these structures help you organize traffic to support your business goals.

Customize Flow

Every facility is different in terms of size, layout, functions, space needed for package handling, picking, inventory, and more. To remain efficient, you must be able to create a layout and traffic pattern that works for the unique features of your business.

The good news is that, in most cases, guardrail size and placement can be tailored to match your specific requirements. In turn, this allows you to organize the space in any way you choose in order to maximize productivity and create a flow that makes sense and avoids confusion and time waste among employees.

Clear Pathways

Perhaps one of the main ways that guardrails improve traffic flow in busy warehouses is by providing clear pathways for employees to move throughout the building. Guardrails are often used to subdivide pedestrian and forklift paths, which significantly reduces movement bottlenecks.

This means that employees on foot don't have to worry about moving out of the way for forklifts to get through. In the same way, forklift drivers can maintain their speed without worrying about interference from pedestrians. This allows everyone to move through the space efficiently, focusing on the work at hand instead of having to be cautious and concerned with what others are doing.

Promote Awareness

When you are driving a vehicle on any road (including one inside of a warehouse), it's important to be able to look ahead to anticipate your next move or reassess your safety. Fortunately, guardrails allow forklift drivers to do just that.

With a clearly defined path for them to move about, a forklift driver can look ahead and anticipate upcoming turns and get a sense of what might be in their way, such as a building post or a piece of equipment. This is yet another benefit that will help them move more easily and efficiently throughout the space.

Prevent Accidents

Forklift accidents are commonplace in warehouses across the country. According to data from the National Safety Council, forklift accidents accounted for 73 employee deaths in 2022. Additionally, there were nearly 25,000 OSHA-reported DART cases in which employees had to take days away from work, have their job duties restricted, or take a job transfer because of a forklift-related injury.

Forklift accidents can be devastating to your workforce and the business. However, guardrails can prevent accidents by improving traffic flow. For example, they can reduce the likelihood that drivers will run into posts or fall off of elevated pathways. With fewer hazards in the way, drivers can move better and more freely in the warehouse.

Increase Confidence

Confusing and hazardous pathways can lead to a lack of confidence among pedestrians and forklift drivers. When your employees aren't confident about moving from place to place, they become much more hesitant. This hesitation can lead to more mistakes and cut down on productivity. Guardrails can correct this issue, instilling the confidence your employees need to maintain quick, confident, and productive movement.

The Right Guardrails Help You Perfect Traffic Flow and Warehouse Productivity

If you're wondering how to increase productivity in your warehouse, your goal can be achieved using guardrails to guide forklift and pedestrian traffic. This simple solution can help you maintain clear pathways in which employees can avoid accidents and move efficiently.

With a customized layout and strong, high-quality materials, you'll be able to create a traffic flow plan that can make your warehouse safer and more productive for everyone.