Safety Guardrails for Growing Warehouses

Your Business Growth and Safety

You've been pouring yourself into your business, and it's paying off in the form of rapid growth. That bodes well for your bottom line and the future of your warehouse. But it also means a sizable influx of additional congestion on the sales floor. In response, you need to take steps to protect your employees, equipment, and products from a collision. And that's where safety guardrails can prove immensely valuable.

Safety guardrails are simple, cost-effective tools for keeping people and equipment out of harm's way. With them, you can create lanes of travel and help everyone stay where they need to be. That, in turn, will prevent workplace accidents and give your team peace of mind while they are focused on hitting daily productivity goals.

More specifically, by investing in safety guardrails, you can accomplish the following:

Protect Your Team

Your workers are your company's most valuable assets. You can't grow your business without them, after all. And that means their safety should always come first. The chances of accidents increase as your warehouse gets bigger. Machines and falling items pose a threat to your employees.

With that in mind, safety guardrails can keep your team away from these and other hazards. Putting barriers in the right spots can lower the risk of accidents that could cause serious or fatal injuries. You can also use railing to help new hires learn where they should and shouldn't be walking.

Reduce the Risk of Equipment Damage

It's only a matter of time before you have an equipment accident and find yourself dealing with thousands in damages. The more machinery you have actively roaming around the warehouse, the higher the risk of an incident.

But safety guardrails can work wonders in helping prevent these costly accidents. You can use them to create travel lanes into and out of key areas of your facility. In turn, your employees will know where to drive and walk and what areas they need to stay out of for their own good.

Safeguard Your Inventory

Suppliers, manufacturers, and downstream clients alike each trust your warehouse to safely handle, store, and manage the goods within your facility. If you fail to live up to their expectations, you will damage your reputation and hinder your long-term growth.

The risk of inventory damage increases as you store more products and handle them more frequently. Accidental collisions can lead to damage, insurance claims, and other major headaches. Safety railings, in these circumstances, act as a barrier between your stock and potential hazards. Use them as shields to reduce the risk of a collision between forklifts or other heavy machinery and your inventory.

Ensure Compliance

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) imposes strict regulations on industrial facilities. You must ensure you are following its latest guidelines, as well as any other state or federal laws that apply to your industry. Safety guardrails are often required in certain high-risk areas, such as around loading docks and machinery zones. As such, they are a valuable tool for meeting these regulations and reducing the risk of fines or lawsuits.

Identify where you are required to install your railings and ensure your warehouse continues to stay up-to-date on these regulations. A simple oversight can expose your business to serious liability and endanger your workers.

Improve Traffic Flow

Keeping your warehouse organized is necessary to ensure that workers are able to flow through the facility quickly and efficiently. Safety guardrails help in this respect as well by marking travel pathways and helping employees understand where they should be standing, walking, and driving. The result is reduced congestion and confusion.

You can also use your guardrails to create designated zones within your warehouse. For example, you could cordon off storage areas from loading docks or machinery zones. That added organization will promote safety and help make your warehouse more efficient. Workers will know where they are supposed to place inventory and will be able to quickly progress from one task to the next.

Reduce Downtime and Increase Productivity

Imagine how much money your business would lose if even one of your forklift drivers collided with your warehouse's conveyor system. The resulting downtime could cost you tens of thousands of dollars in lost productivity. And beyond the financial impact, you'd have a slew of unhappy customers on your hands.

Safety guardrails can help reduce injury- and collision-related downtime. And by preventing accidents, your warehouse can operate more smoothly and maintain higher levels of productivity. In the long run, investing in guardrails can pay for itself by helping you avoid costly interruptions to your workflow.

Enhance Employee Confidence and Retention

People want to work in a safe environment and contribute to a company that has their best interests at heart. As such, if your team sees that you are investing in safety measures like guardrails, it will send a clear message that you value their well-being. In turn, they may be more confident in the work environment and their value to the company.

Happy and confident employees are more likely to stick around. They will also put forth their best effort every day if they believe you value and appreciate them. You may even experience reduced turnover and fewer call-ins, both of which are great for business.

Prepare for Future Growth

Being proactive about optimizing your facility will help ensure it is equipped to handle future growth. And investing in safety guardrails is a prime example of such. As operations continue to expand, the need for robust safety measures will only increase in tandem.

A solid safety infrastructure can make it easier to scale your operations. You will find it simpler to add more storage space, increase your workforce, or bring in new equipment. Onboarding additional workers will be easier as well, thanks to your well-organized and safe environment.

Get Your Guardrails

Don't wait until disaster strikes to think about safety. Invest in safety guardrails now and reduce the risk of a catastrophic workplace accident. A single incident can disrupt operations and result in serious harm to one of your employees. And to top it all off, your reputation will suffer. Safety guardrails are an investment in the long-term success and sustainability of your warehouse operations.