What’s the Risk of a Poor-Quality Racking Installation?

Pallet racks may be a great storage solution within your warehouse, but if done improperly, dangerous situations within your warehouse can occur. Poor-quality racking installation runs the risk collapsing pallet racks, or even your entire pallet rack system collapsing.

Achieving optimum operational capacity within your warehouse, allowing for increased profitability, mostly depends on the storage solution installed. As such, implementing the correct racking system in your warehouse is fundamental in maximising productivity and allowing for efficiency within your storage space. Poor-quality racking installation will affect the efficiency within your warehouse, but most significantly, risks the health and safety of your workers.

Main risks

The main risks of poor-quality racking Installation centre around falling loads, and accidents when in transit. Largely, this can be due to problems with the designing and installation of the industrial racking that has been implemented. Regarding accidents during transit, this is often a result of inadequate lighting and other safety measures during the installation process.

Solutions…

Preventative measures to eliminate the danger of falling items or loads within your warehouse is essential to implement. In most cases, where inventory is stored high on racks and are stacked incorrectly, however, it is important to consider that the lateral pallet spacing is right as pallets that are too close together are more difficult to access. In turn, accessing your stock with a forklift is more difficult, increasing the likelihood of a driver making a mistake and bumping into pallets. The same rule applies for vertical space: a minimum of 10 inches is recommended, and plenty of space must be available for drivers to maneuverer pallets to load and offload.

With reducing risks of accidents during transit, ensuring the racks aren’t overloaded and mis-loaded is essential. Racks can collapse if not loaded properly, and this applies for when the capacity of the rack is disregarded, as well as when loads are not evenly distributed.

The process of planning, designing and installing a top-quality racking system is essential for your storage space; competent people must be employed to install the racking in accordance with safety regulations and instructions.

Lighting your storage space adequately means that errors due to dark conditions will be eliminated. Rack aisles may be known as notoriously difficult to light, but it must be prioritised using modern lighting systems.

Inspection

Equally important to consider is regular inspection of your racking system to reduce the risks of a poor-quality racking system. Regular inspections should be made to avoid issues of no hardware being out of place and other risks. Regular and planed inspections are required to identify the extent of any racking damage, and how this may be redeemed. Ensuring that your team are safeguarded, by installing a good quality racking system means that regular training is required to allow your team to report any faults. Further inspections carried out by an expert are required in addition to this.

Granted, there may be no such thing as zero risk when it comes to high-risk working environments. However, implementing certain measures, such as working with prestigious and renowned Space Optimisation Companies that make it their mission to tailor to your needs whilst working in compliance with safety regulations, will largely decrease the risks of poor-quality racking installations and the risks aforementioned.

Don’t forget to encourage your staff to report any damage or faults with your installed racking to enable inspection and to avoid further, and possible irreparable, damage.

Consult Professionals!

At DC Space & Storage solutions, we specialise and prioritise every step of the storage solution process: from the planning and designing, all the way through to the inspections and maintenance. Our nationally recognised talent as a Space Optimisation Company ensures that our racking installation process is done professionally, properly and within safety guidelines.

We offer our customers a bespoke, end-to-end service: contact us today for a no-obligation free estimate on the services you require for your storage space, and avoid the risks that poor-quality racking installation has within your warehouse.