Picking up the pieces

Prevention, prevention, prevention

Once the crash has been cleaned up, it’s important to put measures in place to prevent another from happening.

Start by making sure you are using good design practices and are compliant with all labour regulations.

Most provinces require rack structures to have documentation that formally establishes their capacity. Make sure that documentation is available to site personnel and put procedures in place to ensure the racks cannot be overloaded. You can accomplish this by posting the load limits on plaques, but only if the person loading the racks knows the weight of the pallet.

It’s a good practice to make sure the capacity of the rack exceeds the heaviest pallet that could possibly go into it; an audit of your products is a good way to help you determine how much your heaviest pallet weighs.

Employees should be encouraged to report damage to racking so that corrective measures can be taken immediately. Workers must know what to look for. CSA offers a full-day training program that teaches how to conduct proper rack inspections; various other companies offer shorter inspection courses as well.

You may want to schedule annual rack inspections too, to make sure your staff isn’t missing anything.

When you have rack repairs, make sure they are fully certified by the proper authorities.

Remember, most rack collapses occur as a result of lift truck driver error. Make sure all drivers are fully licensed and properly supervised.

High-traffic areas in the warehouse may be especially vulnerable to damage; you might want to consider adding reinforced uprights or post guards in these spaces.

If you follow these guidelines you can greatly reduce the likelihood of a crash occurring. You can never eliminate the risk outright, but if a collapse does happen, it is more likely to be caused by an isolated incident directly attributable to an operational error than by a systematic problem with your facility. Moreover, you’ll be able to respond in a procedural manner because you’ll have done your due diligence.

Tony Mulholland, PEng, PMM (tony@rnw.ca) is the head of Mississauga, Ontario-based consultancy Rack Net-Works.