Warehouse Safety Tips and Reminders for Everyday Use
At Shelf-Clips.com, we think it’s part of our job description not only to write information about our products, but, more importantly, to provide useful tips and knowledge that you can put to work in your warehouse. As a provider of safety clips for pallet rack and shelving, we also think that a good portion of that information should be dedicated to helping you keep your warehouse, and your workplace in general, safe for everyone. Warehouse safety is all about taking the proper precautions, and we tend to agree with Ben Franklin’s take that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We like to think we know our fair share about safety but, in comparison to the internet as a whole, we have a lot to learn ourselves. That’s why we decided to curate some safety tips from around the web, as well as a few of our own, and consolidate them into one article as a point of future reference. We hope it serves you as well as it has served us.
1. Designate hazard zones: If there’s an area of your warehouse that’s particularly dangerous, make sure it’s commun
icated to everyone who works there. This may mean using guard rails, cones, fencing or other materials, or, in some cases, only letting a select few employees into designated areas. This is a simple step that can decrease the odds of an unsuspecting or untrained employee getting injured. Source: www.certifyme.net
2. Use pallet rack Capacity labels: In a perfect world, all warehouse employees will be cognizant of pallet rack capacities when placing loads on racking. However, to ensure there’s no confusion, each rack system should have easy-to-read capacity labels in plain sight. Source: http://blog.akequipment.com/2014/10/pallet-rack-capacity-labels-safety.html
3. Make sure floors are swept and kept clear: One of the most common common accidents that take place in warehouses is the often avoidable fall. Falling can be harmless, but can also result in tragedy if severe enough. Perhaps the simplest way to help prevent falls is to ensure floors and walkways are cleared of debris and other matter that could facilitate falling. Source: rapidinventory.com
4. Don’t block sprinklers or anything else fire-related: This one’s pretty self-explanatory, but it can be helpful to be reminded of it once in a while anyway. Blocking things that allow fires to be extinguished or prevent safe escape is as dangerous as it is illegal.
5. Use the right technique when manually lifting: This is an underrated safety tip. If your job involves any type of physical lifting, be sure to lift correctly. This means using primarily your lower body to do the brunt of the work, and recruiting a partner when necessary.
6. Guard pallet rack columns with column protectors: Rack collapse is a fairly uncommon occurrence considering the vast number of 
warehouses around the world. Still, it’s highly important to maintain the structural integrity of pallet rack. An integral part of protecting your racking from abuse is the use of column protectors to defend against forklift collisions. Source: http://www.palletracknow.co/superior-pallet-rack-upright-protection/
7. Stack loads evenly and straight: Again, this tip is fairly common-sense, but it’s worth reminding ourselves to do it, as the daily grind of work can often result in carelessness and/or overconfidence when it comes to loading and unloading heavy loads. Source: https://www.osha.gov/Publications/warehousing.html
8. Use Safety Pins for Pallet Rack: Last but certainly not least, take the basic safety precaution of utilizing safety pins in your pallet rack systems. Pallet rack beams can easily become dislodged by forklift drivers, potentially damaging inventory and putting workers in danger. Safety pins are relatively inexpensive, easy to install and, most important, make for a safer warehouse. Source: http://shelf-clips.com
It gets harped on a lot, especially when it comes to settings such as warehouses or construction, but discussing safety truly never gets old. Until the injury and fatality rates are whittled down to zero, it will be a topic that’s worthy of being talked about. As a provider of pallet rack safety clips, we want to make sure we’re contributing, even if it’s only by aggregating other peoples’ tips from around the web. There will be more articles to follow, safety and otherwise, so make sure to check back again soon.