Simple Ways to Take Care of Your Warehouse Racking System

A warehouse is essential to any manufacturing, logistics, or supply chain operations. Therefore it is important to keep all equipment and areas in the warehouse in optimal condition so that the facility can operate with high productivity, efficiency, and safety. One major aspect of warehouses is that their racks are used to load and store palletized goods. 

A poorly-maintained warehouse racking system not only endangers the safety of the staff but can potentially lead to a huge loss of business opportunities in the form of damaged products or customer dissatisfaction with the brand due to inefficiency. 

To prevent such adversity from happening, it is crucial that regular inspections and maintenance are done to the racking system. Here are a few simple ways that you can follow to keep your warehouse racking system in tip-top condition.

Protect Your Pallet Rack

• Install Protectors (e.g. Frame guards, Safety barriers, Upright protectors)
  • These protectors act as barriers to absorb shock, thus shielding the rack from collision instead of transmitting the impact onto the rack and damaging it. These guards and protectors are highly recommended if your warehouse uses machinery for order picking, such as forklifts or reach trucks.
• Keep Flue Spaces
  • Rack flue spaces are necessary for ventilation and safety purposes. They allow for water sprinklers to reach the base through the racks in the event of a fire outbreak. Use pallet stoppers and flue space keepers to prevent large items from blocking the flue spaces when they are loaded onto the rack. Alternatively, you can also place labels to inform operators to leave spaces between the rows of storage.
• Do NOT Overload
  • Take note of what your pallet rack was designed to hold. Overloading the rack stresses the joints over time which can lead to unstable racks at risk of collapse. Place warning signs to indicate the maximum weight and height loading for your rack, and ensure that your operators follow them strictly.

General Maintenance

• Check and Tidy Pallet Spaces
  • Ensure that your pallets are packed correctly and sort out small parts within your shelving so as to make product selection and order picking easier. Having a clean and organized pallet rack also helps you to identify out-of-date or slow-moving stocks that need to be prioritized.

• Create a Cleaning Roster
  • Cleaning warehouses can be an arduous task due to their sheer size. Rather than aiming to clean the whole warehouse at once, it is much more achievable to focus on one aspect at a time. Create a list of cleaning tasks and allocate a couple of workable duties to each week or month. Remember to regularly rotate through the list of tasks so as to keep the overall warehouse in tip-top shape.

• Assign Responsibilities
  • Certain tasks cannot be waited upon to be scheduled onto a roster. General maintenance responsibilities such as emptying waste bins when full, floor cleaning, pallet racks supervision, and hazard reporting should be assigned to a certain staff member or team in a specific section of the warehouse.

Your warehouse racking system holds your products that are vital to your entire business. Take this chance to protect your investment better or consider upgrading your racking system. Here at Aracking & Shelving Solutions, we offer the best products to boost your productivity and make your warehouse safer. Contact us to find out more about our services.