Creating a Safe Warehouse for a Metal Manufacturer: One Column Protector at a Time

Challenge

Maintaining the structural integrity of your industrial storage solutions means more than just preserving the racking itself. It means keeping your inventory in good condition, putting effort into a safe environment for your workers, and ensuring your operations can run smoothly without interruptions. Even a minor collision in a warehouse can result in expensive consequences and time taken away from carrying out your operations.

When Modineer, a metal manufacturer in St. Peters, MO was looking for a solution to keep their inventory and people safe, they turned to ISS for warehouse racking. Having previously partnered with Modineer, we were already familiar with their operations and manufacturing environment.

The challenge for this metal manufacturer was to create a heavy-duty rack solution that would be accompanied with additional protection, as some of their uprights had been damaged over the years. With forklift traffic, material handling equipment, and workers moving around stations, this warehouse was ready for some new pallet rack uprights and column protectors.

Solution

With many moving parts in this manufacturing warehouse, the need for heavy duty shelving racks was a priority. Having worked with Modineer before, we knew that the extremely heavy dies needed to be stored on structural die racking and for the normal dies, teardrop pallet rack was able support their inventory. It did however require a heavier duty roll-form upright than standard, and the upright spec’d had over 43,000 lb capacity at 48” vertical beam spacing.

As this metal manufacturing plant needed to store large and bulky metal items, this type of industrial shelving and racking would be heavy duty enough to hold their inventory and keep items highly visible and organized.

Knowing that this metal manufacturer’s heavy duty storage shelving units may need to adapt over time, the shelves can be adjusted to different heights if inventory changes to ensure that items are stored efficiently without wasting space. These heavy-duty storage racks can also have units added on to them over time when the need for more space arises.

Not only did the Modineer team need heavy duty storage shelves, but they wanted to ensure a safe warehouse environment for their team. To keep the die racks and warehouse pallet racking safe, each upright would have a 24”h free standing column protector around it. Some of the previously installed column protectors also needed to be replaced.

One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to prevent damage is by incorporating column protectors into your racking system. These heavy-duty column protectors act as a first line of hit to heavy machinery like forklifts. Then, if there is a collision, your columns or uprights on your racking are protected or damage is minimal. Since your racking is what holds your inventory and keeps it safe, this can prevent costly damage in the long run.

Results

This metal manufacturer now has a storage solution with safety precautions in place. With high value inventory on these industrial shelving units, having column protectors on each set will help Modineer to avoid costly accidents and keep workflows on track in the case of collisions.

With column protectors and heavy duty shelving, these facility owners can feel better knowing that their racking is protected. If something were to happen, replacing a column protector would be simpler and more cost effective than having to replace the entire racking unit and losing money on inventory that may have gotten damaged in the process.

Looking for a Safe Solution?

Reach out to the ISS team here to let us know what you’re looking for, or chat through your storage needs with one of us at 1-800-875-6201.