We have a very large warehouse at one of our sites and I am looking for help or advice on safety checks.

The racking is inspected annually by a Storage Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) approved racking inspector.

We have risk assessments in place that I am reviewing at present and then I will develop some Safe Systems of Work where required.

We have a reporting process for any damage.

What else should we be doing with regard to inspections and how frequently?

My thoughts are:-
Monthly management inspection for any damage to the racking, I would like them to be trained on this so any course recommendations welcomed.

Weekly safety check of palletised goods in racking,

I will be developing checklist for thease checks but if anyone is willing to share what they have then this would help me compare to make sure I haven’t missed anything.

All help or advice appreciated.

grim72

That would be great.

How large is very large?

Frequency / detail of the checks needs to be reasonably practicable, what works for one company may or may not work for you.

We have similar to what you describe however we have:

- Daily checks of palletised goods in each aisle (responsibility of Goods In Manager)
- 1 racking aisle checked per week in detail for any defects (responsibility of Maintenance Manager)
- Head Office SEMA trained internal-auditor inspects entire racking system 3 times per year
- Annual external inspection as you describe

All internal persons have completed a SEMA-approved "racking awareness course" (this does not qualify them as an inspector, but we feel suitable to show competence in undertaking in house checks). There is no legal requirement for this, but with our set-up it was the best option rather than training persons inhouse, this may or may not be the best option for you.

In addition, and coming at it from the other angle, look at monitoring systems for forklift drivers (i.e. monitored to ensure they are working safely and not colliding with racking) - we ask operational management to monitor 2 persons per shift.

Also look at incoming pallet inspections to ensure the stock that is slotted is stable.

Oh and ensure you have a policy that the racking layout is not changed without consultation with supplier as load ratings may change (and if you have sprinklers within the racking, these would need to be moved as well to ensure appropriate clearance distances).

Ours are 3 or 4 bays high too however we average 5000 - 6000 slotted pallets per warehouse. I think if we had less then we'd look to check a greater proportion of our slotted palletised goods (currently at approx 1/10 per day).