MRO Today - When forklifts and structures collide

When forklifts and structures collide

by Jim Ryan

A recent MRO Today article discussed the patterns in forklift/worker collisions, and provided some best practices tips on how to avoid them. In this article, we will take this discussion one step further to talk about the type of collisions that can actually be far more common in many plants — the collision of lift trucks (and their drivers) with physical structures in a plant or warehouse.

In some facilities, collisions between forklifts, columns, corners, racks, doors and so on are so frequent that there is little done to investigate the causes and possible ways to prevent similar incidents in the future. That is always a mistake, because a relatively minor incident can repeat itself in a way that turns out to be more damaging to workers, lift trucks or structures.

Also, repeated collisions with the same structure have potential to add up into impacts with more significant consequences. Repeated impacts on rack supports might one day cause the rack to collapse, damaging inventory stored on the racks and possibly causing severe injury to nearby workers. Repeated impacts on a column supporting a roof structure can dislodge a column to such an extent that roof repairs costing tens of thousands of dollars are needed.

What this means is that the first best-practices policy is to ensure that all forklift collisions are noted and recorded and that management is proactively looking for patterns that could suggest how these incidents occur and for remedial steps that can be taken to eliminate them in the future.

The first step alone, recording any and all collisions, also goes a long way in promoting worker attention to the potential for serious consequences of collisions. Constant vigilance works to extend the initial training for lift truck drivers and is always a best-practices recommendation by successful managers. OSHA’s certified Powered Industrial Truck Operator Training (PITOT) is necessary today more than ever given the high staff turnover in more and more companies.

That said, it is generally a mistake to assume that the person sent over by a staffing agency to fill a lift truck driver position is fully trained to drive one. Successful managers not only use training tools such as videos, they also institute additional tests for new lift truck drivers to pass before they are put to work.

Learning on the track
Even if there is plenty of employee and fork truck driver training, familiarity with the layout and the dangers of a given facility go a long way to preventing future collisions. This is why facilities with rapid employee turnover also often have higher collision rates. Implementing standard operating procedures that include reporting any and all collisions helps speed new workers’ orientation in facilities and keeps safety practices front-of-mind.

No matter how much attention is paid to preventing fork truck accidents, and no matter how much worker training and certification is provided, the truth is that accidents will happen. That is why managers need to investigate the various collision protection devices and products that have been developed in recent years. This way, when accidents do happen, the amount and severity of damage will be significantly reduced.

Naturally, this in no way means that simply having collision protection devices decreases the need for other prevention measures such as equipment inspection and driver training. This would be like assuming that since drivers wear seat belts, they don’t need speed limits, road signs or guardrails anymore. All of these measures work together to prevent or reduce the injury and damage caused when forklifts and buildings come together.

Better “bumpers”
The methods of protecting forklifts, structures and workers from impact injuries have evolved significantly over the years. You can see this in the design of modern lift trucks, which can include cages for drivers and seat belts. The benefits of these simple improvements in truck design seem obvious, but they were a long time in coming.

One of the earliest methods to protect structural columns from the impact of collisions was to pour concrete around the columns. That worked to protect columns from most collision damage, but it did nothing to protect the forklifts or drivers that hit the concrete!
This solution, which is still used in a surprising number of plants and warehouses today, also can incur significant costs. Managers are constantly writing up job orders to fix cracked and chipped concrete that results from repeated collisions.

A similarly dated solution to protect racks is using steel rack protectors attached to the floor in front of the rack uprights. These types of rack protectors can indeed prevent forklifts from hitting the rack uprights. However, here too, the damage done to the floor if the forklift collisions pull the bolts from the floor can incur significant — and repeated — costs for repair.

Further, collisions can bend the protectors, causing floor damage, but eventually pushing the steel protectors into the rack uprights, damaging what they were meant to protect.

Today, impact-absorbing molded products such as rack protectors, column protectors and corner placements are available that provide superior protection from lift truck/structure collisions and can sustain repeated impacts.

Some of these, such as those available from Sentry Protection Products, are molded of low-density polyethylene with a patented air-chamber system that allows air to escape during impact. They are easy to use, install or remove in minutes and are also fully washable. They are typically made in bright colors to provide visual cues to help forklift drivers avoid pillars, corners and related structural hazards.

Sometimes they are also color coded according to visual factory designs, such as red to indicate that they hold fire extinguishers.
Unlike the steel or concrete protectors mentioned previously, these impact-absorbing molded products attach directly onto the structures they are protecting. During collisions, this reduces the amount of impact absorbed by the structure itself.

Narrower lanes
Warehousing trends are actually increasing the need for impact-absorbing protection systems. In the effort to squeeze the most storage out of existing facilities, rack aisles are often designed closer to each other, which leaves less maneuvering space between the racks. This means more opportunities to hit the racks behind the driver.

The push for more operational efficiency also is pushing forklift operators to move faster. These trends, coupled with the high staff turnover in many facilities, work to increase accident rates.

Do we need protection?
Which types of facilities need collision protection devices? Any place where the size, speed or density of equipment is high is a good candidate for collision protection. The truth is that accidents can happen anywhere, anytime, despite all the best preparations and training. Collision protection is a smart second line of defense for when planning, equipment and training fail to prevent fork truck accidents.

Jim Ryan is general manager of Sentry Protection Products (www.sentrypro.com). He can be reached at jryan@sentrypro.com, or by phone at 888-265-8660.