Safety and efficiency are not at odds with one another. In fact, they’re most often complementary, and it’s a priority for facility managers to optimise. Outdoor traffic management often gets all the attention, but the internal dynamics of a building requires just as much thought. It’s important to carefully compare different types of indoor barriers with a reliable expert like Seton so that your barriers are effective in protecting both people and assets. Plus, guiding the flow of traffic is an opportunity for gains in efficiency as you remove the friction of movement.
Why indoor protection barriers make work safer
The thrust behind any indoor barrier system is of course risk mitigation. Busy environments like distribution centers, there is a coexistence of heavy machinery (forklifts and reach trucks) and foot traffic. It’s an obvious high-risk scenario that a lot of training and onboarding revolves around. Don’t wear earphones, have steel-toe cap shoes, and so on. But without physical demarcation, the chance of a collision increases regardless of the amount of training received.
What goes overlooked is how well it protects assets, not just people. Buildings are often filled with vulnerable infrastructure like support columns and electrical panels. Taking one of these out, even with a low-speed impact from a pallet jack, can result in downtime. Domino effects occur in shelving units which are dangerous to workers, and one small bump can result in many days of downtime. Safeguarding these junctions helps businesses protect the nervous system of their operations. It’s even more important when experimental, new assets are introduced, like warehouse robots, and are prone to going off track. As more facilities adopt automated warehouse robots, putting the right protective barriers in place becomes essential to prevent costly collisions and keep operations running smoothly.
What are the different types of indoor barriers?
Not every area of a facility needs the same level of protection – some more, some less. Being over the top in low-risk zones can lead to personnel respecting the barriers less and less, as they see them as a needless obstruction to their own work.
How you go about choosing the right equipment always begins with an assessment of the specific hazards present in a given zone. These zones should be small and specific. So, a high-traffic loading bay requires much heavier protection than a retail queue.
To find the best fit, you can compare the barriers based on their materials, impact rating and permanence. Steel barriers have the most rigid protection, great for protecting structural components, while polymer barriers purposefully flex upon impact and absorb energy then return to their original shape.
So, steel stops the vehicle entirely, but polymer barriers protect the floor’s integrity by dissipating the kinetic energy rather than transferring the full force into the concrete anchors.
Applications for industrial barriers
In large operations, industrial barriers are used to create safe zones for workers. Think of floor-mounted railings that run alongside pedestrian walkways, like in a brewery. While the primary benefit may be to keep staff safe, the secondary benefit may be to shepherd brewery tour guests and stop them from grabbing items off the conveyor belt.
Another application is racking protection. Corner guards and end-of-aisle protectors are used where forklifts are often turning in tight spaces. No matter how skilled the driver, the barriers do a good job of taking the brunt of any impact so the storage system remains intact. Safety experts like Seton often recommend high-visibility colours and heavy-duty materials.
Choosing between permanent and flexible solutions
While some areas need fixed steel installations, other parts of a facility may want more adaptable solutions. Spills might be rare, but they happen. When they do, a temporary solution is needed to keep people away from the hazard, then freed up after clean-up.
An extendable barrier is one choice for this as these units are lightweight and portable – they’re deployed in seconds to block off an aisle. It’s a clear visual deterrent. For areas where traffic flow changes from morning to afternoon, like transport hubs or reception areas, a system of posts and barriers can be used to create organised queuing systems or even temporary walkways that can be reconfigured as and when needed. This modularity allows a facility to breathe and adapt. They can also open up opportunities to workflow changes without the sunk cost of permanent alterations.
Long-term benefits
Investing in high-quality indoor protection is a proactive step. It’s often seen as a cost, but it’s an investment with a return in the form of fewer accidents, lower insurance premiums and legal payouts, greater efficiency and less downtime. Some of these are hard to forecast, but that makes them no less real.
A well-organised facility should be safe, but also adaptable. Traffic flows can be monitored, and the more IoT and data that is collected, the clearer the results are for new barrier installations. Near-miss accidents should be encouraged to be reported as they help paint a picture too.
Protecting people is only one half of the equation, with assets being the other. This is not an exercise in just health and safety compliance.
