The largest supplier and manufacturer of solid wood and composite moldings in North America with 7 manufacturing facilities and 26 distribution centers realized quickly they had a series issue on their hands. In both the manufacturing and distribution centers racking is a big part of the way both incoming and outgoing product is stored, sorted and categorized. With a vast number of SKU numbers associated with their product and different order lots the company struggled with the ability to know with certainty what weight is being placed on what rack. With varied capacity ratings on different B and C racking beams they found that they were replacing damaged beams caused by overloading. Faced with escalating costs of beam replacement they quickly realized they had a potential safety disaster on their hands as well should they not replace the beams and continue the practice of overloading. It became apparent that not knowing what weight was being placed on what beam presented their company with a host of costs both soft and hard.

Originally the request from the specialty paper producer was to implement access control to new lift trucks entering the operation. The thought was that maintaining a stringent forklift certification program and allowing only those authorized operators onto those trucks would improve safety and reduce ‘avoidable damage’. During discussions and presentation of the product by the local servicing dealer it was communicated how much more the Defender Impact and Safety Systems could provide beyond just access control.

Once the decision was made to go ahead a simple installation process of 2 hours by their material handling dealer technician was all that was required to put the unit into operation. Training was next to nothing as there are no buttons to push and no interruptions to the operation. Operators could clearly see and understand within seconds what the product weighed that they were lifting. Not only did it prevent overloading of beams but also allowed management to better layout product on different racking structures based on weight and flow. With certainty about weight and safety now built right into productivity they made an easy decision to out fit their entire fleet. Not only did they eliminate racking damage but they eliminated a potentially catastrophic situation should a racking structure collapses due to extreme weight.
A small price to pay for safety.