Capstone: a warehouse traffic management plan

This capstone brings the course together. You will work through a traffic management and lift truck safety plan for an invented warehouse, Riverbend Distribution, step by step: describing the site, identifying hazards, choosing the fleet and training, laying out routes and crossings, securing the dock, setting up charging and fuelling, and deciding how the plan will be supervised and measured. The site, people and numbers are fictional. The method is the one you would use on a real site.

The site

Riverbend Distribution is a single-storey warehouse of about 12,000 m² that stores and ships packaged food for grocery stores. It operates two shifts, five days a week, with about 60 workers per shift, of whom 18 operate trucks. The building has:

• ten dock doors on the north wall with hydraulic levellers, used for both receiving and shipping;
• selective racking 9 m high in 14 rows, with aisles currently 3.4 m wide;
• a case-picking area at floor level where pickers build mixed pallets from pick faces at the front of the racking;
• an office, washrooms and a break room along the south wall, and a time clock by the main pedestrian entrance in the southeast corner;
• a battery charging area along the east wall;
• an outdoor yard on the west side with a gravel area used to store empty pallets and a propane cylinder cage.

The current fleet is eight sit-down electric counterbalanced trucks, six powered walkie pallet trucks, three order pickers and a propane pneumatic-tire truck used in the yard. Over the last year the site recorded one injury, a picker whose foot was run over by a pallet truck, plus 140 rack repairs and four reported near misses.

Step 1: identify the hazards

Start by walking the site at different times, watching operations, reading the incident and damage records, and talking to operators, pickers and drivers. At Riverbend this turns up the following:

Step 2: match the fleet and training to the work

The fleet should suit the work, and every operator should be trained and evaluated for the trucks they use. Two questions arise at Riverbend: are the aisles right for the trucks, and should the propane truck come indoors at all?

For the propane truck, the hierarchy points to substitution: keep it outdoors and use an electric truck to move pallets between the yard and the dock door, or replace it with an electric pneumatic-tire truck rated for outdoor use. Cylinder changes move to the yard, at the cage, away from the building openings.

Step 3: lay out routes and crossings

The biggest single improvement at Riverbend is to separate the pedestrian route from the truck routes. The plan proposes:

• a barrier-protected walkway, at least 1.2 m wide, running from the time clock along the south wall past the office and break room, then north along the east wall to the dock office;
• two gated crossings over the main cross aisle, at the two places where pickers need to reach the pick area, with stop lines for trucks on both sides and mirrors;
• one-way traffic in the main cross aisle and the dock aisle, reducing head-on meetings;
• the empty pallets moved from the aisle ends to the yard, clearing sight triangles;
• improved lighting at the west end of the rack rows;
• the pick area separated in time: replenishment by reach trucks in the hour before each shift and during breaks, with pickers kept out of an aisle when a replenishment truck enters it, controlled by aisle-entry lights.

Step 4: secure the dock

The dock plan replaces inconsistent chocking with a positive system:

• vehicle restraints at all ten doors, interlocked with the levellers and doors, with red and green lights for drivers and operators;
• trailer stands for every uncoupled trailer;
• a driver waiting room with a window onto the dock; drivers may not enter the dock floor;
• paperwork and keys released by the shipper only after the restraint is disengaged;
• dock doors closed when no trailer is present, with barrier arms on the two doors used for staging;
• trailer floor and lighting checks before the first truck enters.

Step 5: charging and fuelling

The charging area is reorganized: bollards in front of the chargers, combustible packaging removed, an eyewash and drench station installed within a short, unobstructed walk, a spill kit and fire extinguisher, ventilation checked against the hydrogen output of the fleet, and a written charging procedure. As the fleet is renewed, the site will evaluate lithium-ion trucks for the reach truck fleet, which would remove watering and reduce gassing but bring thermal runaway into the emergency plan. Propane cylinder changes move to the outdoor cage, done only by trained workers.

Step 6: people, supervision and measurement

The plan also fixes the systems behind the hazards. Every operator is re-trained and evaluated on each truck type they use, with site-specific modules on the new layout, dock procedure and charging; the files will show truck class, dates, evaluator and result, and re-evaluation will follow a three-year cycle plus the usual triggers. Supervisors will observe each operator at least monthly. Telematics with impact sensors and operator log-in will be fitted to the new reach trucks. The joint health and safety committee will review the plan and take part in quarterly walk-throughs.

Step 7: implement and review

A plan that sits in a binder changes nothing. Implementation needs a sequence, owners and dates. Quick wins come first: moving the empty pallets, closing open dock doors, enforcing chocks until restraints arrive, moving propane changes outdoors and fixing the charging area. Larger items follow: the walkway and crossings, the dock restraints, the reach truck fleet and the retraining program. The plan is reviewed after any incident, after any significant change to layout, fleet or volume, and at least once a year.