Safety Improvements in Extended Warehouse

After completing a substantial extension to our national parts warehouse in Palmerston North in 2019, we took the opportunity to review and upgrade operational activities in the building to improve personal safety and energy efficiency.

The extended warehouse is 35,000 square metres in area, or around four rugby fields in size. It employs 44 or more staff who pick and pack parts from the 1.4 million parts in stock for our 67 Stores nationwide.

To carry out the massive upgrade, the warehouse was divided into 10 areas of 2,500 square kilometres each, then parts and shelving were removed. The next step involved upgrading the sprinkler system to the latest standards, and replacing lighting with low-energy LED technology.

The warehouse racking system was replaced and rotated 90 degrees to achieve a better workflow and more efficient operations.

The new layout provides a better separation of people and machines, assisted lifting for heavier items, and narrower, single-direction aisles. New boom gates have been installed to separate people from machines such as forklifts. Within each ‘operation pen’ is a boom gate and safety barriers. Some areas have automated boom gates.

A focus on reporting safety observations and all injuries and discomforts resulted in an increase in safety metrics over the previous year. The warehouse has a total staff of 42 and recorded nine injuries or physical discomforts in the year compared with four the previous year.