Legal writer and academic Peter Drucker once said, “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window”. The quote has two morals: the first is that predicting the future is hard, perhaps dangerous, and the second is that to predict the future we need to look at the past or “look out the back window”.
With regards to the modern warehouse and the future of pallet racking, those who wanted to predict the future would have to take note of its role in the Industrial Revolution. If another revolution is on its way, as some generational theorists predict, will the modern warehouse and pallet racking play a part? And what part will it play?
Safe and Sustainable: Pallet Racking Inspections, Racking Inspection Courses, and the Environment
The environment is the key issue of our times, and so the future of warehousing and logistics will need to recognise this. The recent warehouse explosions in Tianjin, China are a sign of what the warehouses of the future will look like if warehouse safety and the environment are ignored in the name of profit. Unsafe production and environmental disaster usually go hand in hand, as the lethal air pollution caused by palm oil production in Indonesia has made clear.
Future warehouses should be ones that invest in sustainable practices. More racking inspection courses and pallet racking inspections will ensure that businesses are safer and are looking to the future. Alongside this, businesses will need to be more environmentally friendly. After all, just as the problems related to workplace safety and the environment go hand in hand, so too do the solutions. As researcher Doug Morrow points out, sustainable business is a multifaceted concept.
Safe and cybersafe: pallet racking inspections, racking inspection courses, and digital technologies
The use of robots and digital technologies to increase the efficiency of warehouses is already happening. Amazon uses countless programs, codes, and machines to do a large amount of the work in its warehouse. This effect will only become more pronounced, and more widespread, in the future. Online shopping has lead to increased demand and increased supply. However, the speed of all of this has come at a cost. Online retail companies like Amazon rely on a system that is literally known as “chaotic storage” and workers have complained about mistreatment and lack of safety.
The future of warehouse use depends on combining the best elements of new technologies with a safe and sustainable business model. Whatever the future warehouse looks like, we at SEMA racking inspections will be there to ensure that it operates as safely and efficiently as possible. Just as pallet racking inspections have been a vital part of our warehouses in the past, pallet racking inspections are a vital part of our warehouses’ future.
Is your warehouse ready for the future? Contact Storage Equipment Experts Ltd today for racking inspection training or a pallet racking inspection from a SEMA approved racking inspector.
