There's never a bad time to brush up on your pallet rack safety, and even if you're reminding yourself of a number of rules you already follow, you're doing yourself a big favor. The pallet rack experts at Speedrack Midwest make safety their number one priority, and we make a mantra of every one of these tips to ensure that no one ever gets hurt.

It's tempting to look at pallet rack as a simple construction project. Lift the uprights, attach the load beams, and you're done. Presto. Just like an erector set. But while the new rack you've installed in your warehouse may look pretty, it sure isn't sitting pretty. Because aside from the framework itself, there are a half dozen other little bits you've ignored, and which are necessary to the safe construction of your pallet rack, not to mention for full compliance with Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI) standards.

Whenever you're installing new or used pallet rack, we highly recommend consulting material handling experts like us at Speedrack Midwest before beginning work. The following is a list of components that should come standard with every pallet rack project you undertake, and which you should seriously consider whenever you're installing rack in a new building you're unfamiliar with. These components are meant to save lives, prevent injury, and avoid damage to your rack and inventory.

Cross your fingers all you like, but coming off the back of two blisteringly cold, overwhelmingly snowy winters, you might be alone in your hopes for a mild start to 2016. Some had it worse than others, but even the hardy denizens of Michigan and the Midwest were ready to cry uncle when the mercury froze in place for weeks on end. We didn't forget how to have fun in the cold. We were just sick and tired of the havoc it wreaked on our infrastructure, closing roads, cutting power, freezing engines, and damaging our property. There isn't a warehouse manager out there who isn't afraid of the toll another winter could take on operations. With the right amount of preparation, however, it is possible to get through a bad winter largely unscathed.