Rack & Facility Safety for Manufacturing Plants
On a plant floor the racking is only part of the exposure. Forklifts share space with pedestrians, work cells, automated equipment and utilities, and the thing a truck hits is as likely to be a control panel or a person as a rack upright. Protection has to be specified by what is behind it, not just by what it is bolted to.
Guard rail is specified by rated capacity, not by looks
A barrier in front of a switchgear room and a barrier along a pallet-truck lane are not the same product. Rated capacities in this range run from roughly 6,000 lb for pallet trucks and stackers up to 12,000 lb where a loaded counterbalance truck can reach the barrier at speed. Buying by appearance rather than rating is how a barrier gets flattened.
Pedestrian separation is a different rating entirely
Tubular pedestrian barriers control foot traffic; several are explicitly not rated for vehicle impact or fall protection. They should not be substituted where an impact-rated guard rail is specified, and the manufacturers are usually clear about that distinction if you read the rating line.
Building columns take hits nobody budgets for
A struck building column is a structural problem, not a housekeeping one, and it is not covered by anything protecting the rack. Column protectors and bollards around columns, panels and dock equipment cover the exposures that sit outside the racking system.