The United States Warehousing industry was estimated by Armstrong & Associates in 2017 to be a $148 billion dollar business. There are over 400,000 warehouses in the U.S. along, and 20,000 of those exceed 100,000 square feet.
That’s a lot of valuable merchandise, tools, and equipment under roof and in inventory. Keeping track of it all is a material handling and logistics nightmare. Keeping it secure is one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
Warehouse losses are both a fiscal and a morale problem, but they can be curtailed.
Whether your warehouse is decades old (the average age in the U.S. is over 34 years) or a brand-new facility designed to handle the unique demands of e-commerce inventory, there are certain basics to keeping materials safe and secure.
Every warehouse should have a program of building inspection and repair. If the facility itself has broken doors, breached walls, and missing windows, all other security measures are compromised by default. False alarms or circumvented alarms are the result of an insecure building.
When it comes to warehouse security, adequate lighting cannot be stressed enough. Both exterior and interior lighting sufficient to keep the perimeter of the building well lit and the interior free of shadows and darkened spaces is essential. Lighting, on its own, can be a significant deterrent to break-ins and theft.
For a warehouse, remote alarm monitoring is a must. It’s fairly standard for a third-party security company to install and maintain motion detection and fire alarms. These systems are often accompanied by high-definition video surveillance that can be accessed remotely. Modern CCTV systems can often be accessed from a supervisor’s phone and referred to quickly when alarms trigger, helping to determine false alarms from true emergencies.
These systems and auxiliary safety and security measures like fire suppression systems, hazardous gas detection systems, and air scrubbers should be secured and monitored for unauthorized tampering or shut-down
Even today, manned guards are essential at entrance and exit checkpoints for warehouses storing valuable products and inventories. No one should be permitted to roam warehouse spaces without supervision.
Securing the warehouse yard by surrounding it with security fencing adds another barrier to intrusion and, when connected to electric fence monitoring can provide early warning to break-in attempts.
Inside the warehouse facility, inventory of significant value can be further secured within wire caging, which can be equipped with its own doors, locks, and monitoring systems.
To learn more about wire caging used in warehouses, visit our page on Warehouse Wire Cages.
Call us today at 919-742-3132. Our wire caging solution provides are ready to engineer the perfect solution for you needs.