Design a forklift-rack-impact reporting policy for a warehouse, covering what to report, when, and to whom.

Steps

1. Establish a mandatory, no-blame reporting requirement: any forklift operator involved in or witnessing contact with rack must report it immediately to a supervisor or designated safety contact, regardless of visible damage severity
2. Require immediate isolation of the affected bay/section (unload, barricade, tag out-of-service) pending inspection — do not wait for the routine inspection cycle
3. Require documentation at time of report: date/time, location (aisle/bay/level), equipment and operator involved, description of contact, and photos of the affected rack, load, and floor area
4. Route every reported impact to a qualified inspector for evaluation before the affected section returns to service — the reporting policy should specify who has authority to sign off on reload
5. Track reported impacts as a leading safety indicator over time (frequency by location/operator) to identify recurring problem areas (e.g., a specific aisle or blind corner) for engineering or traffic-pattern fixes, not just individual incident closure
6. Note that OSHA recordkeeping/reporting thresholds (e.g., for injuries, not mere property contact) are separate from this internal rack-damage reporting policy — a forklift-rack contact with no injury is an internal safety-program matter, not automatically an OSHA-reportable event