MHI Solutions Improving Supply Chain Performance
Executive Viewpoint
BY , PRESIDENT AND CEO, ADVANCE STORAGE PRODUCTSAs an engineer, I like order and consistency. If you have something that is ready for change, I know that I’m pretty good at being able to see a new and improved way through it.
No surprise, then, that when the opportunity presented itself to update RMI’s “R‑Mark” certification program, I was all in. There was a need for change, and I knew I could help.
The R‑Mark, originally created by the Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI) in 1999, is a voluntary design and safety certification program for manufacturers of industrial steel storage racks and rack decking. It has had a very positive impact in helping to professionalize the industry, but after 20‑plus years, it was time for an update. I’ve been around for the duration, joining my dad in the family business, Advance Storage Products, in 1989. My original plan was to help him out for a few months, and I’m still here. In that time, Advance has grown from about a dozen employees to nearly 300.
When you build a pallet rack system, you’re building a building inside of a warehouse, storing 3,000‑ or 4,000‑ or 5,000‑pound loads, often 30 or 40 feet off the ground. You want to make sure these loads stay in the air. The rack systems need to be engineered to ensure they’re safe, durable, meet nationally recognized building codes and would be safe even in an earthquake.
In the early days, there weren’t compliance mechanisms within RMI to ensure that racks met the RMI codes; it was like the Wild West. I vividly remember a meeting about 20 years ago when two of the bigger players in the industry came out and said, “Look, we can’t do this anymore. Our attorneys are telling us we have to follow a single standard.”
The industry went about addressing the issue with a two‑pronged approach. The first was to work with the code‑writing authorities to incorporate the RMI standards into the building codes. By incorporating the design standards into the building codes, it became law that you had to pull a building permit and design and build the rack system to meet the national standard. The second strategy the industry took was to create the R‑Mark certification program. To earn an “R‑Mark,” manufacturers were required to follow a one‑time certification process that proved their ability to design and build to the RMI standards.
It was a start: R‑Mark brought additional professionalism to the industry and many new members joined, seeing the value. As the industry grew, these two strategies helped transition the rack industry away from the Wild West toward an engineering‑ and standards‑driven focus.
I mentioned that it was a start. It ended up being just the first round. The initial R‑Mark was a one‑and‑done designation; there was no compliance mechanism through which a company certified that they produced rack systems to meet R‑Mark standards. For example, a rack upright designed to hold 15,000 pounds when the load beams are spaced three feet apart is dramatically different from an upright designed with the beams 10 feet apart. Throw in seismic considerations, and the simple static load tables that the original R‑Mark certifications were based on—and that the industry had relied on for years—were out the window.
The industry began to realize over time that the R‑Mark certification was no longer doing the job. An update was needed, and there was no consensus on how to change.
But then, a breakthrough: We realized that with the dramatic change in the industry over the last 20 years, the R‑Mark certification had to be recrafted from that one‑and‑done certification to a project‑by‑project certification basis. Finally, everyone understood. A pallet rack might be perfectly good in non‑seismic Florida, but it won’t even come close to being certified in high‑seismic California. Interestingly, during the large earthquakes in California in the early 1990s, the only rack collapse that I heard of had been shipped from out of state and hadn’t met local code. Racks designed for seismic conditions were fine.