Designing Safety into Automated Cold Storage Facilities
As cold storage facilities accelerate automation, safety infrastructure must evolve to manage shared spaces where people, vehicles, and automated systems operate together in extreme conditions.
Cold storage demand continues to rise across the United States, with the market projected to reach $408 billion by 2033. To keep pace, facilities are accelerating automation to increase throughput and reduce the amount of time workers spend in extreme temperatures. As operators respond to labor pressures and rising service expectations, robotics, automated pallet handling, and conveyor-based workflows are becoming increasingly common in cold storage environments.
In many facilities, however, safety infrastructure lags. Most U.S. cold storage sites operate as hybrid environments where people, forklifts, and automated systems move through shared spaces. Automation is often designed around machine efficiency first, leaving human movement and intervention to be managed after the fact. In frozen conditions, that disconnect is even harder to manage and more disruptive to both safety and operations.
When safety systems are designed into facilities early, they protect workers and help prevent the disruptions that slow automated operations. That shift starts with barrier and site infrastructure to support traffic flow, adapt over time, and perform reliably in sub-zero environments.
Automation makes cold storage more complex, not less
Safety risks in cold storage are well understood, but automation changes how and where those risks emerge. OSHA guidance has long emphasized that environments where pedestrians and powered industrial trucks operate together require engineered safety controls rather than compliance training alone. As automation scales, that principle is even more important.
Automated systems increase the density and consistency of movement inside cold storage facilities. Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), conveyors, and forklifts follow defined routes and schedules. While that predictability supports production, it also creates continuous motion in areas where people still need access. Natural pauses that once reduced worker exposure to active machinery or vehicle traffic are now less frequent.
People also remain part of automated operations. Workers continue to enter clear jams, perform maintenance, and resolve equipment or product issues that automated systems cannot handle on their own. In cold storage, shutting systems down takes time, and those delays often place people in active traffic zones under pressure to restore flow quickly.
When workers enter these areas, cold conditions add further risk, including:
- Reduced visibility caused by condensation and glare
- Freezer doors that interrupt sightlines and introduce sudden movement
- Bulky PPE that limits mobility and situational awareness
- Slippery floors in tight, high-traffic zones
Relying on procedures or training alone isn’t enough. As throughput increases, safety is harder to manage without infrastructure designed to control movement and physically separate risk.
Rethinking cold storage infrastructure for safety and automation
To address these challenges, you need to treat safety infrastructure as part of the automation plan rather than a reactive fix. That shift requires rethinking how barriers and site design support both people and machines inside hybrid cold storage facilities. Here are some important considerations:
- Design safety alongside automation, not after
As you scale automation, your cold storage infrastructure needs to be planned in parallel. Safety guardrails are most effective when they are treated as a core design element rather than something added after incidents or near misses occur. When infrastructure decisions happen late, facilities are often forced into retrofits that disrupt automated workflows, reduce uptime, and introduce avoidable costs.
Designing safety infrastructure early allows you to align traffic patterns, access points, and protection with how automation operates on the floor.
- Use infrastructure to manage both people and machine traffic
As cold storage facilities grow more complex, infrastructure needs to do more than protect. You need systems that actively direct how traffic moves throughout the facility, creating physical cues that guide behavior and reduce ambiguity in shared spaces.
For example, integrating pedestrian lanes that lead to designated crossing points, paired with visual indicators or controlled-access zones, helps turn high-traffic areas into managed systems. This approach supports OSHA’s emphasis on engineered controls while helping to prevent bottlenecks, reduce manual interventions, and maintain safer, more predictable flow patterns as operations scale.
- Select materials that perform in extreme cold and support modern facility design
Cold storage infrastructure must withstand thermal cycling, repeated dynamic impacts, and sanitation requirements without degrading. Rigid materials, like steel barriers, can become brittle in cold conditions, increasing the risk of deformation or damage that encroaches into traffic lanes after an impact.
In contrast, polymer barriers are engineered to flex and absorb energy rather than break or transfer force. That performance helps reduce secondary hazards and preserve operational flow after impacts.
Material selection also affects hygiene. In food-grade environments subject to FSMA requirements and third-party audits, infrastructure needs to resist rust, flaking, and chemical damage while supporting frequent washdowns.
- Design for adaptability with modular, future-ready infrastructure
Cold storage operations change faster than infrastructure traditionally does. As technologies evolve, fixed layouts can quickly become constraints. Steel barriers or immovable aisle configurations are difficult to relocate and often require full removal, leading to downtime and added cost.
Modular polymer barrier systems allow you to reconfigure layouts as traffic patterns shift or new automation is introduced. They make it easier to adjust access points, redirect vehicle lanes, and protect new equipment without interrupting operations. As automation continues to advance, adaptable infrastructure helps ensure safety and efficiency remain aligned, even as conditions change.
Designing safety into the future of cold storage
Cold storage facilities will continue to automate but people will remain part of daily operations. That reality makes safety infrastructure a design decision that directly affects both protection and performance.
To keep pace, guardrails and site design must be planned early to help control traffic, reduce disruption, and preserve the operational efficiency automation is meant to deliver.
Operators who navigate this transition successfully will treat safety infrastructure as part of how their facilities function and evolve. By designing adaptability, material performance, and real-world movement patterns, cold storage environments can scale safely and maximize efficiency as automation continues to take hold.