Material Handling System Installation SWMS

Material handling system installation covers the erection, mechanical assembly, electrical connection and commissioning of conveyors, monorails, hoists, palletisers, ASRS racking, gravity roller lines and associated drive units within warehouses, distribution centres and manufacturing facilities. The work combines structural steel erection at height, rigging of heavy motorised assemblies, live and de-energised electrical termination, pneumatic and hydraulic pressurisation, and interfacing with mobile plant such as forklifts, EWPs and scissor lifts operating in shared floor space. Falls from elevated conveyor decks, crush injuries from suspended loads, arc flash during drive commissioning and inadvertent energisation of moving parts are the dominant fatal-risk pathways.

Under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), this activity is high risk construction work under section 291 — specifically paragraph (a) risk of a fall greater than 2 metres, paragraph (k) work on or near energised electrical installations, and paragraph (o) work involving powered mobile plant. Section 299 requires a Safe Work Method Statement be prepared before the work commences, kept available for inspection, and applied throughout the task. Controls follow the hierarchy in section 36, with elimination and engineering measures prioritised over administrative controls and PPE.

Hazards identified

12 hazards covered, sorted by priority.

Control measures

Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.

1. 1Eliminate work at height where practicable by assembling conveyor modules at ground level on trestles and lifting complete sections into final position with a crane, in accordance with AS 2550.1 crane safe use.
2. 2Substitute manual core drilling with hydraulic anchor systems or pre-cast fixing plates where feasible; where drilling is unavoidable, use on-tool water suppression or H-class M-Class extraction to control respirable crystalline silica to below the 0.05 mg/m³ WES.
3. 3Engineer fall protection using edge-protected mezzanines, scissor lifts and boom-type EWPs selected and operated to AS 2550.10; where anchor points are used, arrest systems must comply with AS/NZS 1891.1 and AS/NZS 1891.4.
4. 4Isolate all energy sources — electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, gravity and stored kinetic — using a documented lockout/tagout permit before mechanical work; electrical isolation and testing to be undertaken by a licensed electrical worker in accordance with AS/NZS 4836 and the Wiring Rules AS/NZS 3000.
5. 5Establish exclusion zones around lifting operations and mobile plant travel paths using hard barriers, and separate pedestrians from forklift routes as required by the SafeWork NSW Code of Practice: Managing the risks of plant in the workplace and AS 2359.2 for industrial trucks.
6. 6Commission a licensed asbestos assessor to review the facility's asbestos register before penetrating pre-2004 fabric; suspected ACM must be treated as asbestos until proven otherwise in accordance with Chapter 8 of the WHS Regulation 2025 (NSW).
7. 7Sequence installation so that trades do not work vertically above one another; where unavoidable, install engineered catch decks, tool lanyards and toe boards, and post spotters at ground level.
8. 8Implement a hot work permit system with fire watch, extinguishers, combustible clearance of 11 m and post-work monitoring for 60 minutes, aligned with AS 1674.1.
9. 9Provide task-specific PPE including AS/NZS 1801 hard hats, AS/NZS 1337.1 eye protection, AS/NZS 2210.3 safety footwear, AS/NZS 1270 Class 5 hearing protection, and AS/NZS 1716 P2 respirators for silica-generating tasks.
10. 10Test and tag all portable electrical equipment to AS/NZS 3760 and protect flexible leads with RCDs to AS/NZS 3012 for construction and demolition sites.
11. 11Verify EWP and forklift operators hold current HRW licences (WP, LF), that plant is inspected and logbooked daily, and that pre-start slab assessments confirm point loading capacity.
12. 12All workers to hold CPCCWHS1001 (White Card); consult the workforce on this SWMS under section 47 of the WHS Act 2011 (NSW), and review the SWMS under section 302 of the WHS Regulation 2025 (NSW) whenever controls fail, plant changes or a notifiable incident occurs.

Applicable Codes of Practice

High-Risk Construction Work triggered

Worked example

A tier-one 3PL engages a mechanical installer to retrofit a 240-metre powered roller conveyor and cross-belt sorter into an operating distribution centre at Eastern Creek in Western Sydney. Work is programmed over 14 nightshifts while inbound receiving continues in the adjacent zone. Installers erect steelwork from boom EWPs at heights up to 6.2 metres, licensed electricians terminate 3-phase drives back to a live main switchboard, and forklifts continue to move stock in aisles on either side of the exclusion zone. The SWMS is used to justify EWP selection, document the lockout/tagout sequence for the switchboard isolation, and record the physical hard-barrier exclusion zone separating pedestrians from operating forklifts. The SWMS is reviewed on shift 6 when the client requests a schedule compression that would require concurrent overhead and floor-level work — controls are re-engineered under section 302 before work resumes.

Related legislation

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)
• Electricity (Consumer Safety) Act 2004 (NSW)
• Electricity Supply (Safety and Network Management) Regulation 2014 (NSW)
• Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW)
• Dangerous Goods (Road and Rail Transport) Act 2008 (NSW)

Frequently asked questions