Whether manmade or mechanical, workplace accidents are bound to happen. However, creating plans to avoid common safety hazards and ensure employees’ emergency preparedness can minimize these occurrences. To learn more about the steps toward making a hazard-free workplace environment, read our tips for making your warehouse safer.
Prevent Overcrowding
Crowded walkways and overstocked shelves are significant hazards for any warehouse environment. For forklifts and heavy machinery to drive and clear rows of shelves safely and effectively, all warehouse personnel should be routinely trained on safe practices to ensure clear aisles and organization.
High-traffic working areas, such as loading docks, should also be monitored on strict schedules to prevent unnecessary overcrowding. With so many different pieces of machinery and employees intersecting in a single loading dock area, the risk of potential injuries or accidents is high. Bright and noticeable tape and signage will help employees identify safe walking areas to avoid possible collisions. Consistently training all warehouse personnel on how to safely flow in and out of these high-traffic intersections on strict schedules will also help to keep employees safer and more assured.
Safe Storage
Safely storing products requires more than simple alignments on a shelf. To create the safest storage possible, warehouses should check the quality of their pallets to ensure they are safe for storage use. Warehouses must also confirm that the type of pallet being used for storage is the best design for each product.
For example, solid deck pallets are designed with a solid wooden shelf rather than a slated opening, making them ideal for transporting smaller, more fragile items. Neglecting to check pallet quality and design are just a few of the many common mistakes made while packing pallets.
You must also regulate weight distribution to ensure warehouse safety. Individuals should monitor shelves to assess how much weight each rack can safely withstand before adding new products. Overstocking products on shelves could lead to racks falling or potentially harming employees. To prevent these accidents, practice routine weight distribution checks and measurements.
Emergency Weather Preparedness
Another tip for making your warehouse safer is to account for the weather. Extreme changes in weather can cause serious accidents in warehouses if businesses are not prepared. For example, warmer weather can drastically affect working conditions by increasing employees’ chances of experiencing heat stroke or dehydration. Ensuring employees stay cool, amply hydrated, and healthy is essential for maintaining any warehouse’s safety.
Although these tips for making your warehouse safer may seem simple, they truly protect the health and wellbeing of employees. The smallest of details—whether a change in weight or a change in temperature—can completely affect an environment’s safety. Preparing for these challenges proactively will help your warehouse run smoother and avoid preventable accidents and hazards.
