Warehouse safety: 5 ideas to optimize it during the summer

Warehouse safety: 5 ideas to optimize it during the summer

Several warehouses are preparing for the summer holidays. This may mean that activities will soon slow down, offering the opportunity and time to re-evaluate all security issues.

The handling of materials and warehouse operations are harbingers of shared and even subjective problems: addressing the issue, examining the weak points and the strong points can only bring companies closer to certainly more ambitious management plans.

We have tried to highlight, on the basis of a case study common to operators, five areas in which it is possible to find (and therefore resolve) potential dangers. Both for the structures and for the staff who frequent them.
Let’s see them together.

Schedule a safety training course:

A safe working environment is definitely a place where ongoing training is held in high regard.
Taking advantage of the summer period to prepare and plan a safety course for all employees helps to better understand the critical issues and to have professionals who are always up to date. For Aplo Course in UAE Get in touch with us

Many companies begin to structure the training offer as early as July. Upon returning from holidays, workers will be able to be trained and collect all the assessments necessary to increase the safety levels of the environment in which they will operate.

Operational means: safety lights on the forklift:

Forklifts are equipped with normal working lights. However, there are additional safety lights that can ensure even greater safety. Warning pedestrians and other vehicles of your presence is important, if not essential to avoid accidents.

An example are the amber strobe lights and reversing alarms as well as the spotlights that project light onto the floor, approximately 3/4 meters from the position of the forklift.

Zonal red lights, which illuminate areas on each side of the forklift, can also be important.
Regardless of the specific choice, however, examining which trucks within the fleet may need some extra light can be a good suggestion for the safety of the working environment.

Check on the integrity of the floors:

Leveled but above all clean floors can make the difference when handling materials.
Over the years, pavements deteriorate and may have cracks or even potholes that compromise the traffic and stability of operations.

The presence of oil, waste, debris, dust and small parts on the flooring can also cause damage. Which is why the cleaning of industrial surfaces is an ally not to be underestimated.

When lifting a pallet to great heights (even ten metres), if the floor does not make the equipment stable, an accident is always around the corner. And the summer period is the ideal time to go ahead and find any defects and critical issues.

Loading docks: reduce risks in dangerous areas:

Loading docks are the scene of several accidents. Due to traffic and the difference in height with the trailer area, it is not uncommon to encounter more or less serious accidents. for LEEA Approved Course Contact us
It must be said that vacant loading docks can also create a dangerous difference in height of more than one meter.

Using the summer break to optimize the safety of loading docks by analyzing what the deficiencies might be could be a good thing.
As well as reviewing the traffic plan.

Traffic plan: a careful eye on routes and signs:

Inside warehouses, in external work areas, accidents involving pedestrians are numerous.

This is why it may be optimal to consider vehicle routes. And when to do it if not when these workspaces are less congested?

It is therefore important to examine the routes, the places where they stop, where overtaking and U-turns take place. Are the corridors they have to walk wide enough? Is it time to review who and when can pass through a narrow corridor?

Once all these variables have been defined, it will also be important to check the signs, indications on the floor and try to minimize the meeting points between forklifts and pedestrians. Protective elements, such as guardrails, could increase the safety level of your warehouse.

If even just one of these measures has avoided even a single accident during the year, you will have done something important for the safety and health of those who work in that environment every day.